This is Improbable Too Page 30

  Williams, S. Taylor (2012). ‘ “Holy PTSD, Batman!”: An Analysis of the Psychiatric Symptoms of Bruce Wayne’. Academic Psychiatry 36 (3): 252–5.

  Zerbe, K.J. (1985). ‘ “Your Feet’s Too Big”: An Inquiry into Psychological and Symbolic Meanings of the Foot’. Psychoanalytic Review 72 (2): 301–14.

  May we recommend

  Beaver, Bonnie V., Margaret Fischer and Charles E. Atkinson (1992). ‘Determination of Favorite Components of Garbage by Dogs’. Applied Behaviour Science 34 (1): 129–36.

  Bemelman, M., and E.R. Hammacher (2005). ‘Rectal Impalement by Pirate Ship: A Case Report’. Injury Extra 36: 508–10.

  Black, Max (1937). ‘Vagueness: An Exercise in Logical Analysis’. Philosophy of Science 4 (4): 427–55.

  Bond, J.H., and M.D. Levitt (1979). ‘Colonic Gas Explosion: Is a Fire Extinguisher Necessary?’. Gastroenterology 77 (6): 1349–50.

  Christen, J.A., and C.D. Litton (1995). ‘A Bayesian Approach to Wiggle-Matching’. Journal of Archaeological Science 22 (6): 719–25.

  Craig, J.M., R. Dow and M. Aitken (2005). ‘Harry Potter and the Recessive Allele’. Nature 436 (7052): 776.

  Eley, Karen A., and Daljit K. Dhariwal (2010). ‘A Lucky Catch: Fishhook Injury of the Tongue’. Journal of Emergencies, Trauma, and Shock 3 (1): 92–3.

  Elgar, M.A., and B.J. Crespi (eds) (1992). Cannibalism: Ecology and Evolution among Diverse Taxa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Farrier, Sarah, Iain A. Pretty, Christopher D. Lynch and Liam D. Addy (2011). ‘Gagging during Impression Making: Techniques for Reduction’. Dental Update 38 (3): 171–6.

  Fujihira, H. (1978). ‘Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Bang-Bang Control’. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications 25 (4): 549–54.

  Fujimura, Jun, Kenji Sasaki, Tsukasa Isago, Yasukimi Suzuki, Nobuo Isono, Masaki Takeuchi and Motohiro Nozaki (2007). ‘The Treatment Dilemma Caused by Lumps in Surfers’ Chins’. Annals of Plastic Surgery 59 (4): 441–4.

  Gentzkow, Matthew, and Jesse M. Shapiro (2006). ‘Does Television Rot Your Brain? New Evidence from the Coleman Study’. National Bureau of Economic Research working paper 12021, February.

  Ghanem, Hussein, Sidney Glina, Pierre Assalian and Jacques Buvat (2013). ‘Position Paper: Management of Men Complaining of a Small Penis Despite an Actually Normal Size’. Journal of Sexual Medicine 10 (1): 294–303.

  Gifford, Robert and Robert Sommer (1968). ‘The Desk or the Bed?’. Personnel and Guidance Journal 46 (9): 876–8.

  Goldberg, R.L., P.A. Buongiorno and R.I. Henkin (1985). ‘Delusions of Halitosis’. Psychosomatics 26 (4): 325–7, 331.

  Hansen, Kim V., Lars Brix, Christian F. Pedersen, Jens P. Haase and Ole V. Larsen (2004). ‘Modelling of Interaction between a Spatula and a Human Brain’. Medical Image Analysis 8 (1): 23–33.

  Ho, Luis C., Alexei V. Filippenko and Wallace L.W. Sargent (1997). ‘The Influence of Bars on Nuclear Activity’. Astrophysical Journal 487 (2): 591–602.

  Jackson, C.R., B. Anderson and B. Jaffray (2003). ‘Childhood Constipation Is Not Associated with Characteristic Fingerprint Patterns’. Archives of Disease in Childhood 88 (12): 1076–7.

  Kompanje, Erwin J.O. (2013). ‘Real Men Wear Kilts: The Anecdotal Evidence that Wearing a Scottish Kilt Has Influence on Reproductive Potential – How Much Is True?’. Scottish Medical Journal 58 (1): e1–5.

