Mini-AIR

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

April 2018, issue number 2018-04. ISSN 1076-500X.

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Coming Events: Ig Nobel Events in Sweden & Denmark

03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Pizza & Popcorn Delivered

04 When are Vomiting Males Attractive?

05 Inside-Vomiting-Larry Challenge

06 Airborne-Bacteria-That-Land-on-Toothbrushes Triumph

07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Menu Gunpowder, Cuteness Engineering

08 The Fate of Vomitus

09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

10 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

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

12 — Contact Info (*)

13 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Coming Events: Ig Nobel Events in Sweden & Denmark

Improbable events in the near future:

The Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour, after stops in London, Vienna, Berlin, Langen, Heidelberg, Paris, Lausanne, and Barcelona,has descends on:

Stockholm, Sweden — Friday, April 6

Aarhus, Denmark — Tuesday, April 10

Lyngby, Denmark — Wednesday, April 11

FEATURING, in different combinations:

Can a cat be both a liquid and a solid? What is the developmental advantage, for a fetus, of vagina music? How often do liars lie? Do psychopaths tend to be night owls?

Details and additional events:

<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Pizza & Popcorn Delivered

The special Pizza & Popcorn issue of the magazine (vol 24, no. 1) is now available: <https://is.gd/Ee8vnU>

Gorge yourself on improbable research:

MAGAZINE SINGLE ISSUES & SUBSCRIPTIONS:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

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04 When are Vomiting Males Attractive?

This month's research spotlight shines on output:

"When are Vomiting Males Attractive? Sexual Selection on Condition-Dependent Nuptial Feeding in Drosophila subobscura," Elina Immonen, Anneli Hoikkala, Anahita JN Kazem, and Michael G. Ritchie, Behavioral Ecology 20, no. 2, 2009, pp. 289-295. <https://is.gd/TKApCD>

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05 Inside-Vomiting-Larry Challenge

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge —

Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Vomiting Larry: A Simulated Vomiting System for Assessing Environmental Contamination from Projectile Vomiting Related to Norovirus Infection," Catherine Makison Booth, Journal of Infection Prevention, vol. 15, no. 5, 2014, pp. 176-180. <https://is.gd/134lwW>

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

INSIDE-VOMITING-LARRY LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 Airborne-Bacteria-That-Land-on-Toothbrushes Triumph

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

"The Effects of Proximity on Aerosol Distribution of Bacteria on Toothbrushes," Elly A. Montero, Isabelle B. Isom, Jeanne Fults, Samantha Cvijanovich, Aubree Chismark, and Benjamin B. Tran, Journal of the California Dental Hygienists' Association, vol. 27, no. 2, 2012, pp. 17-21. <https://is.gd/LwQc0t>.

The winner is INVESTIGATOR DANIEL E. KLEIN, who writes:

When brushing your teeth in the loo,

You just might be brushing with poo.

The flush sets things floating.

Your brush gets a coating

Of pee or — what’s worse — number two.

The word from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

Your toothbrush cannot run and hide.

Bacteria find it. I've tried.

Only one way is seen

To keep toothbrushes clean.

When you defecate, take it outside.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Menu Gunpowder, Cuteness Engineering

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

The blog <http://www.improbable.com/>:

<> Analysis of Gunpowder on a Menu in Frankfurt

<> Cuteness Engineering (2017 book)

<> Deterring Hospital Patients From 'Drinking' From Hand Sanitizers

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and its sibling clubs:

<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

<> new member Emily Hofstetter

FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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08 The Fate of Vomitus

"Initial Studies Characterizing the Fate of Vomitus During a Projectile Vomiting Episode," Dominic Anthony Libera, Master's Thesis, North Carolina State University, 2013.

<https://is.gd/XkUPx4>

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09 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

For details and additional events, see

<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour — Mar-Apr 2018

Ig Nobel tickets go on sale — July, 2018

28th First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony — Sep 13, 2018

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 15, 2018

Japan — Sep, 2018

Hartford County Medical Assn, CT — Oct 10, 2018

"Science Friday" Ig Nobel Broadcast — Nov, 2018

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10 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, published in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think. (mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)

SINGLE ISSUES ($5 each)

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11 — 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:

<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

ARCHIVES: <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>

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12 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)