[mini-AIR] mini-AIR: Rooster research, and some detail about this year's—transformed—Ig Nobel Prize ceremony

Sat May 30 22:53:33 EDT 2020

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
May 2020, issue number 2020-05. 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: Big Animals, Soon Small Animals
04 The Clocked Rooster
05 The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony WILL BE DIFFERENT!
06 Limerick Challenge: Which Rooster Has Priority at Dawn
07 Nothing Matters Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Lead in Ducks, Fingers, Quantum + Coffee
09 How Do Crowing Roosters Not Deafen Themselves?
10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS
20 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
21 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
22 — Contact Info (*)
23 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

	Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 Imminent Events

We have begun producing more podcast episodes, 
most of them pocket-sized, generally about two new ones a week.
Please give a listen, and spread the word!
<https://tinyurl.com/ybogl2or>

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

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03 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: Big Animals, Soon Small Animals

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

	This newsletter is overflow detritus from the actual magazine:
	Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). 

The special BIG ANIMALS issue of the magazine is available:
<https://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume26/v26i2/v26i2.php>
The next issue, the special SMALL ANIMALS issue, is in prep.

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

SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, 
or get BACK ISSUES (there are more than 150 of them!):
	<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

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04 The Clocked Rooster

This month's random research item:

"Circadian Clock Determines the Timing of Rooster Crowing," Tsuyoshi Shimmura and Takashi Yoshimura, Current Biology, Volume 23, Issue 6, March 18, 2013, pp. R231-R233. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.02.015> The authors, at Nagoya University, Japan, report:

"Crowing of roosters is described by onomatopoetic terms such as ‘cock-a-doodle-doo’ (English), ‘ki-ke-ri-ki’ (German), and ‘ko-ke-kok-koh’ (Japanese). Rooster crowing is a symbol of the break of dawn in many countries. Indeed, crowing is frequently observed in the morning. However, people also notice that crowing is sometimes observed at other times of day. Therefore, it is yet unclear whether crowing is under the control of an internal biological clock, or is simply caused by external stimuli. Here we show that predawn crowing is under the control of a circadian clock. Although external stimuli such as light and crowing by other individuals also induce roosters’ crowing, the magnitude of this induction is also regulated by a circadian clock."

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05 The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony WILL BE DIFFERENT!

The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen a little differently than its 29 predecessors, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, the ceremony will take place entirely online—rather than in Sanders Theatre—on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

THE CEREMONY: As usual, ten new Ig Nobel Prizes will be awarded to people who have done things that make people LAUGH, then THINK.The ceremony itself will include most of the traditional elements.

WE ASK FOR YOUR HELP: Normally, we fund the ceremony almost entirely from ticket revenues, but this year there will be no tickets. 
If you or your organization would like to help, 
please donate to our Patreon, 
or via the Greater Boston Arts & Business Council.

PRELIMINARY EVENTS: Between now and September 17, we plan to have a number of small events and other, related things online. Which could, if you like, involve you. 
Details TBA.

THE IG INFORMAL LECTURES: Traditionally, the new winners give short public talks at MIT, two days after the ceremony. This year, the Ig Informal Lectures, like the ceremony, will happen entirely online. Details TBA.

MORE DETAILS: <https://tinyurl.com/yapnz8gs>

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06 Limerick Challenge: Which Rooster Has Priority at Dawn

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

"The Highest-Ranking Rooster Has Priority to Announce the Break of Dawn," Tsuyoshi Shimmura, Shosei Ohashi & Takashi Yoshimura, Scientific Reports, vol. 5, 2015, 11683. (Thanks to Hugh Henry for bringing this to our attention.) <https://www.nature.com/articles/srep11683.> The authors, at Nagoya University, the National Institute for Basic Biology, and SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Japan, report:

"We found that when chickens were housed in small groups, the top-ranking rooster determined the timing of predawn crowing. Specifically, the top-ranking rooster always started to crow first, followed by its subordinates, in descending order of social rank. When the top-ranking rooster was physically removed from a group, the second-ranking rooster initiated crowing.... These results indicate that in a group situation, the top-ranking rooster has priority to announce the break of dawn, and that subordinate roosters are patient enough to wait for the top-ranking rooster’s first crow every morning and thus compromise their circadian clock for social reasons."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