  Lee, C.T., P. Williams, and W.A. Hadden (1999). ‘Parachuting for Charity: Is It Worth the Money? A 5-Year Audit of Parachute Injuries in Tayside and the Cost to the NHS’. Injury 30 (4): 283–7.

  Leung, A.K. (1984). ‘Doll Shoes: The Cause of Behavioural Problems?’. Canadian Medical Association Journal 131 (10): 1193.

  Lim, Erle C.H., Amy M.L. Quek and Raymond C.S. Seet (2006). ‘Duty of Care to the Undiagnosed Patient: Ethical Imperative, or Just a Load of Hogwarts?’. Canadian Medical Association Journal 175 (12): 1557–9.

  Lisi, Antony Garrett (2007). ‘An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything’. arXiv.org, 6 November, http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.0770.

  Mandell, Arnold J., Karen A. Selz, John Aven, Tom Holroyd and Richard Coppola (2010). ‘Daydreaming, Thought Blocking and Strudels in the Taskless, Resting Human Brain’s Magnetic Fields’. Paper presented at the International Conference on Applications in Nonlinear Dynamics, AIP Conference Proceedings 1339 (2011): 7–22.

  Moeliker, C.W. (2007). ‘A Penis-shortening Device Described by the 13th Century Poet Rumi’. Archives of Sexual Behavior 36 (6): 767.

  Morice, Alyn H. (2004). ‘Post-Nasal Drip Syndrome: A Symptom to be Sniffed At?’. Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 17 (6): 343–5.

  Petrof, Elaine O., Gregory B. Gloor, Stephen J. Vanner, Scott J. Weese, David Carater, Michelle C. Daigneault, Eric M. Brown, Kathleen Schroeter and Emma Allen-Vercoe (2013). ‘Stool Substitute Transplant Therapy for the Eradication of Clostridium difficile Infection: “RePOOPulating” the Gut’. Microbiome 1 (3): http://www.microbiomejournal.com/content/1/1/3/additional.

  Pon, Brian, and Alan Meier (1993). ‘Hot Potatoes in the Gray Literature’. Recent Research in the Building Energy Analysis Group, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, paper no. 3, October.

  Ryter, Stefan W., Danielle Morse and Augustine M.K. Choi (2004). ‘Carbon Monoxide: To Boldly Go Where NO Has Gone Before’. Science STKE: Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment 2004 (230): re6.

  Seimens, H.W. (1967). ‘The History of Freckles in Art’. Der Hautarzt 18 (5): 230–2.

  Silverberg, Jesse L., Matthew Bierbaum, James P. Sethna and Itai Cohen (2013). ‘Collective Motion of Humans in Mosh and Circle Pits at Heavy Metal Concerts’. Physical Review Letters 110 (22): 228701.

  Smith, G.C.S., and J.P. Pell (2003). ‘Parachute Use to Prevent Death and Major Trauma Related to Gravitational Challenge: Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials’. British Medical Journal 327: 1459–61.

  Sommer, Robert (1988). ‘The Personality of Vegetables: Botanical Metaphors for Human Characteristics’. Journal of Personality 56 (4): 665–83.

  Soussignan, Robert, Paul Sagot and Benoist Schaal (2007). ‘The “Smellscape” of Mother’s Breast: Effects of Odor Masking and Selective Unmasking on Neonatal Arousal, Oral and Visual Response’. Developmental Psychobiology 49 (2): 129–38.

  Stern, Ronald J., and Henry Wolkowicz (1991). ‘Exponential Nonnegativity on the Ice Cream Cone’. SIAM: Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications 12 (1): 160–5.

  Troughton, Geoffrey M. (2006). ‘Jesus and the Ideal of the Manly Man in New Zealand after World War One’. Journal of Religious History 30 (1): 45–60.

  Yerhuham, I., and O. Koren (2003). ‘Severe Infestation of a She-Ass with the Cat Flea Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouche, 1835)’. Veterinary Parasitology 115 (4): 365–7.

  An improbable innovation

  Bublitz, Rebecca J., and Annette L. Terhorst (2003). ‘Human-figure display system’. US patent no. 6,601,326, granted 5 August.

  Castanis, George and Thaddeus Castanis (1982). ‘Producing Replicas of Body Parts’, US patent no. 4,335,067, granted 15 June.

