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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Improbable research

25 August 2015

  • Wedding party throwing confetti on bride and groom in convertible vintage car by church, smiling

    Love, marriage … and a barrage of shoes

    What do you throw at the bride and groom? Nowdays hurling a shoe is likely to be an insult – but that was not the way the Victorians saw it

14 July 2015

  • Two people in rubber masks

    Sexual fetish research shows there are few limits to erotic desire

    Shoes, catheters, even pacemakers and dacryphilia: academics have made it their duty to study the ever-expanding catalogue of things that turn people on

22 June 2015

  • Knife and hand.

    Be still my beating heart … smashed fingers, battered shins and fake murder

    Marc Abrahams
    Researchers in the US have concluded we get physiologically jazzed from performing murderous acts – even when we know that no one is getting hurt

26 May 2015

  • hands on door

    A question of etiquette: do you hold the door for others?

    American researchers stake out a door and find it far from an open and shut case

7 April 2015

  • teenage girl being interviewed by policewoman

    How using ‘so’ can help to move the conversation along

    Research shows that so many conversations can be had in so many different ways. It’s just so

9 March 2015

  • Sunbathers on Sydney's Bondi beach enjoy a sunny afternoon.

    Beach study shows tourists like good weather

    Marc Abrahams: Beachgoers in Australia confirm our assumption that good weather brings them out

11 February 2015

  • A Freudian view of the fetishisation of Pippa’s rump relies on multiple perceptions

    Pippa Middleton’s backside – the Marxist interpretation

    Further studies of the fetishisation of Pippa Middleton’s rear compare Freudian and Marxist views

20 January 2015

  • A police investigation of one death revealed that it was common knowledge in the barracks

    The (mainly) men who have fallen under sway of drinks vending machines

    A researcher has documented alarming incidences of retaliation by vending machines under attack

16 December 2014

  • bird feather counting

    Bird-feather counting: small result when the feathers fly

    Marc Abrahams: Bird-feather counters exhibited pluck, but had little to show for their exacting and tedious work

19 August 2014

  • One study notes that 'limitations such as early termination led to unreliable, uninterpretable data'

    Does chewing gum improve our mind and our productivity?

    Researchers have tried to understand gum-chewing's effects on chewers, but they haven't really come up with any answers

29 July 2014

  • The researchers' punchiest proposal is 'making humans smaller'

    Solve climate change … make people smaller

    Bigger people consume more energy, say researchers, who are proposing that reducing the size of humans could mitigate climate change

17 June 2014

  • Pippa Middleton

    Seat of learning - studying Pippa Middleton's bottom

    Royally connected rear warranted a three-page academic paper, while the discovery of DNA's structure only got a page

29 April 2014

  • woman sneezing

    When mathematicians decided to do their bit for those with bipolar disorder

    Marc Abrahams: Bipolar disorder has always been a difficult condition to recognise and describe in words, let alone using equations…

8 April 2014

  • Theatre seats

    Trap doors – the answer for people moving seats at the theatre?

    Marc Abrahams: Feel embarrassed if you need to leave during a performance? If only the ground would open up and swallow you

25 February 2014

  • Red-kneed tarantula Brachypelma smithii

    Research proves people's fear of spiders leads to exaggeration

    Marc Abrahams: Arachnophobia sufferers really do think the spiders they see are bigger than they actually are

20 January 2014

  • England Rugby Training

    Is there a mushrooming market for cauliflower ears?

    A US company has applied to patent replica ears moulded from the ears of athletes and sportspeople

9 December 2013

  • Students protest at a march in London

    Do students complain about university courses? Not if a grade is at stake

    On the troubling question of how students complain about university courses, a satisfactory picture has yet to emerge

11 November 2013

  • Winning cheeses at the annual Nantwich Cheese Awards in Cheshire, the world's largest cheese show

    How a lexicon for cheese gave researchers a headache

    Is your cheese cowy, catty or brothy? Researchers devote their efforts to finding the right words of description

30 September 2013

  • Close-Up of a Human Head Louse

    Scientists discover King Ferdinand had a double infestation of lice

    The king of Naples had head lice as well as pubic lice … but not syphillis, according to Italian researchers

26 August 2013

  • Facial hair may provide some protection from harmful UV rays, but not very much, researchers say

    Under the sun beards offer little protection

    Facial hair can say a lot about a man but the chins of the bearded and moustached are not safe from harmful ultraviolet rays, according to studies from Australia
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