This is Improbable Too
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May we recommend
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An improbable innovation
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Call for investigators
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The inhumanity of prozac
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Illustration Credits
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the many researchers and inventors whose work is illustrated in these pages, sometimes with illustrations, sometimes without.
Page numbers refer to the print version.
A classic in the body of 2D:4D work (p. xii) adapted from ‘A Preliminary Investigation of the Associations between Digit Ratio and Women’s Perception of Men’s Dance’ by Bernhard Fink, Hanna Seydel, John T. Manning and Peter M. Kappeler
‘Characteristics of the External Ear’ (p. 2) from ‘Some Characteristics of the External Ear of American Whites, American Indians, American Negroes, Alaskan Esquimos, and Filipinos’ by Robert Bennett Bean
Illustrative diagram from ‘A New and Useful Improvement in Scarecrows’ (p. 7) from US patent no. 1,167,502
Flowchart: ‘Path Model of the Criminal Achievement Process’ (p. 14) adapted from ‘Mentors and Criminal Achievement’ by Carlo Morselli, Pierre Tremblay and Bill McCarthy
President Washington’s diary of Sunday, 11 May 1788 (p. 16) courtesy of Widener Library, Harvard University
Not very to quite happy (p. 43) adapted from ‘Are the Russians as Unhappy as They Say They Are?’ by Ruut Veenhoven
X-ray of a three-year-old boy’s head with souvenir model (p. 51) from ‘An Eiffel Penetrating Head Injury’ by M. George and J. Round
Inhibitions demonstrated: A celebrity fights off a paparazzo … (p. 59) from US patent no. 8,157,396
‘Suzuki and Tsushihashi’s classification’ scheme for prints (p. 63) adapted from ‘Possibilities of Cheiloscopy’ by Jerzy Karsprzak
Evidence: ‘Latent lip print on cotton fabric developed using Oil Red O (powder) after 30 days’ (p. 65) adapted from ‘Long-lasting Lipsticks and Latent Prints’ by Ana Castelló, Mercedes Alvarez, Marcos Miquel and Fernando Verdú
Fig. 18 from ‘Automated Surveillance of Non-humans in Real Time’ (p. 68) from US patent no. 6,782,847
‘Floss dispenser with six floss cutters’, one for almost every day of the week (p. 79) from US patent no. 5,826,594
Gauging small, medium and large digits in place of small, medium and large nostrils (p. 83) from US patent no. 7,998,093
Observed: ‘hair-whorl phenotype’ (p. 99) from ‘Excess of Counterclockwise Scalp Hair-Whorl Rotation in Homosexual Men’ by Amar J.S. Klar
‘Walter in “walking motion” ’ (p. 102) from ‘New Functions and Applications of Walter, the Sweating Fabric Manikin’ by Jintu Fan and Xiaoming Qian
‘Figures 1 and 8’ (p. 103) from US patent no. 6,601,326
‘Bite, shake and twist’ pressure points of three crocodile species (p. 108) adapted from ‘Why the Long Face?’ by Christopher W. Walmsley, Peter D. Smits, Michelle R. Quayle, Matthew R. McCurry, Heather S. Richards, Christopher C. Oldfield, Stephen Wroe, Phillip D. Clausen and Colin R. McHenry
Comparison of two pedestrian approaches (p. 114) and A pedestrian flowchart (p. 115) adapted from ‘Investigating Use of Space of Pedestrians’ by Taku Fujiyama
Sloths, recorded, by Nyakatura and Fischer (2010) (p. 117) from ‘Three-dimensional Kinematic Analysis of the Pectoral Girdle during Upside-down Locomotion of Two-toed Sloths (Choloepus didactylus, Linné 1758)’ by John A. Nyakatura and Martin S. Fischer
Evidence: ‘A sloth inside the latrine’ (p. 118) from ‘Disgusting Appetite’ by Eckhard W. Heymann, Camilo Flores Amasifuén, Ney Shahuano Tello, Emérita R. Tirado Herrera and Mojca Stojan-Dolar
Reviewing the effect of five wok angles and three wok sizes on MAWF (p. 122) and The ‘experimental layout’, as viewed from above (p. 123) adapted from ‘The Effect of Wok Size and Handle Angle on the Maximum Acceptable Weights of Wok Flipping by Male Cooks’ by Swei-Pi Wu, Cheng-Pin Ho and Chin-Li Yen
Sock inside, on ice (p. 125) courtesty of Lianne Parkin, Sheila M. Williams and Patricia Priest