  Huffman, Hugh, and Ernest J. Peck (1916). ‘A New and Useful Improvement in Scarecrows’. US patent no. 1,167,502, granted 11 January.

  Lowe, Henry E. (1983). ‘Odor Testing Apparatus’. US patent no. 4,411,156, granted 25 October.

  MacDonald, Louise S. (2011). ‘Internal nostril or nasal airway sizing gauge’. US patent no. 7,998,093, granted 16 August.

  McMorrow, Philip E. (1968). ‘Animal Track Footwear Soles’. US patent no. 3,402,485, granted 24 September.

  Shemesh, David, and Dan Forman (2004). ‘Automated Surveillance Monitor of Non-humans in Real Time’. US patent no. 6,782,847, granted 31 August.

  Williams, Hermann W. (1931). ‘A Safety Device for Use in Making a Landing from an Aeroplane or Other Vehicle of the Air’. US patent no. 1,799,664, granted 7 April.

  Call for investigators

  Haller, Daniel G. (2013). ‘A Call for Opinions’. Gastrointestinal Cancer Research 6 (1): 1.

>   Oum, Robert E., Debra Lieberman and Alison Aylward. ‘A Feel for Disgust: Tactile Cues to Pathogen Presence’. Cognition & Emotion 25 (4): 717–25.

  The inhumanity of prozac

  Deckel, A.W. (1996). ‘Behavioral Changes in Anolis carolinensis Following Injection with Fluoxetine’. Behavioural Brain Research 78: 175–82.

  Dodman, Nicholas H., R. Donnelly, Louis Shuster, F. Mertens, W. Rand and Klaus Miczek (1996). ‘Use of Fluoxetine to Treat Dominance Aggression in Dogs’. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 209 (9): 1585–7.

  Fehrer, S.C., Janet L. Silsby and Mohamed E. El Halawani (1983). ‘Serotonergic Stimulation of Prolactin Release in the Young Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)’. General and Comparative Endocrinology 52 (3): 400–8.

  Freire-Garabal, Manuel, María J. Núñez, Pilar Riveiro, José Balboa, Pablo López, Braulio G. Zamarano, Elena Rodrigo and Manuel Rey-Méndez (2002). ‘Effects of Fluoxetine on the Activity of Phagocytosis in Stressed Mice’. Life Sciences 72 (2): 173–83.

  Henderson, Daniel R., Darlene M. Konkle and Gordon S. Mitchell (1999). ‘Effects of Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibition on Ventilatory Control in Goats’. Respiration Physiology 115 (1): 1–10.

  Huber, Robert, Kalim Smith, Antonia Delago, Karin Asaksson and Edward A. Kravitz (1997). ‘Serotonin and Aggressive Motivation in Crustaceans: Altering the Decision to Retreat’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94 (11): 5939–42.

  Khan, Izhar A., and Peter Thomas (1992). ‘Stimulatory Effects of Serotonin on Maturational Gonadotropin Release in the Atlantic Croaker, Micropogonias undulatus’. General and Comparative Endocrinology 88 (3): 388–96.

  McKay, D.M., David W. Halton, J.M. Allen and Ian Fairweather (1989). ‘The Effects of Cholinergic and Serotoninergic Drugs on Motility in Vitro of Haplometra cylindracea (Trematoda: Digenea)’. Parasitology 99 (2): 241–52.

  Poulsen, E.M., V. Honeyman, P.A. Valentine and G.C. Teskey (1996). ‘Use of Fluoxetine for the Treatment of Stereotypical Pacing Behavior in a Captive Polar Bear’. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 209 (8): 1470–4.

  Pryor, Patricia A., Benjamin L. Hart, Kelly D. Cliff and Melissa J. Bain (2001). ‘Effects of a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor on Urine Spraying Behavior in Cats’. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 72 (2): 173–83.

  Smith, Greg N., Joseph Hingtgen and William DeMyer (1987). ‘Serotonergic Involvement in the Backward Tumbling Response of the Parlor Tumbler Pigeon’. Brain Research 400 (2): 399–402.

  Villalba, Constanza, Patricia A. Boyle, Edward J. Caliguri and Geert J. DeVries (1997). ‘Effects of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Fluoxetine on Social Behaviors in Male and Female Prairie Voles (Microtus ochrogaster)’. Hormones and Behavior 32 (3): 184–91.

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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

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  ‌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.