Это невероятно! Открытия, достойные Игнобелевской премии

Иллюстрации

Благодарю всех исследователей и изобретателей, о чьих работах рассказывается в этой книге, — иногда с иллюстрациями, иногда — без.

C. 25 Selected steps from ‘Method of Concealing Partial Baldness’ from US Patent No. 4,002,227.

C. 35 From ‘Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks’ from US Patent No. 7,255,627.

C. 61 X-ray of a road-kill green woodpecker and schematic of woodpecker at work from ‘A Woodpecker Hammer’ by Julian F. V. Vincent, Mehmet Necip Sahinkaya, and W. O’Shea.

C. 75 Geometric division of an elephant from ‘Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants (Elephas maximus indicus) by K. P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan.

C. 84 Detail from Egede’s monstrous account of 1741 and North Atlantic right whale penis of 2001 from ‘Cetaceans, Sex and Sea Serpents’ by C. G. M. Paxton, Erik Knatterud, and Sharon L. Hedley. Photograph reproduced by permission of the New England Aquarium, Boston, Massachusetts.

C. 88 Sheep personality vs. location adapted from ‘Effects of Group Size and Personality on Social Foraging’ by Pablo Michelena, Angela M. Sibbald, Hans W. Erhard, and James E. McLeod.

C. 107 Figure: ‘Comparison of amount of faeces accumulated under the lavatory seats in a lavatory at the Antarctic’ from ‘Review of Medical Researches at the Japanese Station (Syowa Base) in the Antarctic’ by H. Yoshimura.

C. 123 How to generate a shock pressure wave for tenderizing an article of food from US Patent No. 3,492,688.

C. 163 Fig. 1 of 13… adapted from US Patent No. 7,266,767.

C. 186 The patented Kiss-Throwing Doll from US Patent No. 3,603,029.

C. 204 Changes in beard growth during a short stay on the island (adapted from N. A., ‘Effects of Sexual Activity on Beard Growth in Man’, Nature 226 (30 May 19/1)): 869-70.

C. 218 Evidence of a huge Parisian tooth-yanker. Courtesy of the Wellcome Library, London.

C. 232 Number of deaths from myocardial infarction, Frenchmen vs. French women adapted from ‘Lower Myocardial Infarction Mortality in French Men the Day France Won the 1998 World Cup of Football’ by F. Berthier and F. Boulay.

C. 255 Figure: ‘A tractor backhoe using a square section clamping gripper driver to hold, revolve and press a casket into a prebored or augered hole’ from US Patent No. 8,046,883.

C. 257 The eponymous number of clasp knives from ‘Account of a Man Who Lived Ten Years After Having Swallowed a Number of Glasp-Knives, with a Description of the Appearances of the Body After Death’ by Alex Marcet.

C. 263 Figure: ‘The knife cut which divides the ham into equal area portions’ adapted from ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ by M. J. Kaiser and S. Hossaien Cheraghi.

C. 270 Facial representation of financial performance adapted from ‘Facial Representation of Multivariate Data’ by David L. Huff, Vijay Mahajan, and William C. Black.

C. 279 The centre point — the intersection of common sense and the Peter Principle… adapted from ‘The Peter Principle Revised’ by Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo.

C. 289 From ‘Net Trapping System for Capturing a Robber Immediately’, from US Patent No. 6,219,959.

C. 301 Underarm stab action demonstrated from ‘An Assessment of Human Performance in Stabbing’ by I. Horsrall, P. D. Prosser, C. H. Watson, and S. M. Champion.

C. 305 Os, sampled from ‘Quantification of the Shape of Handwritten Characters’ by Raymond Marquis, Matthieu Schmittbuhl, William David Mazzella, and Franco Taroni.

C. 318 Note from study: The label ‘Hetero’ refers to ‘heterosexual intimate relationships’ adapted from ‘Dude’ by Scott F. Kiesling.

О науке и ее творцах — самое интересное и невероятное.

В своей книге Марк Абрахамс, учредитель всемирно известной Игнобелевской премии и издатель журнала Annals of Improbable Research ("Анналы невероятных исследований"), рассказывает об удивительных, смешных, странных, порой небесспорных, но, несомненно, ярких и забавных научных исследованиях в самых разных областях науки. Их авторы — знаменитые и не очень — весьма серьезно отнеслись к своим результатам и сделали их достоянием общественности. А взволновать настоящего ученого может все, что угодно! Как превратить бюстгальтер в респиратор? Почему в библиотеках чаще всего крадут книги по этике? Отчего интеллектуальная деятельность приводит к головной боли, а просмотр футбольных матчей — к инфарктам? Об этих и многих других глубоко научных исследованиях читатель прочтет в полной юмора и иронии книге Абрахамса.

Поистине страсть к познанию не имеет границ!