mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
July 2026, issue number 2026-007. ISSN 1076-500X.
improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/
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Research that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
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01 TABLE OF CONTENTMENT
02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: PEOPLE, PEOPLE
03 Degeneration from Load-Carrying on the Head
04 Ig Nobel Ceremony Webcast Watch Parties
05 Item of Not Much Interest
06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Eggs on Their Heads?
07 Hammer Head Strangulation Winner
08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pedagogical Density, Boomerangs, Bananas
09 Carrying Capacity of Hengistbury Head
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
31 — How to start or stop receiving this little newsletter (*)
32 — Contact Info (*)
33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
Items marked (*) are reprinted in every issue.
This little newsletter you are reading at the moment (mini-AIR) is overflow detritus from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
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02 IN THE MAGAZINE ITSELF: PEOPLE, PEOPLE
The special PEOPLE issue (32:4) is out and about. The table of contents and a preview are at
https://payhip.com/b/nhOlm
The special MIXTURES issue is in prep.
* * *
SUBSCRIBE to the MAGAZINE, or get BACK ISSUES
https://improbable.com/magazine-2/
Tables of Contents: improbable.com/magazine-2/
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03 Degeneration from Load-Carrying on the Head
This month's quasi-haphazardly selected research report of the month (QHSRROTM) is:
"Degenerative Change in the Cervical Spine and Load-Carrying on the Head," Horst J. Jäger, Len Gordon-Harris, Ulrich-Martin Mehring, G. Friedrich Goetz, and Klaus D. Mathias, Skeletal Radiology, vol. 26, no. 8, 1997, pp. 475-481.
doi.org/10.1007/s002560050269
The authors explain: "In 31 of the 35 (88.6%) carriers degenerative change was found in the cervical spine, but only in 8 of the 35 (22.9%) non-carriers (P<0.01).... It is concluded that the axial strain of load-carrying on the head exacerbates degenerative change in the cervical spine."
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04 Ig Nobel Ceremony Webcast Watch Parties
If you haven't obtained tickets (they sold out in less than a week) to attend the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in person on September 3 in Zurich, you can of course watch (free!) the livecast.
There will be OFFICIAL WATCH PARTIES in:
ANTWERP
UTRECHT
HAMBURG
PARIS
CAMBRIDGE (Massachusetts),
and other cities to be announced.
You can organize your own unofficial Watch Party, big or small. For suggestions, download the Playbook for Organizing an Ig Nobel Watch Party:
improbable.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Watch-party-guide-2026.pdf
* * *
Info about the ceremony itself:
WHAT: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and WEBCAST
WHERE: Kongresshaus, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND,
WHEN: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026, 7:00 pm (CET)
INFO: improbable.com/the-36th-first-annual-ig-nobel-prize-ceremony/
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05 Item of Not Much Interest
Item number 5 (five) of this month's issue of mini-AIR, like item number 5 (five) of last month's issue of mini-AIR, is the least interesting item. It includes little more than a note saying that Item number 5 (five) is the least interesting item.
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06 LIMERICK CHALLENGE: Eggs on Their Heads?
This month's RESEARCH LIMERICK challenge — Devise a pleasing limerick that encapsulates this study:
"Why do Indonesian Ambrosia Beetles Carry Eggs on Their Heads?" Jiri Hulcr, Hagus Tarno, American Entomologist, vol. 71, no. 4, Winter 2025, pp. 44–49.
doi.org/10.1093/ae/tmaf065
The authors explain:
"How do these things fly from a tree to tree? How do they chew these half-foot-long tunnels in hard wood? What symbiotic fungi do they imbibe?...
That is why we are here: to start answering questions about insects that nobody has studied here for nearly 100 years....
"What often prevents collaboration from happening is the tangle of red tape in developing countries. Note, however, that some of the administrative inertia may be subtly intentional. The core of the problem is that a history of entomologists taking bugs from Indonesia without acknowledging anyone local has poked a sore spot. It's not just that these scientists stole some bugs; it's that they resembled a new type of colonization and stirred memories of a national trauma. These cases have been smeared so much in the local media that even university administrators who otherwise don't give a damn about entomology have opinions about foreign collectors. Frankly, fellow Western entomologists, we hate to break it to you, but few people here really care about the bugs. Most Indonesians care about national sovereignty. And that, not the bugs, is the reason why the behavior of Western colleagues is so important."
