mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
August 2026, issue number 2026-008. 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 Artificial Intelligence Captures Pseudo-Intelligence
04 Ig Nobel Ceremony and Webcast — September 3
05 Item of Not Much Interest
06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: AI Noisy Injection
07 Eggs on Their Heads Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Almost-Claude, How to Say No
09 Chaos and Pseudo-Randomness to Make AI More Human
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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 now in existence. The table of contents and a preview are at
https://payhip.com/b/nhOlm
The special MIXTURES issue is imminent.
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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 Artificial Intelligence Captures Pseudo-Intelligence
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"Artificial Intelligence Captures Pseudo-Intelligence Evolved in the Chemical Architecture of the Multifaceted Signal Transducer, TAK1," Nibedita Ray Chaudhuri, and Shubhra Ghosh Dastidar, Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, vol. 65, no. 13, 2025.
doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c00529
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04 Ig Nobel Ceremony and Webcast — September 3
The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026, in Zurich, Switzerland.
improbable.com/the-36th-first-annual-ig-nobel-prize-ceremony/
WHAT: Ten new winners will be honored. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. Several bemused Nobel laureates will physically hand them the prizes. The 1500 people in the audience will shower everyone with paper airplanes. A new opera song will celebrate this year's theme: "fungi". Somewhere, far away, joyless pedants will shake their heads in dismay.
WEBCAST: If you haven't obtained tickets to attend the ceremony in person on September 3 in Zurich, you can of course watch (free!) the livecast. There will be a separate stream with Japanese-language captioning
WATCH PARTIES: There will be Official Watch Parties in many countries.
You can of course cook up your own Un-Official Watch Party (Minimum size: 1. Maximum size: 8 billion.
improbable.com/2026/08/24/official-announcement-of-the-official-watch-parties/
WHEN: The ceremony begins at 19:00 Central Europe time.
The livestream begins somewhat earlier, to give everyone a chance to joyously fiddle with their internet connections.
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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, and to some extent like item number 5 (five) of the previous month's issue of mini-AIR, is the least interesting item. It includes little more than a nearly-lengthy note saying that Item number 5 (five) is the least interesting item.
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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: AI Noisy Injection
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Four Dynamic Encryption Alternatives With Artificial Intelligence Based On Pseudo-Hexadecimal Noisy Injection Schema For Handling The Theft Of Digital Data Problem," Edgar Rangel-Lugo, Kevin Uriel Rangel-Ríos, Leonel González-Vidales, Amparo Ortiz-Mariano, and César Del Ángel Rodríguez-Torres, Scientific and Practical Cyber Security Journal, vol. 9, no. 3, 2025, pp. 59-77.
https://journal.scsa.ge/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/0088_four-dynamic-encryption-alternatives-with-artificial-intelligence-based-on-pseudo-hexadecimal-noisy-injection-schema-for-handling-the-theft-of-digital-data-problem.pdf
The authors explain:
"Regarding the research's aims, they consist in the noisy injection and to avoid that ciphertext can be decrypted by cybercriminals."
Send your perfectally formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
AI-NOISY-INJECTION LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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07 Eggs on Their Heads Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain 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
Winning limerickicist NAN SWIFT writes:
Some eggheads who want to nab bugs
are in certain ways, well, just mugs.
General interest is dead
about eggs on the head —
Asking questions will mostly draw shrugs.
This month's take, from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Beetles fly, chew, imbibe, crawl and skitter.
But people nearby still feel bitter.
If a scientist chooses
To soothe locals' bruises,
They might let them study this critter.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Almost-Claude, How to Say No
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG (improbable.com)
• The Passing of Claude, the Almost-Chatbot
• Ill-Fated Mouse on Display
• How to Not Say No, Corporately
• The ‘Identity Construction via the Domestic Cat’ PhD Thesis
• The Future-Seeing Wisdom of Venture Capitalists Using Other People’s Money
• From Your Brain, Please, Not Your Bot [Again]
• …and more
SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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09 Chaos and Pseudo-Randomness to Make AI More Human
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"Chaos by Design: Using Pseudo-Randomness to Make Artificial Intelligence More," Human," Eric Moore, Honors Capstone Projects and Theses, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 2009.
https://louis.uah.edu/honors-capstones/189
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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
· LAcon, Anaheim, CA, USA — Aug 29, 2026
· 36th FIRST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY & WEBCAST, Zurich, Switzerland — Sep 3, 2026
· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Zurich, Switzerland — Sept 4, 2026
· Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Miraikan Museum, Tokyo, Japan — Sept 20, 2026
· BOST-IG, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — Sep 24, 2026
· Falling Walls, Berlin, Germany — Nov 6-9, 2026
· Luxembourg — Nov 14, 2026
· AAAS Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, USA — Feb 2027
· 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
(c) copyright 2026, Improbable Research
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