Improbable Research

“Fat Relocation Research—Re-engineering with natural materials” is one of the articles in the special Disgusting Research issue (volume 25, number 4) of the Annals of Improbable Research.

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The 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen one week from today—on Thursday, September 12, 2019, at 6:00 pm (US east coast time)—at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University.

If you want TICKETS, you’d best act quickly. Only a few are still available, from the Harvard Box Office.

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be revealed. Their prizes will be handed to them by a gaggle of bemused Nobel laureates. There will be a new opera (“Creatures of Habit”). And other stuff.

The ceremony will be webcast live, as it has been every year since 1995.

And two days later, the Lectures at MIT…

This year, for the second straight year, we will also webcast the Ig Informal Lectures at MIT, in which the new winners each give a brief public talk, and answer questions. That event—on Saturday, September 14, 2019, at 1:00 pm, is co-organized by the MIT Press Bookstore. You don’t need a ticket to attend the Saturday MIT Lectures, but seating is limited, so think about getting there a bit early.

Scary animals, a new study reveals, can be separated into five distinct clusters :

“(1) non‐slimy invertebrates; (2) snakes; (3) mice, rats, and bats; (4) human endo‐ and exoparasites (intestinal helminths and louse); and (5) farm/pet animals. However, only snakes, spiders, and parasites evoke intense fear and disgust in the non‐clinical population.”

The diagram below shows the ‘mean disgust rating’ plotted against ‘mean fear rating’ for a selection of creatures.

The study revealed some unanticipated results – such as :

“Having been bitten by a dog [also] decreased the mean disgust rating and the more serious the injury, the lower the rating was.”

See: Scary and nasty beasts: Self‐reported fear and disgust of common phobic animals scheduled for publication in the British Journal of Psychology.

Co-author Jaroslav Flegr is a 2014 Ig Nobel Prize winner, for his research on why it is hazardous to own a cat.

Research research by Martin Gardiner

“Sperm Bags Research—thinking and looking outside the bag” is one of the articles in the special Disgusting Research issue (volume 25, number 4) of the Annals of Improbable Research.

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Cornell University is hosting a talk today about the how-do-shoelaces-come-untied problem— specifically about the math and physics of it:

MAE Colloquium: “The Shoelace Catastrophe (or a Knotty Problem on a Shoestring“)
Tuesday, September 3, 2019 at 4:00pm, B11 Kimball Hall

ABSTRACT: The accidental untying of a shoelace while walking often occurs without warning. Modeling and simulating the unraveling is an exceptionally difficult task in part because of the wide range of length scales, time scales and parameters.  Finding external funding to examine the problem is arguably an even harder problem.

In this talk, we present a set of hypotheses for the series of events that lead to a shoelace knot becoming untied.

The event listing does not specify whether attendees are required to wear shoes.

Thanks to Norm Trigoboff for bringing this to our attention. The topic conjures up a piece of music composed some years ago by Johann Sebastian Bach. The tune will be featured, in a new and rather different context, as part of the opera “Creatures of Habit.” The opera has its premiere on Thursday evening, September 12, as part of the 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.