Improbable Research

Scenario : You are applying for a job via e-mail – is it a good idea to attach a smiley?    :)

That depends – according to a report presented at the 25th annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology (2010). Professor Lori Foster Thompson of the Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Technology Lab at North Carolina State University, and colleagues from George Mason University and the University of Otago jointly presented a paper entitled ‘E-Screening: The Consequences of Using ‘Smileys’ when E-Mailing Prospective Employers’ Which is the first ever study to “examine the effects of emoticon usage in a job application context.” A series of experiments investigated how the use of a smiley might either help (or hinder) your employment prospects. The researchers found supporting eveidence for all six of their smiley-based hypotheses. In summary :

“… smileys can indeed have the desired effect on perceptions of warmth, which may be particularly important to women, who are said to place a priority on close, personal relationships.”

There is an important proviso, however :

Professor Peter Herring is one of the foremost investigators of bioluminescence in fish (and other organisms). He is an honorary professor at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre – though he’s now retired from full-time research.

Other scientists are continuing the work on glowing marine creatures however – for example Professor Steven Haddock of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

Example publications see:

Sex with the lights on? A review of bioluminescent sexual dimorphism in the sea [Herring]

Bioluminescence in the Sea [Haddock]

Correlation of bioluminescence emissions with ventral photophores in the mesopelagic squid Abralia veranyi (Cephalopoda: Enoploteuthidae) [Herring, Widder, Haddock]

Some scientists struggle to understand walking, as is evident in this study:

“Walking Fast—Ranking High: A Sociobiological Perspective on Pace,” A. Schmitt and K. Atzwanger, Ethology and Sociobiology, vol. 17, no. 5, September 1996, pp. 451–62. The authors explain [AIR 15:5]:

“We hypothesized that habitual fast walking might be a means to acquire and/or to display status”

BONUS: A look back at “hopped up about walks”

Come to Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, the Netherlands, on Tuesday, October 26th at 17.00h sharp. Three Dutch Ig Nobel Prize winners will speak on the occasion of the presentation of the new book ‘De Kloten van de Keizer, en andere geschiedenissen die je niet wilt lezen‘ [The Emperors Testicles, and other histories you do not want to read] written by Hein Meijers.

Before Hein Meijers will elaborate on this new book, Improbable Research European Bureau Chief Kees Moeliker will give an eye witness report of the past 20th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, and Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest will explain how and why they won this years Ig Nobel Medicine Prize.

Entrance free, but please announce your presence here.

Once you are in the museum, you have a chance to see the exhibit ‘Say Cheese! the power of the mouth’

During the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, giant microbe toys (donated by their creator, giantmicrobes.com) were given to several Nobel laureates and to writer Neil Gaiman. Mr. Gaiman later personally transmitted his giant microbe to another person — singer Amanda Palmer (who performed at the Ig ceremony, and who is affianced to Mr. Gaiman). This video, taken two weeks later at a musical performance by Amanda Palmer, documents the moment when she passed this giant microbe on to yet another person — an innocent child. The video was propagated by the child’s mother:

BONUS: Watch video of the entire 2010 Ig Nobel ceremony itself, replete with many, many microbes. Indeed, the theme of this year’s Ig ceremony was BACTERIA.