ANNOUNCED: THE 2021 IG NOBELS
THE SCIENCE HUMOR magazine Annals of Improbable Research satirizes serious research, but also suggests that oddities of research often possess scientific significance. This year’s Ig Nobels display this, though still … Continue reading
HEY, FELLA, WANNA SCORE A HOT FOSSIL?
SMUGGLING OLD BONES seems like a strange con. But fossils have value, and everyone from quarry workers to paleontologists have been malefactors. Countering them have been the F.B.I. and similar … Continue reading
BABBLING BABY BATS
WHAT WITH COVID and all, bats have had particularly bad press of late. However, science comes to a rehabilitation of their reputation: It turns out the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx … Continue reading
LET’S HAVE HEALTHY BUILDINGS!
SCIENCE MAGAZINE SAYS there’s a “lasting positive from the pandemic,” namely, awareness of the importance of indoor air quality. Studies have identified that fine aerosols, those smaller than five micrometers, … Continue reading
BEES DO IT; DAVENPORT KIDS ASPIRED TO IT; THE DALAI LAMA ALMOST DIDN’T HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY
DIVERSITY OF INFORMATION is a hallmark of Science, published weekly by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Recently, the magazine offered research on apian geometry, a book review … Continue reading
GETTING SCREWED—HISTORICALLY
NOW THAT I have your attention, let’s talk about the historical standardization of fasteners: nuts, bolts, and screws. Today’s tidbits include a gunboat rush order, a Cadillac exhibition, and which … Continue reading
WE OTTER KNOW MORE ABOUT METABOLISM
HOW DO SEA OTTERS keep warm in frigid water? Sure, they’ve got thick fur, but there’s more to it than this. Sacha Vignieri gives the high points in “Keeping Warm … Continue reading
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRIVING
A TOYOTA PODCAST, part of the company’s Toyota Untold series, is devoted to “The Psychology of Driving,” June 21, 2021. It features two researchers, both psychology Ph.D.s, discussing their work … Continue reading
A.I. AND GOD
LINDA KINSTLER IS a doctoral candidate in rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. And in The New York Times, July 18, 2021, she asks, more than rhetorically, “Can Silicon … Continue reading
RUN IT UP THE REM AND SEE WHO SALUTES
THERE YOU’D BE, just entering REM slumber enticed by your smart speaker playing a Chopin nocturne. Inexplicably, though, you dream that Ivory is 99.44-percent pure—it floats. Or that Budweiser is … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 