Mini-AIR

mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")

June 2017, issue number 2017-06. ISSN 1076-500X.

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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.

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01 TABLE OF CONTENTS

02 In the Magazine Itself: The Imminence of Fears/Tears

03 A Tongue-Thrust Controversy

04 Ig Nobel Tickets Go On Sale July 20

05 Our Podcast Has a New Home — Scientific American

06 LIMERICK CONTEST: The Sound of Swallowing

07 Cigarettes in a Milkshake

08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Froth, Watermelon, 2 Heads, Hair Club

09 Another Tongue-Thrust Controversy

10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

11 — How to Get The Magazine (*)

12 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

13 — Contact Info (*)

14 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)

Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.

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02 In the Magazine Itself: The Imminence of Fears/Tears

The special FEARS AND TEARS issue (vol. 23, no. 3) of the magazine is almost almost ready. The special FACES issue and most other previous issues await you:

SUBSCRIPTIONS & SINGLE ISSUES:

<https://gumroad.com/improbable>

Tables of Contents: <http://www.improbable.com/magazine/>

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03 A Tongue-Thrust Controversy

This month's research spotlight shines on tongue-thrusting:

"The Tongue Thrust Controversy: Background and Recommendations," Robert M. Mason and William R. Proffit, Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, vol. 39, 1974, pp. 115–132. <https://is.gd/eS7QlB> The authors explain:

"Anterior tongue positioning during speech and swallowing, commonly called tongue thrusting, is seen in about 50% of normal eight-year-old children.... Articulation therapy techniques involving phonetic placement may be particularly helpful in modifying speech errors in tongue thrusters while also repositioning the tongue tip posteriorly."

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04 Ig Nobel Tickets Go On Sale July 20

Tickets for the 27th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony go on sale July 20, exclusively from the Harvard Box Office. This year's theme: UNCERTAINTY.

DETAILS: <http://www.improbable.com/ig/2017>

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05 Our Podcast Has a New Home — Scientific American

The Improbable Research Podcast, after two happy years at CBS, has moved to Scientific American.

The first new episode: "How Many Kids Can One Man Father in his Lifetime?" <https://is.gd/QkEYRt>

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06 LIMERICK CONTEST: The Sound of Swallowing

This month's challenge —

Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:

"Characterization of Swallowing Sound: Preliminary Investigation of Normal Subjects," Tsuyoshi Honda, Takuro Baba, Keiko Fujimoto, Takaharu Goto, Kan Nagao, Masafumi Harada, Eiichi Honda, and Tetsuo Ichikawa, PLoS ONE, vol. 11, no. 12, 2016, e0168187. <https://is.gd/aRYXvh> The authors, at Tokushima University Graduate School, Japan, report:

"The acoustic analysis of the waveforms and videofluoroscopy suggested that the swallowing sound could be divided into three periods, each associated with a stage of the swallowing movement: the oral phase comprising posterior tongue and hyoid bone movement; the pharyngeal phase comprising larynx movement, hyoid bone elevation, epiglottis closure, and passage of the bolus through the esophagus orifice; and the repositioning phase comprising the return of the hyoid bone and larynx to their resting positions, and reopening of the epiglottis."

Submit your perfectly formed, delightfully enlightening limerick to:

TONGUE-THRUST LIMERICK COMPETITION

c/o <MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM>

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07 Cigarettes in a Milkshake

The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Limerick Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:

"The Smoking Milkshake," Jennifer Thomas and Paul E. Luebbers, American Journal of Health Education, vol. 40, no. 6 (2009, pp. 322-328. <https://is.gd/mTYnQI>

The winner is INVESTIGATOR RICHARD RAE, who wrote:

A milkshake concocted to show

The flavorings toxic that go

Along with tobacco

Was certainly wacko.

So would the class drink it? "Hell, no!"

The word from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:

I used to think cigarettes rule,

But I learned that they don't rule in school.

By comparing with dairy,

They showed cigs are scary,

And smoking is wicked uncool.

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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Froth, Watermelon, 2 Heads, Hair Club

Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...

The blog <http://www.improbable.com/>:

<> Exponential Beer Froth Decay – Disputed

<> Acoustical Watermelon Studies: More Than What's on Tap

<> Two Heads (One Real) Are Somewhat Better Than One

Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) new member: MIKKO KIVELÄ.

<http://www.improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/>

FACEBOOK: <http://www.facebook.com/improbableresearch>

TWITTER: @ImprobResearch, @MarcAbrahams, #IgNobel

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09 Another Tongue-Thrust Controversy

"Slip of the Tongue: Implications for Evolution and Language Development," Gillian S. Forrester and Alina Rodriguez, Cognition, vol. 141, 2015, pp. 103-111. <https://is.gd/Bxg71D> The authors, at the University of Westminster, UK, Imperial College London, UK, and Mid Sweden University, report:

"We employed a fine-grained behavioral coding paradigm to provide the first investigation of tongue protrusions in typically developing 4-year old children. Tongue protrusions were investigated across a range of cognitive tasks that required varying degrees of manual action: precision motor action, gross motor action and no motor actions."

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10 IMPROBABLE EVENTS

For details and additional events, see

<http://www.improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/complete-schedule/>

Ig Nobel Ceremony TICKETS go on sale — Jul 20, 2017

2017 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Sep 14, 2017

Ig Informal Lectures — Sep 16, 2017

Ig Nobel Fall EuroTour

U Manchester, UK — Nov 29, 2017

EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany — Dec 4, 2017

SLAS Conference, San Diego — Feb 7, 2018

AAAS Annual Meeting, Austin, TX — Feb 2018

Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour — Mar 2018

Northwest Rheumatism Society,

Portland, OR — Apr 26, 2018

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11 — How to Get The Magazine (*)

The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine, published in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think. (mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating appendix to the actual magazine.)

<www.improbable.com/magazine/>

SUBSCRIPTIONS ($25, for six issues)

SINGLE ISSUES ($5 each)

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12 — How to start or stop receiving mini-AIR (*)

Mini-AIR is a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement*

to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine AIR.

To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR:

<http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/mini-air>

ARCHIVES: <http://improbable.com/airchives/miniair>

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13 — CONTACT INFO (*)