[mini-AIR] mini-AIR November 2011: Morphospace

Marc Abrahams marc at improbable.com
Sun Nov 23 20:38:57 EST 2014 

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
November 2014, issue number 2014-11. ISSN 1076-500X.
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The monthly wee little tiny mini update/alert from Improbable Research
	Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>
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2014-11-01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

2014-11-02 Imminent Events
2014-11-03 In the Magazine: Feathers Now, Ig Nobel Soon
2014-11-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: D'Arcy Thompson in Empirical Morphospace
2014-11-05 Gift for the Curiously Insatiably Curious Person
2014-11-06 Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Limerick Competition
2014-11-07 Dam, Bloodsucking Blackflies Poet
2014-11-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Names, Lightning, Beer
2014-11-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Pie's Null Morphospace
2014-11-10 Improbable Research Events
2014-11-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)
2014-11-12 — Our Address (*)
2014-11-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
2014-11-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

	Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.


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2014-11-02 Imminent Events

· 'Science Friday' Ig Nobel radio broadcast	— Nov 28
	DETAILS: <http://www.sciencefriday.com>

· Belgrade Science Festival, Serbia			— Dec 4-7

	Full events schedule at <http://goo.gl/tzwJt>


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2014-11-03 In the Magazine: Feathers Now, Ig Nobel Soon

The next issue of the magazine — the special IG NOBEL issue, will soon be on its way to the printer, and from there to subscribers.

Read three articles, online, from the current issue — the special FEATHERS issue <http://goo.gl/eYbYkU>:
· "Feathers Research Review" <http://goo.gl/RCS5UZ>
· "Improbable Research Review" <http://goo.gl/k4pSs1>
· "Improbable Sex" <http://goo.gl/QCyYa0>

	Download a FREE E-BOOK ISSUE <http://goo.gl/BMzMw>
	Links to all issues: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine>


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2014-11-04 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: D'Arcy Thompson in Empirical Morphospace

This month's spotlight finds the scientist who saw mathematical clarity in the shapes of natural objects:

"The Spirit of D'Arcy Thompson Dwells in Empirical Morphospace," J.R. Stone, Mathematical Biosciences, vol. 142, no. 1, 1997, pp. 13-30. <http://goo.gl/d6CLMz> The author, at the University of Toronto, writes:

"Despite recognizing that it was not 'the only story which Life and her Children have to tell,' Thompson's sole purpose in writing On Growth and Form was "to correlate with mathematical statement and physical law certain of the simpler outward phenomena of organic growth and structure or form." Few have followed directly in his footsteps, but his spirit dwells even today in empirical morphospaces."


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2014-11-05 Gift for the Curiously Insatiably Curious Person

Are you searching for the optimal gift for someone who likes to LAUGH and then THINK — someone who is insatiably curious about surprising things, especially things scientific?

If you know and/or love such a person, consider giving that person a gift subscription to the Annals of Improbable Research. The magazine has six new issues (six little gifts!) every year.

How to get/give a subscription:
<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
<http://www.improbable.com/subscribe>


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2014-11-06 Phytophagous Scarab Chafers Morphospace Limerick Competition

Morphospace — yup, morphospace! — inspires this month's limerick competition. To enter, compose an original limerick that clarifies the nature of this study:

"The Evolution of Morphospace in Phytophagous Scarab Chafers: No Competition - No Divergence?" Jonas Eberle, Renier Myburgh, Dirk Ahrens, PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 5, epub May 29, 2014, e98536. <http://goo.gl/ScguH1> The authors, at Centre of Taxonomy and Evolutionary Research, Bonn, Germany, the Natural History Museum, London, UK, and the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, report:

"The chafer's different feeding types resulted to be not distinguishable in the described morphospace which was largely attributed to large occupancy of the morphospace of some feeding types and to multipleconvergences of feeding behavior (particularly of anthophagy)."

Submit your perfectly formed limerick to:

	PHYTOPHAGOUS SCARAB CHAFERS MORPHOSPACE LIMERICK COMPETITION
	c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>


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2014-11-07 Dam, Bloodsucking Blackflies Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Dam, Bloodsucking Blackflies Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

"Mass Occurrence of Bloodsucking Blackflies in a Regulated River Reach: Localization Of Oviposition Habitat of Simulium Truncatum Using DNA Barcoding," Å. Brabrand, T. Bremnes, A. G. Koestler, G. Marthinsen, H. Pavels, E. Rindal, J. E. Raastad, S. J. Saltveit, and A. Johnsen, River Research and Applications, vol. 30, no. 5, June 2014, pp. 602–608.

The winner is INVESTIGATOR CHRIS HANSEN, who wrote:

Damn! Bloodsucking blowflies are pests;
A riverbank's perfect for nests.
  And it's down, in the main
  To the dam and the rain.
Their DNA proves it by tests.

Here's the offering from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

To study where flies tend to lay
Their eggs, they inspect DNA.
   There's a dam, they suspect,
   That exerts an effect.
The result of their research: it may.


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2014-11-08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Names, Lightning, Beer

Recent improbable bits you maybe missed:

IMPROBABLE BLOG:

· "John Hoyland, father of "nominative determinism" <http://goo.gl/ABlukJ>

· "Telephone during a thunder storm: Not recommended" <http://goo.gl/FZekO0>

· "Further physics of beer froth" <http://www.improbable.com/2014/11/20/further-on-the-physics-of-froth>

...and MORE, MORe, MOre, More, more at <http://improbable.com>

NEWSPAPER COLUMN (in The Guardian): 
<http://www.theguardian.com/education/series/improbableresearch>

twitter:	@ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
facebook: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
books:	<http://goo.gl/rHMb3t>


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2014-11-09 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Pie's Null Morphospace

"A Null Model of Morphospace Occupation," Marcio R. Pie and Joshua S. Weitz, The American Naturalist 166, no. 1, 2005, pp.  E1-E13. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/430727>


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2014-11-10 Improbable Research Events

For details and additional events, see
<http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule>

'Science Friday' Ig Nobel radio broadcast	— Nov 28
Belgrade Science Festival, Serbia			— Dec 4-7
ARISIA, Boston, MA, USA				— Jan, 2015
Vienna Ball of Sciences, Austria			— Jan, 2015
AAAS Annual Meeting, San Jose, CA, USA	— Feb, 2015
Ig Nobel Tour of Scandinavia				— Mar, 2015
Ig Nobel Tour of the UK					— Mar, 2015
Ig Nobel Events in Japan				— Jun, 2015
25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony	— Sep, 2015

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2014-11-11 — How to Get the Magazine (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine. (It's much bigger and better than the little bits in this newsletter.)
We produce each issue as an e-book, as well as on traditional paper.

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2014-11-12 — Our Address (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
PO Box 380853, Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
(+1) 617-491-4437, FAX: (+1) 617-661-0927

EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Web Site and blog: <http://www.improbable.com>
Twitter: @ImprobResearch


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2014-11-13 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)

Please distribute copies of mini-AIR (or excerpts!) wherever appropriate. The only limitations are: A) Please indicate that the material comes from mini-AIR. B) You may NOT distribute mini-AIR for commercial purposes.

	------------- mini-AIRheads -------------
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Ernest Ersatz, Stephen Drew
PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts

Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
(c) copyright 2014, Annals of Improbable Research


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2014-11-14 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) teeny-tiny monthly *supplement* to the actual six-times-a-year magazine AIR.
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