[mini-AIR] mini-AIR: glowing cockroaches, scorpions, and a Smelly publication

Fri Apr 29 09:58:57 EDT 2016

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
April 2016, issue number 2016-04. ISSN 1076-500X.
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	Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
	A tiny supplement to the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
	Archive at <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 The Magazine Itself: The Smelly Issue
03 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Fluorescence in Cockroaches
04 Improbable Events in Iceland and UK in July
05 Optical Properties of a Scorpion Limerick Contest
06 Stuffed Cabbage Cafeteria Poet
07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Towed Naked Swimmers, Leadership & Big Mouths
08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Reducing Scorpion Fluorescence
09 Improbable Research Events
10 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe; How to Get Back Issues (*)
11 — Our Address (*)
12 — Please Forward/Post This Issue! (*)
13 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

	Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 The Magazine Itself: The Smelly Issue

The special Smelly issue of the magazine is out — full of research about smelly food, smelly relatives, smelly socks, smelly swine, smelly chicks, smelly shoppers, smelly women, smelly men, smelly twins, smelly maps, smelly coins, and other smelly things. And research about other things, not all of them smelly, too.

If you're a subscriber, you should have received email notifying how to download your copy. 

The table-of-contents: <http://is.gd/KSXbH5>

	SUBSCRIPTIONS & SINGLE ISSUES: <https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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03 RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: Fluorescence in Cockroaches

This month's spotlight shines, in parts, on cockroach flourescence:

"Fluorescence in cockroaches," Edwin R. Willis, Louis M. Roth, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, vol. 49, 1956, pp. 495–7. <http://is.gd/PaT5SB> The authors are at the U. S. Army Quartermaster Research and Development Center.

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04 Improbable Events in Iceland and UK in July

We will be doing several events in Iceland and the UK, in late July and possibly early August.

If your institution would like to host an Ig Nobel talk then, please get in touch with us ASAP!

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05 Optical Properties of a Scorpion Limerick Contest

This month's challenge: Devise an enlightening limerick that celebrates this study:

"Optical properties of a scorpion (Centruroides limpidus)," Bruno Ullrich, Robyn M. Duckworth, Akhilesh K. Singh, Puspendu Barik, Vicente O. Mejía-Villanueva, and Alberto C. Garcia-Pérez, Physica Scripta, vol. 91, no. 4, 2016, pp. 045802. <http://is.gd/9dRTNv> The authors, at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, report:

"The exoskeleton is capable of fluorescing allowing for their detection at night in order to prevent undesirable encounters. The specificity of their fluorescing suggests specialized optical features.... The scorpion exoskeleton represents a nonisotropic polymer forming a parallel circuit of conductive parts and components with light sensitivity."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightful limerick to:

	OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF A SCORPION LIMERICK COMPETITION
	c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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06 Stuffed Cabbage Cafeteria Poet

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Stuffed Cabbage Cafeteria Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to honor this study:

"Stuffed Cabbage in the Old New School Cafeteria," Fred Kersten, Human Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4, October 1997, pp. 391-412. <http://goo.gl/uxl0v8>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR BEATRICE GUTMANN, who wrote:

There is taken-for-grantedness, yes;
Existential belief too!—A mess.
  All our indices show
  Gurwitsch's logic will grow.
Stuffed cabbage tastes good nonetheless.

Here's the take by our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

I don't know what this paper I've read
Had intended to say when it said
  That we know and intend,
  But I know in the end
Cabbage lives.  Aron Gurwitsch is dead.

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07 MORE IMPROBABLE: Towed Naked Swimmers, Leadership & Big Mouths

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

The podcast:

	LISTEN / DOWNLOAD: <http://goo.gl/sxh7DX>

	#53 Fold when wet, if naked underwater
	#54 Effect of audience boredom on power-hungry-persons
	#55 Researchers named Fish who study fish
	#56 Where do you sit, in Bulgaria?
	#57 The A-through-L of social dilemmas
	#58 Pecker bang analysis — woodpeckers and hammers
	#59 Standardized food glops
	#60 Lizards that fell to earth
	#61 Leadership by a man with a big mouth

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

	· Dice under gravity
	· Morphometrics maven: morphometricians must and can do better
	· Final day for retiring the Zimbabwe $100-trillion-dollar bills
	...and lots more

More, at 
	[twitter]	@ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel
	[facebook]	<http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

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08 MAY WE RECOMMEND: Reducing Scorpion Fluorescence

"Reducing scorpion fluorescence via prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light," Carl T. Kloock, Journal of Journal of Arachnology, vol. 37, 2009, pp. 368–70. <http://is.gd/B39HpJ> The author is at California State University, Bakersfield.

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09 Improbable Research Events

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

Ig Nobel EuroTour				— Mar 4-23, 2016
Florida State U				— Mar 29, 2016
Planon, Boston				— Apr 6, 2016
IG NOBEL TICKETS GO ON SALE	— Jul TBA, 2016
Reykjavik, Iceland				— Jul 2016
Blue Dot Festival, UK			— Jul 23, 2016
ESOF, Manchester, UK			— Jul 25, 2016
Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony		— Sep 22, 2016
Ig Informal Lectures			— Sep 24, 2016

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10 — The Magazine (AIR) — How to Subscribe; How to Get Back Issues (*)

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 AIR.)

	<http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>
	SUBSCRIPTIONS 	(just $25) 
	BACK-ISSUES 	(just $5 each)

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11 — Our Address (*)

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

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

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12 — 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 2016, Annals of Improbable Research

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13 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* 
to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine AIR.
   ...................................................
   To subscribe or unsubscribe to mini-AIR, please visit
   <http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>
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