Improbable Research

Potvin ([seen here] with an accelerometer on his head) has been helping the biologists build a sophisticated physical model of a feeding fin whale. They set out to build a model that would produce the kinds of behavior that real whales do. For example, a fin whale will dive hundreds of feet down in search of food. Once it gets deep enough, it speeds up dramatically, and then

New Scientist’s Feedback column cogitates:

On 30 January, we reported on the fat content of Cadbury’s Mini Rolls. Now Rod Costigan sends us his thoughts about another Cadbury product, Fry’s Turkish Delight.

The packaging of this “exotic taste sensation” boasts that it is “60 per cent less fat*, and always has been”. Rod says he often sees these “less fat” claims on food packaging and wonders whether they are comparing themselves with another product or just an old version of the same one. He has tended to assume the latter but this would mean “always has been” makes no sense.

Then Rod took note of the asterisk,

Telephone interview with Andre Geim following the announcement of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, 5 October 2010. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org (which also has an audio recording on their site.) We take the liberty of reproducing here the last part of that interview:

AS] Thank you. I should just finish by asking, since you’re the first Laureate, to my knowledge, to have been awarded an IgNobel Prize and a Nobel Prize, do you plan to …

[AG] To my knowledge too!

[AS] Do you plan to display them together in the office?

[AG] Ah. Unfortunately, the IgNobel Prize … I have somewhere the IgNobel Prize in my office. But, it’s not really something, ok, visually attractive. OK, but speaking seriously, I’m actually quite proud of my IgNobel Prize – not because of IgNobel Prize  – it’s a more subtle association. Essentially, yeah, IgNobel Prize is given for something which forces people to smile. And, that was always the idea behind the flying frog, which we shared with another distinguished scientist, Professor Sir Michael Berry, known for his ‘Berry phase’. And, the second thing which with Nobel Prize, it’s quite obvious that, if you are offered, I’m not aware about anyone who rejected an offer of Nobel Prize, ok. Although history might be long.

Congratulations to Andre Geim, new Nobel Prize winner in physics. He becomes the first to win, as an individual, both a Nobel Prize (this year, together with Konstantin Novoselov, for experiments with the substance graphene) and an Ig Nobel Prize (in the year 2000, shared with Sir Michael Berry, for using magnets to levitate a frog).

This photo shows Andre Geim at the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in Sanders Theatre, Harvard University. Geim and his Ig Nobel co-winner, Sir Michael Berry (who had a prior commitment and so could not attend that ceremony) were honored for using magnets to levitate a frog. Here eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo tells him “Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored…” Nobel Laureates Rich Roberts (green hat), Dudley Herschbach (white coat) and Charles Clements (black hat with gold band) are visible in the photo. The man sitting next to them (at right, holding a broom to sweep paper airplanes) is Harvard physics professor Roy Glauber. Five years later, in 2005, Glauber was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics. Five years after that, in 2010, Andre Geim also won a Nobel Prize in physics.  Photo: Herbert Blankesteijn / Annals of Improbable Research.

A graph of some sort, possibly unrelated to this topic, added here to provide mild visual interest.

Everyone oscillates, one way and another. We vibrate, we hum, we bounce. We have our ups and downs. Some of this oscillation attracts the attention of a researcher named Tainsh.

In 1972, Michael A Tainsh published a monograph called Oscillation of Human Performance as a Personality Measure, in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills. Tainsh was then based at the University of Aston, an institution whose very name oscillates. In its current phase, the name is Aston University.

Tainsh wrote to me about his monograph, saying it was inspired by a 45-year-old book…

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.