This April, 2024, the Ig Nobel EuroTour will spring to life after several years of hibernation (the hibernation was caused by the Covid pandemic). It’s all about research (and researchers) that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. Events are scheduled in GERMANY, DENMARK, SWITZERLAND, ITALY: Berlin — April 3, 4, 5 Aarhus — April 9 Copenhagen […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has five segments. Here are bits of each of them: Boxing: thinking outside — From time to time, the sport of boxing changes its rules. But for the most part, it still requires that each participant in a match be both human and alive. (Exceptions do occasionally […]
Robert Gaskins, co-inventor or PowerPoint, highlights Doug Zongker‘s “Chicken Chicken Chicken” as one of his favorite ever PowerPoint presentations. This a videorecording of Doug Zongker’s talk in the Improbable Research session at the February 2008 AAAS meeting, in San Francisco:
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Chasing the tale — Silvia Leonetti and colleagues in the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, the US and Denmark don’t quite explain why dogs wag their tails, but they do explain that it is hard to explain. In a paper […]
Coffee smell can be enhanced in reliability and intensity, suggests this study, by adding coffee smell from used coffee: “Improvement of Robusta coffee aroma by modulating flavor precursors in the green coffee bean with enzymatically treated spent coffee grounds: A circular approach,” Cyril Moccand, Aditya Daniel Manchala, Jean-Luc Sauvageat, Anthony Lima, Yvette Fleury Rey, and […]
The Ig Nobel EuroTour comes to Denmark this week, with 2 events: Tuesday, April 9, 2024, 7 pm — Aarhus University (and specially livestreamed to more than 300 theaters, libraries and other venues, some also offering dinner, throughout the kingdom of Denmark) Wednesday, April 10, 7 pm — Copenhagen University, as part of the Vin […]
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Paved with good tea — What to do with all the waste from preparing zillions of cups of tea? Researchers in Malaysia propose converting some of it into infrastructure.Mohammad Al Biajawi at University Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah and […]
Info and maybe advice for admirers of thorny-headed worms: “Hooking the Scientific Community on Thorny-Headed Worms: Interesting and Exciting Facts, Knowledge Gaps and Perspectives for Research Directions on Acanthocephala,” Marie-Jeanne Perrot-Minnot, Camille-Sophie Cozzarolo, Omar Amin, Daniel Barčák, Alexandre Bauer, Vlatka Filipović Marijić, Martín García-Varela, et al., Parasite, vol. 30 2023.
This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Berate the refs — There is new evidence that it can pay to scream at referees in sports stadiums. That evidence appears in the study ‘Verbal aggressions against Major League Baseball umpires affect their decision making”… Your ice […]
The word “trumpery” has gained prominence, says this study: “Autolycus’ Trumpery,” David Kaula, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 16, no. 2, published in the journal Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, Spring 1976, pp. 287-303. The author explains: “writers seem to be especially addicted to the word “trumpery,” probably because, through its derivation from tromperie, it […]
The March 2024 issue of mini-AIR (the monthly teeny tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research) has just gone out. You can add yourself to the email distribution list, if you like, or read it online.