Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 49

Pussy Cat Stimulation Study

A new, stimulating study of cats is aimed at assisting human women. The study is:

“Vaginal Lubrication and Pressure Increase Induced by Pudendal Nerve Stimulation in Cats,” Jialiang Chen, Yihua Zhong, Jicheng Wang, Bing Shen, Zhijun Shen, Jonathan Beckel, William de Groat, Christopher Chermansky, Changfeng Tai, Journal of Sexual Medicine, epub 2022.

The authors, at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; the University of Pittsburgh, USA; and Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; explain:

Vaginal lubrication and contractions are among the top difficulties affecting sexual intercourse in women after spinal cord injury.

Aim — This study aimed at determining if pudendal nerve stimulation (PNS) can improve vaginal lubrication and induce increases in vaginal pressure.

Conclusion — PNS can improve vaginal lubrication and induce increases in vaginal pressure.

Pussycat Stimulation Study

A new, stimulating study of cats is aimed at assisting human women. The study is:

“Vaginal Lubrication and Pressure Increase Induced by Pudendal Nerve Stimulation in Cats,” Jialiang Chen, Yihua Zhong, Jicheng Wang, Bing Shen, Zhijun Shen, Jonathan Beckel, William de Groat, Christopher Chermansky, Changfeng Tai, Journal of Sexual Medicine, epub 2022.

The authors, at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; the University of Pittsburgh, USA; and Capital Medical University, Beijing, China; explain:

Vaginal lubrication and contractions are among the top difficulties affecting sexual intercourse in women after spinal cord injury.

Aim — This study aimed at determining if pudendal nerve stimulation (PNS) can improve vaginal lubrication and induce increases in vaginal pressure.

Conclusion — PNS can improve vaginal lubrication and induce increases in vaginal pressure.

Chile Pepper Hotness Research (Prize-Winning and Other)

Paul Bosland, founder of the Chile Pepper Institute, is profiled in the Washington Post, as a central part of the article “Sorry, Scoville. Peppers deserve better than an archaic heat scale,” written by Tamar Haspel:

When Old El Paso wanted jalapeño’s flavor, but not its capsaicin, to blend into its products, Bosland was able to grow a heatless jalapeño — and it won him the 1999 Ig Nobel Prize in biology, he told me with a laugh. (Ig Nobel Prizes, parodies of the Nobel Prizes, honor achievements that make people laugh, think, roll their eyes or scratch their heads.)

The 1999 Ig Nobel Biology Prize was indeed awarded to Paul Bosland, for breeding a spiceless jalapeno chile pepper.

Two weeks from today: The 2022 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen entirely online (again, as in 2020 and 2021, in deference to the lurking ambitions of Covid-19), on Thursday, September 15, 2022. The webcast begins at 6 pm (U.S. eastern time).

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

Details are on the ceremony web page.

Hoping to translate what cats and dogs say

“Did My Cat Just Hit On Me? An Adventure in Pet Translation“, a report in the New York Times on August 29, 2022, by Emily Anthes, tells about new attempts to build computer-based devices that will translate cats’ and dogs’ utterances into human speech.

The report does not mention that these devices follow in the footsteps of the research honored, two decades ago, with the 2002 Ig Nobel Peace Prize. That prize was awarded to Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, Executive Director, Kogure Veterinary Hospital, for promoting peace and harmony between the species by inventing Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device. The same team later produced a device called Meow-Lingual, for cats.

The Times report also speaks of the cat-language research done by Susanne Schötz and colleagues at Lund University, Sweden:

“They tend to use different types of melody in their meows when they try to signal different things,” said Susanne Schötz, a phonetician at Lund University in Sweden who led the study as part of a research project called Meowsic.

The 2021 Ig Nobel Biology Prize was awarded to Susanne Schötz, Robert Eklund, and Joost van de Weijer, for analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat–human communication.

In keeping with the Times‘s apparent longstanding policy of not mentioning that scientists have been awarded Ig Nobel Prizes for the work the Times writes about, the Times article does not mention the Ig Nobel Prize.

BONUS: The French singer Camille Dalmais did her own research on cats and dogs, reported in the song in this video:

Men and Boys and Goats

“Men and  Boys and Goats” is a review article in the special Men (and Women) issue (volume 28, number 4, July/August 2022) of the magazine. It glimpses numerous published reports of men and boys and goats.

The article is free online.

A Man Who

“A Man Who” is a review article in the special Men (and Women) issue (volume 28, number 4, July/August 2022) of the magazine. It glimpses numerous published reports of men who. (And one woman who.)

The article is free online.

Coming event: Ig Nobel Prize exhibition in Osaka (October—November 2022)

A special Ig Nobel Prize exhibition will frolic in Osaka, Japan from October 1, 2022 through November 13, at the Shinsaibashi Parco.

What the

A new book echoes and explores some of the the perplexities that were honored, some years ago, with an Ig Nobel Literature Prize.

The new book is called Index, A History of the. Dennis Duncan wrote it. (And here’s a review in the Globe and Mail.)

The 2007 Ig Nobel Literature Prize was awarded to Glenda Browne, for her study of the word “the” — and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order. That study is: “The Definite Article: Acknowledging ‘The’ in Index Entries,” Glenda Browne, The Indexer, vol. 22, no. 3 April 2001, pp. 119-22.

One month from today: The 2022 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen (as in 2020 and 2021, in deference to the lurking ambitions of Covid-19) entirely online, on Thursday, September 15, 2022. Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

Details are on the ceremony web page.