One proposed meaning of the finger (p. 133) adapted from ‘Finger-length Ratios and Sexual Orientation’ by Terrance J. Williams, Michelle E. Pepitone, Scott E. Christensen, Bradley M. Cooke, Andrew D. Huberman, Nicholas J. Breedlove, Tessa J. Breedlove, Cynthia L. Jordan and S. Marc Breedlove
Figure: ‘Device for measuring bite force needed for breaking a toe’ (p. 136) from ‘The Mystery of the Missing Toes’ by Bart Vervust, Stefan Van Dongen, Irena Grbac and Raoul Van Damme
The patented animal track footwear soles, compared to Kodiak bear cub tracks (p. 140) from US patent no. 3,402,485
‘Experimental setup to cause tendon laceration in cadaver hands’ (p. 142) from ‘The Safety of Pumpkin Carving Tools’ by Alexander M. Marcus, Jason K. Green and Frederick W. Werner (2004)
Analysing graphene derived from a Girl Scout cookie, chocolate, dog faeces and a cockroach (p. 146) adapted from ‘Growth of Graphene from Food, Insects, and Waste’ by Gedeng Ruan, Zhengzong Sun, Zhiwei Peng and James M. Tour
Fig. 1 of 15 from ‘Regulation of Eating Habits’ (p. 171), US patent no. 7,437,195
Steps for forming novel dry milk pieces (p. 175) and Drawing: ‘a quantity of prepared cereal …’ (p. 175) adapted from US patent no. 5,827,564
Handwriting, when sober (top) and under the influence (bottom) (p. 177) from ‘Handwriting C
hanges Under the Effect of Alcohol’ by Faruk Acolu and Nurten Turan
Midsagittal image of anatomy taken during experiment 12 (p. 185) from ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals during Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal’ by Willibrord Wijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, Isa Sabelis and Eduard Mooyarrt
Form and cast finger (p. 205) from US patent no. 4,335,067
Penguano (p. 211) adapted from ‘Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh’ by Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow and Jozsef Gal
Figure 1 (p. 217) adapted from Russian patent no. 2,399,858
A half cup of beans was consumed daily during the study period (p. 219) adapted from ‘Perceptions of Flatulence from Bean Consumption among Adults in 3 Feeding Studies’ by Donna M. Winham and Andrea M. Hutchins
The apparatus in action (p. 228) from US patent no. 4,411,156
Events leading to the use of the pop-up device (p. 250) from US patent no. 2005/0028720
Bacterial putrefaction in twelve subjects in ‘good general and oral health’ (p. 264) adapted from ‘Time Profile of Putrescine, Cadaverine, Indole and Skatole in Human Saliva’ by M. Cooke, N. Leeves and C. White
‘Drowning – Faulkner’s most commonly employed means of dispatch for the mules in his work’ (p. 270) from ‘The Dead Mule Rides Again’ by Jerry Leath Mills. Drawing by Bruce Strauch
Appreciating carnivore-livestock conflict (p. 299) adapted from ‘Mitigating Carnivore-Livestock Conflict in Europe’ by Robin Rigg, Salvomír Findo, Maria Wechelsberger, Martyn L. Gorman, Claudio Sillerno-Zubiri and David W. MacDonald
Figure 1 (p. 301) and Figure 2 (p. 302) adapted from ‘Quantification of the Abrasive Wear of a Gold Wedding Ring’ by Georg Steinhauser
About the Author
Marc Abrahams is the editor and co-founder of the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research, a weekly columnist for the Guardian, and author of This Is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens, and Other WTF Research. He is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, which honours achievements that make people laugh, and then think, every September at Harvard University. Abrahams and the Ig Nobels have been widely covered by the international media, including the BBC, ABC News, the New York Times, Daily Mail, The Times, USA Today, Wired, New Scientist, Scientific American, and Cocktail Party Physics. In 2012, he symbolically donated Professor Trinkaus and Trinkaus’s body of research to BBC Radio 4’s Museum of Curiosity. Abrahams and his wife, Robin, a columnist for the Boston Globe, live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His ever-burgeoning web site is www.improbable.com.