Mini-AIR

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

July 2026, issue number 2026-007. ISSN 1076-500X.

improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTMENT

02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: PEOPLE, PEOPLE

03 Degeneration from Load-Carrying on the Head

04 Ig Nobel Ceremony Webcast Watch Parties

05 Item of Not Much Interest

06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Eggs on Their Heads?

07 Hammer Head Strangulation Winner

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pedagogical Density, Boomerangs, Bananas

09 Carrying Capacity of Hengistbury Head

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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

31 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)

32 — Contact Info (*)

33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

This little newsletter you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR) is overflow detritus from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: PEOPLE, PEOPLE

The special PEOPLE issue (32:4) is out and about. The table of contents and a preview are at

https://payhip.com/b/nhOlm

The special MIXTURES issue is in prep.

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SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES

https://improbable.com/magazine-2/

Tables of Contents: improbable.com/magazine-2/

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03 Degeneration from Load-Carrying on the Head

This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:

"Degenerative Change in the Cervical Spine and Load-Carrying on the Head," Horst J. Jäger, Len Gordon-Harris, Ulrich-Martin Mehring, G. Friedrich Goetz, and Klaus D. Mathias, Skeletal Radiology, vol. 26, no. 8, 1997, pp. 475-481.

doi.org/10.1007/s002560050269

The authors explain: "In 31 of the 35 (88.6%) carriers degenerative change was found in the cervical spine, but only in 8 of the 35 (22.9%) non-carriers (P<0.01).... It is concluded that the axial strain of load-carrying on the head exacerbates degenerative change in the cervical spine."

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04 Ig Nobel Ceremony Webcast Watch Parties

If you haven't obtained tickets (they sold out in less than a week) to attend the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in person on September 3 in Zurich, you can of course watch (free!) the livecast.

There will be OFFICIAL WATCH PARTIES in:

ANTWERP

UTRECHT

HAMBURG

PARIS

CAMBRIDGE (Massachusetts),

and other cities to be announced.

You can organize your own unofficial Watch Party, big or small. For suggestions, download the Playbook for Organizing an Ig Nobel Watch Party:

improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Watch-party-guide-2026.pdf

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Info about the ceremony itself:

WHAT: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and WEBCAST

WHERE: Kongresshaus, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND,

WHEN: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026, 7:00 pm (CET)

INFO: improbable.com/the-36th-first-annual-ig-nobel-prize-ceremony/

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05 Item of Not Much Interest

Item number 5 (five) of this month's issue of mini-AIR, like item number 5 (five) of last month's issue, of mini-AIR is the least interesting item. It includes little more than a note saying that Item number 5 (five) is the least interesting item.

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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Eggs on Their Heads?

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Why do Indonesian Ambrosia Beetles Carry Eggs on Their Heads?" Jiri Hulcr, Hagus Tarno, American Entomologist, vol. 71, no. 4, Winter 2025, pp. 44–49.

doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmaf065

The authors explain:

"How do these things fly from a tree to tree? How do they chew these half-foot-long tunnels in hard wood? What symbiotic fungi do they imbibe?...

That is why we are here: to start answering questions about insects that nobody has studied here for nearly 100 years....

"What often prevents collaboration from happening is the tangle of red tape in developing countries. Note, however, that some of the administrative inertia may be subtly intentional. The core of the problem is that a history of entomologists taking bugs from Indonesia without acknowledging anyone local has poked a sore spot. It's not just that these scientists stole some bugs; it's that they resembled a new type of colonization and stirred memories of a national trauma. These cases have been smeared so much in the local media that even university administrators who otherwise don't give a damn about entomology have opinions about foreign collectors. Frankly, fellow Western entomologists, we hate to break it to you, but few people here really care about the bugs. Most Indonesians care about national sovereignty. And that, not the bugs, is the reason why the behavior of Western colleagues is so important."

Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:

EGGS-ON-THEIR-HEADS LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

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07 Hammer Head Strangulation Winner

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:

"An Unusual Case of Strangulation of Penis by Metal Hammer Head — (a Case Report)," Sulabha V. Punekar, P.R. Shroff, and M.L. Vaze, Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, vol. 24, no. 1, 1978, pp. 58-59.

journals.lww.com/jopm/abstract/1978/24010/an_unusual_case_of_strangulation_of_penis_by_metal.9.aspx

Winning limerickicist ROBERTA SCHOOLCRAFT writes:

Punekar, Shroff, and Vaze's

'unusual" case? It amazes.

But a 'mundane' example

would be more than ample

to be as gobsmacking as blazes.

This month's take, from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

Like this paper, I likewise advise

If you use metal tools, guys, be wise.

Don't mangle, don't strangle

Whatever may dangle

In areas close to your thighs.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pedagogical Density, Boomerangs, Bananas

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

BLOG (improbable.com)

• Pedagogical Density About Pedagogical Density

• Inventor of Chernoff Faces, has died

• Intravenous Jellybean

• Disposition of a Mixed Meal by the Conscious Dog

• Boomerangs, Bananas and Tampon Manuals

• …and more

New Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) Member: Jacob Wagner

improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/

SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)

MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science

FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch

PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch

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09 Carrying Capacity of Hengistbury Head

This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:

"Carrying Capacity in the Tourism Industry: A Case Study of Hengistbury Head," Fernando J. Garrigós Simón, Yeamduan Narangajavana, and Daniel Palacios Marques, Tourism Management, vol. 25, no. 2, 2004, pp. 275-283.

doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(03)00089-X

The authors explain: "Hengistbury Head is a 1.5-km-long peninsula jutting out into the sea from the east coast of Dorset, Great Britain... One of the main problems faced by the Head concerns erosion. This appears, essentially, along its southern side, which is constantly scoured by the wind and waves... the nature of the issue is the conflict between the conservation of the head and the development of Bournemouth, a large town next to Hengistbury Head. The growth of Bournemouth as an important tourist destination has disturbed and destroyed a landscape which has proved to be unusually rich in archaeological finds."

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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF.

SUBCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!

improbable.com/magazine-2/

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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

· 36th FIRST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY & WEBCAST, Zurich, Switzerland — Sep 3, 2026

· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Zurich, Switzerland — Sept 4, 2026

· BOST-IG, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — Sep 24, 2026

· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Miraikan Museum, Tokyo, Japan — date TBA

· Falling Walls, Berlin, Germany — Nov 6-9, 2026

· Luxembourg — Nov 14, 2026

· 2027 Ig Nobel EuroTour — Spring 2027

For details and additional events, see: improbable.com/upcoming-events/

If your institution would like to host an event,

please get in touch with us at:

MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,

in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.

improbable.com/publications/magazine

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($40 for six issues)

BACK ISSUES ($8 each)

(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating quasi-appendix to the actual magazine.)

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31 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR, see the links at the end of this email.

ARCHIVES: improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/

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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)

improbable.com

EDITORIAL: MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM

SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: subscriptions AT improbable.com

Cambridge, MA, USA

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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

EDITOR: Marc Abrahams

CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, Stephen Drew

PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance

AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts

Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the

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