Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 10

Metallurgy in the News: Olympic Medals Deterioration

Thanks to the deterioration of Olympic medals, the field of metallurgy, which in recent years has tended to call itself “materials science“, is having a shining moment in the sun. La Lettre reports [here machine -translated into English]: Investigation How the Paris Mint fell off the podium with its Olympic medals According to information from […]

Sad news: Eleanor Maguire has died

Eleanor Maguire died on January 4, 2025. Here is the beginning of her obituary, written by Calli McMurray, in The Transmitter: Remembering Eleanor Maguire, ‘trailblazer’ of human memory Maguire, mastermind of the famous London taxi-driver study, broadened the field and championed the importance of spatial representations in memory. By Calli McMurray 10 January 2025 One […]

Jarring Jars Mismatch in Iran

Every country has its limits. One of those limits, for one country, is on display in this study: “Mismatch between jar opening demands and wrist torque strength of consumers in Iran,” Iman Dianat, Behzad Asadi, Héctor Ignacio Castellucci, Applied Ergonomics, vol. 94, March 2021, article 103421. The authors report: “A considerable mismatch (range = 25%–100%) […]

STOP: The Errors (SOTP)

Frank Schallmaier, photo editor of the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, collects photos of STOP signs that have spelling errors. He shared some of his favorites with the newspaper’s readers. (Thanks to Kees Moeliker for sopting to notice Schallmaier’s collection and bring it to our attention.)

A Physicist Ponders a Coffee Cup

Many physicists like to drink coffee. Some of them like to write about coffee. Some of them like to write about things they notice while they look at a coffee cup. Here’s a new example of one or more of those things: “Science of a coffee cup: a physicist walks into a bar…,” Aleksi Bossart, […]

Sad news: Karen Pryor has died

Karen Pryor died on January 4, 2025. Famed for teaching the world how to use a simple tool to teach skills to animals (very much including humans), she had a long life filled with adventures and animals (very much including humans) of many kinds. The photo you see here shows Karen Pryor at the 2019 […]

Turkey Poetry

A new poem by A.S. Kaswell: So this is Cambridge, where turkeys all sleep in the trees. The turkeys look down on the people, and poop on their college degrees.

The Centre for the Unknown in the Year 2025

In this new year, 2025, the world has few official centers for the unknown. Perhaps the best known and perhaps the only one is the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. Its location is known: Lisbon, Portugal. This video shows the center’s architect, Charles Correa, explaining what he might know about the unknown:

Ig Winners in the News

If you won an Ig Nobel Prize, or if you’re curious about people who won Ig Nobel Prizes, you might enjoy a browse through some of their press clippings. (Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for things that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.)

Firefly Luciferin on the Cheap

If you have yearned for a (relatively) simple and cheap way to make (almost) everyone’s favorite substance that’s all a-glow, this study will (probably) meet your needs: “A Practical, Biomimetic, One-Pot Synthesis of Firefly Luciferin,” Maria Kato, Kazuaki Tsuchihashi, Shusei Kanie, Yuichi Oba, and Toshio Nishikawa, Scientific Reports, vol. 14, 2024, article 30461. The authors […]