Improbable Research

John Bohannon, Science magazine’s Gonzo Scientist, will host a live call-in/type-in chat this afternoon with Brian Wecht (a theoretical physicist at Harvard University and approximately one half of the comic music duo Ninja Sex Party), and me. We’ll talk about the “Dance Your Ph.D.” Contest (which John organizes — and for which Brian and I are among the judges), the Ig Nobel prizes, art, science, nothing, everything, and other things.

It happens at 3:00 pm EDT, today, Thursday, October 27. Please join us.
UPDATE AFTERWARDS: HERE IS A RECORDING OF WHAT HAPPENED:

Here, in case you have not yet seen and savored it, is the grand prize winner in this year’s dance contest:

The newspaper Le Parisienne has a fun feature about the Ig Nobel Prizes:

Scholars have given us insights into the societal role and reputation of lumberjacks. One of the foremost studies (and for further insight, see the two videos below) is:

“From lumberjack to business manager: masculinity in the Norwegian forestry press,” Berit Brandth [pictured here, in red], Marit S Haugen [pictured here, in black], Journal of Rural Studies, Volume 16, Issue 3, July 2000, Pages 343-355. The authors, at Norwegian University of Technology and Science and at University Centre Dragvoll, Trondheim, Norway, explain:

This article explores masculinity in an all-male discourse where gender is `taken-for-granted’. Through an examination of three volumes of a Norwegian forestry magazine, the article examines the ways in which masculinity is constructed at two of the main sites of forestry…. From being strongest in focus in the early volume, the old, sturdy working logger is replaced by the energetic, young man with efficient and powerful machinery. Most notable is the fact that the forestry worker seems to be giving way to the organisational man. After a macho-man flare up in the 1980s, the next decade marks a transition to greater hegemony of organisational masculinity.

A new study about the dearth of headaches in woodpeckers builds on the research that earned the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize in ornithology. [The photo here shows Ivan Schwab, co-winner of that prize, delivering his acceptance speech.]  The International Business Times gives its interpretation:

How Woodpeckers Avoid Brain Injuries, Research Shows

Football players and boxers suffer brain injuries, so why don’t woodpeckers? The leading cause of death in adult humans hardly gives a headache to birds that rapid-fire drill their beaks into hapless trees.

A new study entitled “Why Do Woodpeckers Resist Head Impact Injury: A Biomechanical Investigation” from a team of Chinese scientists sought to answer that question.

Their answer? Woodpeckers have a shock absorber system human heads lack. The birds also figured out the best angle to peck at hardened surfaces without becoming “bird brains”.

Researchers, led by Yubo Fan of Beihang University in Beijing and Ming Zhang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, used synchronous high-speed video cameras to capture woodpeckers head-slamming into trees….

The scientists stumbled upon the research tract during a review of the literature of human head injuries, Fan said via email. A 1976 Lancet paper by the late Philip R.A. May of University of California Los Angeles, explored why woodpeckers don’t get headaches, an inspiration for the current study.

“We want to give our thanks to the late author May,” Fan said.

The research went on to win a 2006 Ig Nobel Prize, cheeky awards meant to foster humor and public understanding of science.

 

Katherine Gammon, writing for Life’s Little Mysteries, interviewed 1999 Ig Nobel Prize winner (for developing a spiceless jalapeno chili pepper) Paul Bosland a pointed question:

Can Eating Too Much Spicy Food Kill You?

What exactly are the health impacts of eating really hot chili peppers? Can eating too much of the spicy stuff kill you?

To answer this question, Life’s Little Mysteries turned to one of the experts: Paul Bosland, professor of horticulture at New Mexico State University and director of the Chile Pepper Institute, was responsible for finding the world’s hottest chili pepper, the Bhut Jolokia.

Bosland says that chili peppers (or as some call them, chile peppers) can indeed cause death — but most  people’s bodies would falter long before they reached that point. “Theoretically, one could eat enough really hot chiles to kill you,” he says. “A research study in 1980 calculated that three pounds of extreme chilies in powder form — of something like the Bhut Jolokia — eaten all at once could kill a 150-pound person.”

This scenario wouldn’t likely have a chance to play out. “However, one’s body would react sooner and not allow it to happen,” Bosland said. “One would have to eat it all in one sitting,” he says. Taken over the course of a year, those three pounds of chilies wouldn’t be harmful.

(Thanks to investigator Mark Dionne for bringing this to our attention.)