Send your perfictly formed, perfectly pleasing limerick to:
EGGS-ON-THEIR-HEADS LIMERICK COMPETITION
c/o MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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07 Hammer Head Strangulation Winner
The judges have chosen a winner in last month's Competition, which asked for a limerick to explain this study:
"An Unusual Case of Strangulation of Penis by Metal Hammer Head — (a Case Report)," Sulabha V. Punekar, P.R. Shroff, and M.L. Vaze, Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, vol. 24, no. 1, 1978, pp. 58-59.
journals.lww.com/jopm/abstract/1978/24010/an_unusual_case_of_strangulation_of_penis_by_metal.9.aspx
Winning limerickicist ROBERTA SCHOOLCRAFT writes:
Punekar, Shroff, and Vaze's
'unusual" case? It amazes.
But a 'mundane' example
would be more than ample
to be as gobsmacking as blazes.
This month's take, from our LIMERICK LAUREATE, MARTIN EIGER:
Like this paper, I likewise advise
If you use metal tools, guys, be wise.
Don't mangle, don't strangle
Whatever may dangle
In areas close to your thighs.
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08 MORE IMPROBABLE: Pedagogical Density, Boomerangs, Bananas
Recent improbable research bits you may have missed...
BLOG (improbable.com)
• Pedagogical Density About Pedagogical Density
• Inventor of Chernoff Faces, has died
• Intravenous Jellybean
• Disposition of a Mixed Meal by the Conscious Dog
• Boomerangs, Bananas and Tampon Manuals
• …and more
New Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS) Member: Jacob Wagner
improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/
SUBSTACK: (improbablestuff.substack.com)
MASTODON: @MarcAbrahams@mstdn.science
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/improbableresearch
PATREON: patreon.com/ImprobableResearch
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09 Carrying Capacity of Hengistbury Head
This month's Other Haphazardly-Selected Research Report (OQHSRROTM) of the month is:
"Carrying Capacity in the Tourism Industry: A Case Study of Hengistbury Head," Fernando J. Garrigós Simón, Yeamduan Narangajavana, and Daniel Palacios Marques, Tourism Management, vol. 25, no. 2, 2004, pp. 275-283.
doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(03)00089-X
The authors explain: "Hengistbury Head is a 1.5-km-long peninsula jutting out into the sea from the east coast of Dorset, Great Britain... One of the main problems faced by the Head concerns erosion. This appears, essentially, along its southern side, which is constantly scoured by the wind and waves... the nature of the issue is the conflict between the conservation of the head and the development of Bournemouth, a large town next to Hengistbury Head. The growth of Bournemouth as an important tourist destination has disturbed and destroyed a landscape which has proved to be unusually rich in archaeological finds."
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TREAT YOURSELF TO (MUCH) MORE IMPROBABLE STUFF. SUBSCRIBE TO THE (PDF) MAGAZINE!
improbable.com/magazine-2/
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20 SOME IMPROBABLE EVENTS
- 36th FIRST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY & WEBCAST, Zurich, Switzerland — Sep 3, 2026
- Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Zurich, Switzerland — Sept 4, 2026
- BOST-IG, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — Sep 24, 2026
- Ig Nobel Face-to-Face, Miraikan Museum, Tokyo, Japan — date TBA
- Falling Walls, Berlin, Germany — Nov 6-9, 2026
- Luxembourg — Nov 14, 2026
- 2027 Ig Nobel EuroTour — Spring 2027
For details and additional events, see: improbable.com/upcoming-events/
If your institution would like to host an event,
please get in touch with us at:
MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
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30 — Subscribe to the Actual Magazine! (*)
The Annals of Improbable Research is a 6-issues-per-year magazine,
in PDF form. It's packed with research that makes people laugh, then think.
improbable.com/publications/magazine
SUBSCRIPTIONS ($40 for six issues)
BACK ISSUES ($8 each)
(mini-AIR, the thing you are reading at this moment, is but a tiny, free-floating quasi-appendix to the actual magazine.)
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31 — How to start or stop receiving this newsletter (*)
This newsletter, Mini-AIR, is just a (free!) tiny monthly *supplement* to the big, bold six-times-a-year magazine Annals of Improbable Research.
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to mini-AIR, see the links at the end of this email.
ARCHIVES: improbable.com/publications/newsletter-mini-air/
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32 — CONTACT INFO (*)
Annals of Improbable Research (AIR)
improbable.com
EDITORIAL: MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM
SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS: subscriptions AT improbable.com
Cambridge, MA, USA
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33 — Standard Gobbledegook (*)
EDITOR: Marc Abrahams
CO-CONSPIRATORS: Kees Moeliker, Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Gary Dryfoos, Nan Swift, Stephen Drew
PROOFREADER: Ambient Happenstance
AUTHORITY FIGURES: Nobel Laureates Dudley Herschbach, Sheldon Glashow, Richard Roberts
Key words: improbable research, science humor, Ig Nobel, AIR, the
(c) copyright 2026, Improbable Research
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