Improbable Research

Ten tons of foresight (assuming you can measure foresight in such units) is no match for 160 pounds of klutz. Well-engineered products must withstand the unintentioned slings and arrows, the unforeseen slips and stumbles, the accidental kicks and elbows, and the regretfully overturned coffee cups that only a first-class professional klutz can deliver.

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian. Read it here.

Investigator Wendy Grossman recently sent us this report about a systemic bug:

I was at a press conference on Thursday with PalmSource at One Aldwych,
which is one of those hyper-modern London hotels. One of its features is a
airplane-style vacuum-operated toilet system. One of the Palm execs told me
that while they were staying at the hotel this system failed, and any time
they wanted to use the bathroom or take a shower they had to call the
reception desk and get escorted to the corporate headquarters in the
building next door to use the facilities there. For a couple of *days*.

It transpires that the entire plumbing system is run by a Windows-based
computer system and whatever went wrong with it was so obscure that they had
to get a technician from the company that supplied it on a plane down from
Scotland to fix it and reboot.

What’s new in Bunnlevel? Something not easily described. As the local newspaper put it: “Sounds ludicrous, but Mr. McLean is dead serious.” A report in the January 8, 2004 issue of the (Dunn, North Carolina) Daily Record includes the following:

If Bunnlevel ever becomes a hub for space travel, Tommy McLean will be responsible.

Based in the back room of his home on U.S. 401 south of Lillington, he claims to have developed an engine capable of space travel through the bending of gravity. A native of Harnett County, Mr. McLean is a 40-year-old former paratrooper and qualified private investigator who now spends most of his time ?finishing the work of Einstein,? as he puts it. …

Mr. McLean has published a book, ?Godstar Science ? Unified Field Physics,? and has been working to apply the principles espoused within ? namely, space flight through an engine that creates a gravitational field of its own that repels the gravity of the earth.

Mr. McLean claims his engine already propelled his unmanned A-2 test drone 2,300 feet into the air during a test flight three years ago. His ideas may sound crazy, but Mr. McLean said those who don?t believe in his work are simply closed-minded. ?They?re still stuck in the same old science of the past and don?t like to accept new ideas and things,? he said. Mr. McLean wouldn?t be specific about the components of his engine, beyond admitting that it contains ?chemicals.? …

Read the whole report here,

Mr. McLean intends to win the X-Prize. Read about the prize here.

(Thanks to investigator Sid Bergman for bringing this to our attention.)

“What is the record for the maximum number of authors/co-authors on a published paper?” asks investigator Brian G. Williams, Ph.D., P.E., of Idaho State University, in Pocatello, Idaho. He continues:

A graduate student of mine found a paper: “STAR Detector Overview,” K.H. Ackermann, et. al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, vol. 499, no. 4, 2003, pp. 624-32. (See a copy of the report here.)

There are 423 authors from 33 organizations!

We are sorry to have to disappoint investigator Williams. 423 is impressive. But it is barely uncommon.

The biggest group we know about is a gang of approximately 976 co-authors who published a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. They were awarded the 1993 Ig Nobel Literature Prize, for publishing a paper that has 100 times more authors than pages. See details here.

If there is a larger group of co-authors — for a formal scientific report, that is — and you know about it, please send us details.

If you are, or have, bacteria, it would do little harm to consult the official Astrology Chart for Bacteria. See it, or some of it, anyway, here.