Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 549

Migraine: Worms for her, please!

Migraine is the subject of a report by Dr Katherine Foxhall [pictured here] in the Wellcome Library blog:

Houseleeks and Garden Worms

… Since I began researching the history of migraine three years ago, I have been just as intrigued by the recipe books in the Wellcome Library’s manuscript collections… Jane Jackson’s book is a great example. She carefully compiled her Method of Phisicke and Chirurgery just as Civil War began in England in 1642, and included hundreds of carefully written recipes dealing with everything from common aches, wounds and agues to plague…. her book reveals a lot about early-modern migraine knowledge. Jackson’s first recipe (p.4b) instructs the reader to take ‘houseleeke and garden worms’, stamped together and mixed with fine flour to make a plaster…

Humor in The Office Is a Funny Thing to Assess

Watching the clip above, featuring David Brent (a.k.a. Ricky Gervais) formerly the manager of The Office (UK original series), you might ask yourself the question ‘Is management humor an asset or liability?’

Not such an easy question to answer – in fact, a recent academic paper on the subject, Management humor : asset or liability? (Organizational Psychology Review, November 2011 vol. 1 no. 4 pp. 316-338 ) which is based around analyses of the communication process and models of cognitive and affective processing dynamics in social cognitive theory, took no less than 22 pages of in-depth examination to reach a conclusion. One which the authors save for the very last paragraph – some might even say in the form of a ‘punchline’.

“We conclude that humor can be either an asset or a liability for a manager.“

adding :

“This is one of the many features of humor in organizations that makes it worthy of further study.”

 

The Cake of the Book of Improbable, Devoured

Special thanks to Gus Rancatore and his fellow wizards at Toscanini’s Ice Cream for creating (and surprising me with) an Improbably-beautiful, and delicious, one-of-a-kind ice cream cake that recreated the cover of my new book, This Is Improbable. Here’s a photo of that cake (which no longer exists, having been devoured), and a look at the cover. Jean Berko Gleason took the photo. The book cover was designed by Andy Bridge, whom I hope to meet some day so I can thank him for creating something that perfectly transmits the spirit of the book.

BONUS: Events schedule

BONUS: A sheepish admission about my new book

BONUS: The new book’s ISBN is 9781851689316. That number maybe be of mathematical interest to someone. If it is, I would enjoy hearing who you are and specifically what wonders you see in the number.

Bunny Dust, and Cosmic Dust Bunnies

These two studies, if read together, show a contrast between the very different meanings of two phrases that sound similar: (1) dust bunnies and (2) bunny dust.

“Formation of Cosmic Dust Bunnies,” Lorin S. Matthews [pictured here], Ryan L. Hayes, Michael S. Freed and Truell W. Hyde, arXiv:astro-ph/0701385v1, 2007. The authors report:

“Planetary formation is an efficient process now thought to take place on a relatively short astronomical time scale. Recent observations have shown that the dust surrounding a protostar emits more efficiently at longer wavelengths as the protoplanetary disk evolves, suggesting that the dust particles are coagulating into fluffy aggregates, ‘much as dust bunnies form under a bed.’ One poorly understood problem in this coagulation process is the manner in which micron-sized, charged grains form the fractal aggregate structures now thought to be the precursors of protoplanetary disk evolution. This study examines the characteristics of such fractal aggregates formed by the collision of spherical monomers and aggregates where the charge is distributed over the aggregate structure.”

“Particulate Matter Concentrations and Emissions in Rabbit Farms,” Elisa Adell, Salvador Calvet, Antonio G. Torres, María Cambra-López [pictured here], World Rabbit Science, vol. 20, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1-11. The authors report:

“Emission results indicate that rabbit farms can be considered relevant point sources of PM [particulae matter] emissions, comparable to other livestock species.  Our results improve the knowledge on factors affecting concentration and emissions of PM in rabbit farms.”

(Thanks to investigator Tom Gill for bringing these to our attention.)

Whistlers with Orchestra [from Russia to Germany to you]

This photo shows a recording of “whistlers with orchestra” labeled in Russian, reproduced in Germany in English, sort of. Follow the link to hear this scholarly treasure and see more detail about it:

[Source: Russian-Records.com]

Disagreement About Reigning: Cats vs. Dogs

Cats and dogs fuel strong human opinions. Occasionally, other humans collect data about those opinions. Here’s a new heap of such data:

“Opinions from the Front Lines of Cat Colony Management Conflict,” M. Nils Peterson, Brett Hartis, Shari Rodriguez, Matthew Green, Christopher A. Lepczyk [pictured here], PLoS ONE 7(9), epub September 6, 2012, e44616. The authors, at North Carolina State University and at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, explain:

“Outdoor cats represent a global threat to terrestrial vertebrate conservation, but management has been rife with conflict due to differences in views of the problem and appropriate responses to it. To evaluate these differences we conducted a survey of opinions about outdoor cats and their management with two contrasting stakeholder groups, cat colony caretakers (CCCs) and bird conservation professionals (BCPs) across the United States….

“Group opinions were polarized… To the extent the beliefs held by CCCs are rooted in lack of knowledge and mistrust, rather than denial of directly observable phenomenon, the conservation community can manage these conflicts more productively…”

(Thanks to investigator and cat-observer Janine Neil for bringing this to our attention.)

Improbable on Science Friday today: New book, and the Igs

I’m going to be on NPR’s Science Friday program today, yakking about some of the stranger stories in my new book, This Is Improbable. We will also talk about the upcoming Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

BONUS: Zoltan Egeresi’s patent (#7014147) for a trap-door system to dispose of airplane hijackers

 

 

Fire Eating and Good Health

A new medical report demonstrates how to tell a story:

“Severe Pneumonitis After Fire Eating,” Daniel Franzen [pictured here], Malcolm Kohler, BMJ Case Reports 2012;10.1136/bcr-2012-006528. The authors, at University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, begin their report with eight words that, by themselves, provide a wealth of information:

“A 38-year-old, previously healthy fire eater…”

White coats good – sandals bad

What should Italian hospital doctors wear (if they want to maintain patients’ confidence)?

In the first study of its kind (in Italy) researchers Sotgiu G, Nieddu P, Mameli L, Sorrentino E, Pirina P, Porcu A, Madeddu S, Idini M, Di Martino M, Delitala G, Mura I, and Dore MP, at the  Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Italy, showed photos of male and female doctors (in varying modes of attire) to hospital patients. And analysis of 765 completed questionnaires showed that the Italian patients were clearly in favour of white coats, nametags, and well kept teeth, but considerably less keen on long hair, visible tattoos, and body piercings. And, for women, the use of trousers and/or excessive makeup was frowned upon.

“This study clearly indicates patients’ needs for a sober professional image of their physician, deriving from a standard dress code and attention to detail in personal grooming …”

See: ‘Evidence for preferences of Italian patients for physician attire‘ in  Patient Preference and Adherence, Volume 2012:6 Pages 361 – 367

Russian Feces-Shooting Tank Inventor interviewed

Russia’s TOPSPV-TV interviewed Alexander Semenov, inventor of the system for collecting tank crewmen’s feces, putting it in shells, and firing those at the enemy. We profiled Mr. Semenov recently, which seems to have led others to seek him out. The technical drawing shown here is from Mr. Semenov’s patent.