1998-12 AIR: Solution for the Chicken/Egg Problem by use of Toothpaste Arithmetic

Some science problems are eternal, and others nearly so. Pierre de Fermat's famous mathematical poser, for example, appeared in 1619, and lurked for 374 years before someone found a way to solve it. An even harder question has been wlth us practically forever:
"Which came first - the chicken or the egg?" Now, thanks to a simple discovery, I have cracked this heretofore maddening problem.

Read More

2005-10 AIR:Exploading Toads

Earlier this year, news reports described a sudden plague of exploding toads in Hamburg, Germany. The reports carried conflicting descriptions and speculation from scientists, governmental officials, passersby, and other authorities -- some said these were spontaneous explosions, some attributed them to attacks by killer crows, some to bacterial or viral action.

Others advanced still more exotic theories. The public was left with a confused notion as to what exactly had happened, and how and why. To make sense of the reports, we assembled an international "dream team" -- three extraordinarily curious, determined scientists, each of whom has a deep background in one or more elements of the apparent story. Their assignment: to try to discover the truth about the exploding toads of Hamburg.

Read More

2005-09-25 Mark Benecke: Nematoden und Hieroglyphen

Source: Annals of Improbable Research 1(2): 17-18, click for the article
Nematoden und Hieroglyphen

Mikroskopisch kleine Fadenwürmer kommunizieren mit Menschen, indem sie sich zu Hieroglyphen zusammenlagern. Beweise dafür liefere ich im Buch Der Einfluß von Erdnußbutter auf die Erdrotation (Birkhäuser, Basel, Herausgeber: Marc Abrahams (Cambridge, USA), 1999, ISBN 3-7643-5941-2), das auch noch eine Reihe weiterer knorker Wissenschaftshumorabhandlungen beinhaltet, etwa:

  • Mikroskopie mittels eines gewöhnlichen Fotokopierapparates

  • Der Surferin-Pilz und die internetfähige Barbie

  • Aerodynamik von Kartoffelchips (mit echten Versuchen im Windkanal)

  • Ein Mann, eine Frau, eine Hefe

  • Elektroschockbehandlung bei Klapperschlangenbiß (Arzt und Patient haben einen Medizin-IgNobelpreis erhalten)

  • Das Micky-Maus-Gen - und so weiter und so fort...

Das dufte Buch oben ist zwar leider ausverkauft, allerdings gibts zum Glück und stark erweitert die folgenden Titel:

mark_benecke_universitaet_bonn_bierdeckel_forschung_physik+-+13.jpeg

Bierdeckel-Physik

Uni Bonn 2021

20 Jahre Wissens-Podcast

Radioeins

2004-08-AIR: The Search for Tycho Brahe's Nose

In 1572, as a Student at the University of Copenhagen, Brahe observed a very bright star. He proved that it was a Supernova located outside our solar system. Brahe's later observations of the orbits of Cassiopeia and of a comet made clear that those objects, too, were located more distantly than our moon. All this meant that - contrary to what many people believed - the heavens were changeable, not immutable Šs Aristotle had long ago postulated. Still, Brahe avoided painting a heliocentric view of the universe; he described the earth, rather than the sun, as being at the center of all things heavenly.

Read More

2001-09/10 AIR: Happyface Spiders

I am a forensic entomologist. Every forensic scientist's basic mantra is: Everything is possible. My professional experience leads me to believe that there is one place on earth where more than just everything is possible -- that place is Hawai'i. On this remote part of the U.S. lives a bug that directly contradicts all assumptions modern people might hold concerning eight-legged critters: that spiders are hairy, ugly and frightening. This kind of spider is anything but.

Read More

2001-07/08 AIR: Scientific Dining

Mostly Special Agents, and Special Agents-To-Be are served a choice of meals that some good restaurants would dream of. However, the basic impression of all people that were approached by the author, was that "the food here was better in earlier times", that the meals were "well, so-and-so", or that the food was "jeeeez, yucky". Being asked what had been better at earlier times, the Famous Steak And Wine Evening was mentioned by older agents. Noone could recall, however, in which year exactly those evenings stopped, or on which day of the week the event had taken place. (Further investigation with veteran eaters narrowed it down to Wednesday or Thursday). Another disturbing comment of an eating agent was: "It's good that I was single when I first came to the Academy. If not, I would have driven home every night just for dinner."

Read More

Fingerprints of fingerless organisms

Quelle: Annals of Improbable Research 1(5): 26-27 (1995)

by Mark Benecke

Zoologisches Institut der Universitaet, Koeln, Germany

We developed a method to obtain fingerprint patterns of microscopic animals which have neither arms nor fingers. Two species are discussed here.

The Usefulness of Fingerprinting

Fingerless organisms can be as deadly as any human criminal. When loosed upona law-abiding public, they have been known to cause malaria and other tropical diseases. Criminologists have good reason to identify and catch the individual organisms responsible for such crimes. We often hear and read about criminal cases being solved by fingerprints. Nowadays, so-called "genetic fingerprints" are also used, especially in forensic medicine. The classical and the genetic fingerprinting methods are both powerful but limited. !t is hard to carry out the classical fingerprint technique in organisms without fingers, and the genetic method is quite expensive. Our method is cheap and simple.

How we do it

We apply a short treatment of silver nitrate and other standard photographic chemicals. This causes the fingerprint to appear.

Examples

Figures la and 2a show the "slipper animaI" (Paramecium caudatum), which is very common in fresh water. Elevations and grooves are clearly visible (Figure 2a) and allow us to make individual identifications. Other organisms, e.g. the "trumpet animaI" (Stentor polymorphus) (Figure Ib), show fundamentally different fingerprint patterns which often are much more beautiful and at the same time highly informative. Note that in Stentor, not only grooves are visible, but also winding lines and nice-looking dots (Figure 2b).

Future Hopes for Criminologists

In the future, using improved techniques, we should be able to ob ta in fingerprints not only of fingerless organisms but also of bodiless, supernatural beings such as zombies, ghouls and speeters which, in many countries, are of great interest to criminal investigators.