Cosplay coral-ation
Getting anyone, anyone at all, to notice what you have discovered is a problem for almost every scientist. (It鈥檚 a problem also for almost anyone anywhere who discovers almost anything.)
Mark Patterson at Northeastern University in Massachusetts and his colleagues tried being theatrical to raise awareness about marine microplastics. They found success (鈥渁ttentive engagement鈥�) by doing cosplay at a Comic-Con convention in San Diego. Patterson wore a giant coral costume and wielded a swordlike 鈥渕icroplastics sampling device鈥�, while another team member was dressed as Greek sea goddess Amphitrite, 鈥渨ith bracelets and hair made with plastic debris鈥�.
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鈥淲e found that the novelty factor of our costumes and accessories, not part of the traditional cosplay pantheon of characters, was a captivating way to engage convention attendees,鈥� they say. 鈥淓ngagement lasted 1鈥�8 minutes in length, with 1鈥�9 attendees at a time.鈥�
Readers of can see stimulating photographs of the adventure, then, properly roused, go read up about microplastics.
What鈥檚 on your mind?
Feedback wonders whether people who professionally think about thinking really think anyone really thinks those thinkers know much about it.
Those thinkers who think about thinking are called many things: cognitive scientists, brain scientists, neurologists, neuroeconomists, philosophers, neurophilosophers, psychologists, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychiatrists, therapists, neurotherapists, theologians, neurotheologians, intellectual historians, et al.
Never mind that they call each other many things, not always admiringly.
The professionals quibble about consciousness. In the past five years alone, nearly 2000 academic papers have publishingly explored the question 鈥淲hat is consciousness?鈥�
And they ruminate about ruminating. For example, Christopher Marcin Kowalski, Donald Saklofske and Julie Aitken Schermer at the University of Western Ontario in Canada published a paper in May called 鈥溾��. These three ruminators say they think that 鈥渆xisting measures of rumination assess ruminative thought without reference to the content of ruminations鈥�.
What is the content of these ruminators鈥� own ruminations? In some of their other papers, they give us glimpses.
Schermer ruminated in 2023 on the owners of noisy automobiles, in a brief report titled 鈥溾��.
Kowalski and Saklofske ruminated in print on 鈥溾��.
Saklofske also ruminated, also in print, on 鈥溾��.
Now perhaps you too 鈥� if aided by a dictionary 鈥� will ruminate on gelotophobia, gelotophilia and katagelasticism.
Exploding insights
Questions arising from underground explosions, including those of buried, embalmed corpses, and toxic groundwater (Feedback, 20 July) continue to spur thought.
William Drennan, a law professor at Southern Illinois University, casts a cold eye at the practice of embalming. He that: 鈥淎ttempts to make caskets air-tight and water-tight have led to a phenomenon termed 鈥榚xploding casket syndrome.鈥� Basically, efforts to make caskets air-tight and water-tight lead to a disturbing conclusion because heat, gas, and liquid build up inside the coffin as the body decomposes, eventually causing an explosion.鈥�
Leaving aside the intrinsic value of tradition, Drennan says 鈥渢here appears to be no benefit to embalming after the public viewing鈥�.
Recognising the intrinsic value of knowledge, Wei Guo and colleagues at the Army Engineering University of PLA in China at the 鈥渢heory and test of underground explosions鈥�.
They summarise 鈥渁 large number of field tests and numerical simulations [that] have been conducted at home and abroad鈥�.
Though they don鈥檛 specifically mention exploding, buried, embalmed corpses, the team does warn that: 鈥淐alculating the parameters of the ground shock induced by an underground explosion is a complex energy coupling problem.鈥�
Saying it all
We have two additions to Feedback鈥檚 collection called The Title Tells You Everything You Need to Know.
鈥溾�� edified readers of The Lancet in 1996, while 鈥溾�� informed subscribers to Acta Oto-Laryngologica in 2000.
If you find an equally prickly, smelly or dizzyingly clear example, please send it (with citation details) to: Telltale titles, c/o Feedback.
Marc Abrahams created the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and聽co-founded聽the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Earlier, he worked on unusual ways to use computers. His website is聽.
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