[mini-AIR] min-AIR: Salt and Pepper on research

Mon Dec 17 16:16:22 EST 2018

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
December 2018, issue number 2018-12. ISSN 1076-500X.
	<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/miniair/>
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  Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 Imminent Events
03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Soon, Medical Surprises Now
04 Salt on a Table
05 The 2019 EuroTour is A-gathering
06 Pepper on Tables Contest
07 Mirrors/Dogs Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pointless Banter, Seafood, Broccoli
09 Salt and Pepper on Morphine
10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS
11 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
11 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
12 — Contact Info (*)
14 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

	Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Imminent Events

	Arisia, Boston							Jan 18, 2019

	New York City Harvard Club				Jan 22, 2019

	NIST, Gaithersburg, MD					Feb 14, 2019

	AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington, DC	Feb 16, 2019

	Ig Nobel EuroTour						Mar/Apr 2019

DETAILS, and full schedule: <http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Ig Soon, Medical Surprises Now

		WHAT YOU ARE READING AT THIS MOMENT
		is just our monthly newsletter, (mini-AIR).

	-->	Our best stuff goes into the actual magazine:
		"Annals of Improbable Research" (AIR). 
		Please subscribe to the magazine!

This year's special IG NOBEL issue — will be out soon.

The special MEDICAL SURPRISES issue of the magazine (vol. 24, no. 5) is available: <https://bit.ly/2KkCJ8M>.

Many back issues are available, too.
Feast on improbable Research magazines:

	SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE
	or get SINGLE ISSUES:
	<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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

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04 Salt on a Table

This month's research spotlight reflects on Salt reflecting on a table:

"A Round Table on Research in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology," George W. Salt, American Naturalis, vol. 122, no. 5, 1983. <https://bit.ly/2CgENvX>

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05 The 2019 EuroTour is A-gathering

The 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour is gathering form, and substance, too, for March and early April 2019.

A partial schedule is at <https://is.gd/fGOYzz>.

This year we will be mixing in some solo talks by Marc Abrahams, along with some traditional "big" (several Ig Nobel Prize winners, and Marc) shows.

If your institution, department, or group would like to host an Ig Nobel talk or an Ig Nobel show, 
please get in touch with us!

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06 Pepper on Tables Contest

This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Realizing Sets by Hash Tables," Peter Pepper, Ralph Betschko, Sabine Dick, and Klaus Didrich, in KORSO: Methods, Languages, and Tools for the Construction of Correct Software, pp. 58-73. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1995. <ttps://bit.ly/2A1gAIN>

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

	PEPPER ON TABLES LIMERICK COMPETITION
	c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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07 Mirrors/Dogs Winner

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

"Do Dogs Use a Mirror to Find Hidden Food?" Tiffani J. Howell, Samia Toukhsati, Russell Conduit, and Pauleen Bennett, Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, vol. 8, no. 6, 2013, pp. 425-430. <https://bit.ly/2Bog5cL>

INVESTIGATOR MARY JO SHAPIRO writes:

Tell me, why should I look in the mirror
When traditions are more than just dearer.
  Any good canine knows:
  If he follows his nose
His path to the food will be clearer

This month's take from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

Perceptual animals, we
Tend to sense objects visually.
  When this is projected
  On dogs, what's expected?
Let's run a study and see.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pointless Banter, Seafood, Broccoli

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

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

<> Analyzing pointless banter
<> When seafood scientists became food-poisoned by their own holiday seafood
<> Adding broccoli powder to coffee

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) and its sibling clubs: 
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>
<> New member Danielle Norberg

  FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>
  TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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09 Salt and Pepper on Morphine

"A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Intravenous Morphine at Attenuating the Nociceptive Responses of Medullary Dorsal Horn and Thalamic Neurones," R.G. Hill, T.E. Salt, and C.M. Pepper, Life Sciences, vol. 31, no. 20-21, 1982, pp. 2331-2334.
<https://bit.ly/2LjckZq>

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10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

Arisia, Boston					— Jan 18 2019
Harvard Club, New York City		— Jan 22, 2019
NIST, Gaithersburg, MD			— Feb 14, 2019
AAAS meeting, Washington, DC	— Feb 16, 2019
Ig Nobel EuroTour				— Mar/Apr 2019
Ig Nobel TICKETS go on sale		— Jul 2019
Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony		— Sep 2019

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

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11 — 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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12 — 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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13 — CONTACT INFO (*)

Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
<www.improbable.com>
EDITORIAL: <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: <subscriptions AT improbable.com>
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Twitter: @ImprobResearch

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14 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, 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 2018, Annals of Improbable Research

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