This year scientists got the Ig Nobel prize for these dubious achievements in science.
A group of British and American scientists in an article for the journal Obesity Reviews offered a possible explanation for increase in the number of overweight people - in their opinion, all may be to blame for central heating systems in homes. Indoor temperatures in winter in the U.S., Britain and other developed countries in recent years, growing, and, as noted by the authors of the article, namely an increase in the length of stay in a comfortable temperature conditions can be a major factor in obesity.
David Bisch from Johns Hopkins University and his colleagues evaluated the risk of getting some disease-causing bacteria by shaking hands for specific risk groups - the leaders of schools participating in ceremonies honoring the graduates. Participants in the experimental group shook hands 5209, while in 93% of cases were transmitted to humans only harmless bacteria.
Austrian scientist Markus Appel of the University of Johannes Kepler warns about the dangers of reading stories about stupid things or people. In his experiment, 81 volunteer read the story of a football fan, which strongly emphasized the low level of his intellectual development. Then the subjects were responding to simple questions on geography, physics and art history.
Andris van der Bilt from University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands and his colleagues found that when a person eats a cookie or other crunchy food, the bones of his skull to vibrate, and vibration is stopped only when the food finally softens.
Firoz Alam of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and his colleagues studied the aerodynamic characteristics of different types volanchikov badminton. To do this, the researchers took 10 different volanchikov and put them in a wind tunnel, where exposed to wind speeds of 60 to 120 kilometers per hour.
Unusual growth factor investigated in the work of tattoo Uestling Helsinki Center of Economic Research. Finnish economist found that the GDP of any country in 1985, statistically associated with an average length of the penis from the inhabitants of this country: curve had a U-shaped form, where the GDP was highest in countries with averages.
A team of scientists from the universities of Bari and the Italian Trento using data from computerized tomography assessed the symmetry of the brains of 11 dogs. University of Bari, this work continues a series of papers on symmetry in the dog: early scholars studying the asymmetry in how these pets wag its tail.
Four students-in-training college Cooper Union in New York experimentally found that the cockroaches like to dance to the music of Lady Gaga. Young researchers need to make the insects move, and the first for this, they used small electric shocks. But gradually, the cockroaches are accustomed to such impulses and stopped to respond, after which the students have decided to try out different kinds of music. Cockroaches have not reacted to the rock band Weezer and heavy metal Avenged Sevenfold, but the songs of Lady Gaga, they "danced" very happy.
Low-flying helicopters do not bother the goats - was the conclusion to a group of researchers from the Netherlands. Scientists have placed the five goats in the corral, over which at a height of 50 meters flew by heavy military transport helicopter, "Chinook" Netherlands Air Force. Goats responded to the noise, turning his head toward its source, and listening to him, but none of them showed signs of stress or high emotion.
Specialists Osaka University in an article for the magazine Journal of Prosthodontic Research soothe all who does not compress the teeth during mathematical problem solving: it turns out, the presence or absence of such habits do not make any difference in terms of effectiveness of the process. Japanese doctors offered 20 volunteers to meet four sets of tasks, and they had to either compress the jaw, or to relax them. According to the results of the experiment the researchers concluded that the conscious lockjaw not increase math skills.
Stefan Shtiger of the Austrian University and his colleagues determined the optimal strategy for player abuse. Under the rules of FIFA, with the expletive player should get a red card - but, as shown by an experiment involving 113 judges and 28 selected expletives, but for 55.7% of words from the list of available removal from the field, with absolutely guarantee a red card just 12 swear words .