	ROOSTER PRIORITY LIMERICK COMPETITION
	c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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07 Nothing Matters Winner

The judges have chosen co-winners in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this patent:

"Nothing Really Matters," Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri, Marjorie Schillo, arXiv:2002.01764, 2020. <https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.01764> The authors, at the University of Oviedo, Spain, and the University of Uppsala, Sweden, explain:

INVESTIGATOR DAVID WEINBERGER writes:

Einstein has nothing to fear. Oh,
sure he's not the sole hero.
  But Euclid has troubles,
  and Witten's got bubbles,
But what disturbs Sitter's just about zero.

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

We live in a world full of tensions
That caused me profound apprehensions.
  Am I worried still?  No.
  Now I know where to go.
It's more stable in other dimensions.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Lead in Ducks, Fingers, Quantum + Coffee

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

BLOG: <http://www.improbable.com/>:
* Another incident with lead in ducks
* Finger-Food Hygiene Attachments [new patent]
* How to write a hard-to-resist science headline: Quantum, Coffee
*…and much more

LUXURIANT FLOWING HAIR CLUB FOR SCIENTISTS (LFHCfS) 
<https://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

PODCAST: 
<https://www.improbable.com/category/the-weekly-improbable-research-podcast/>:
Pocket-Sized #1004: "Mask Wiggling"
Episode #209: "Words for Food in Your Mouth" and Lots More
Pocket-Sized #1005: "Creepiness"
Pocket-Sized #1006: "Hot Sauce Aggression"
Pocket-Sized #1007: "Bereitschaftspotential"
Episode #210: "Famous Monks with Bad Breath" and Lots More
Pocket-Sized #1008: "Horse Calculus"
Pocket-Sized #1010: "Hot Potato Voice"
Episode #211: "Richard Wassersug" and Lots More
Pocket-Sized #1011: "Judging Aggressive Roaring"

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

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/improbable_research/

PATREON: <www.patreon.com/ImprobableResearch>

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09 How Do Crowing Roosters Not Deafen Themselves?

"Do High Sound Pressure Levels of Crowing in Roosters Necessitate Passive Mechanisms for Protection Against Self-Vocalization?" Raf Claes, Pieter G.G. Muyshondt, Joris J.J. Dirckx, and Peter Aerts, Zoology, vol. 126, 2018, pp. 65-70. <https://tinyurl.com/y7wf8mhr> (Thanks to Lieven Scheire for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Antwerp, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and University of Ghent, Belgium, report:

"High sound pressure levels (>120 dB) cause damage or death of the hair cells of the inner ear, hence causing hearing loss. Vocalization differences are present between hens and roosters. Crowing in roosters is reported to produce sound pressure levels of 100 dB measured at a distance of 1 m. In this study we measured the sound pressure levels that exist at the entrance of the outer ear canal. We hypothesize that roosters may benefit from a passive protective mechanism while hens do not require such a mechanism.... A morphological difference between the sexes in shape of a bursa-like slit which occurs in the outer ear canal causes the outer ear canal to close in roosters but not in hens."

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	IMPROBABLE STUFF.

	SUBCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE ITSELF!
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10 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS

"Show Us Your Shit" Show (Instagram)	—May 26, 2020
University of British Columbia			—May 28, 2020
30th First Annual Ig Nobel ceremony	—Sep 17, 2020
Ig Informal Lectures				—Dates TBA
Gothenburg, Sweden				—Oct 2020 [pandemic willing]
Japan							—Fall, 2020 [pandemic willing]
Harvard Club of Cape Cod			—Nov 19, 2020 [pandemic willing]
2021 Ig Nobel EuroTour				—March-April 2021 

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

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20 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, 
in PDF form. 
It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.

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(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)

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

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22 — CONTACT INFO (*)

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23 — 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 2020, Annals of Improbable Research

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