Dead cockroaches make excellent magnets – now what are we supposed to do with this info? Fun Fact: Dead cockroaches stay magnetized far longer than their live brethren, according to real actual science. In a bizarre experiment, a team of international physicists gassed a group of roaches to death with nitrogen before rinsing them in an ultrasonic bath. The luckier ones were kept alive and fed an unlimited diet of …
Definitely meets the essential criteria.
"The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. Every year, in a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1200 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel laureates."
http://www.improbable.com/ig/
In one of those strange pub conversations I tend to get dragged into, we all agreed that three things would survive a nuclear apocalypse:
* Cockroaches
* BBC Micros
* Those big cans of industrial-grade sweet-and-sour sauce you find in takeaways
We then tried to imagine what a post-nuclear winter would look like... A giant cockroach playing Chuckie Egg while another giant cockroach pedals an exercise bike to power the Beeb, with the rest of the tribe swigging from sweet-and-sour cans and egging Player 1 onto a new high score.
We decided that the cockroaches probably wouldn't play Elite because (a) the whole Thargoid thing and (b) the poor bastard on the bike would be there for a while - "Keep pedalling, I haven't got a Docking Computer yet !"
I just hope that there is a dissertation published as part of someone's post doctorate. I just want to know that somewhere out there some university big wig in a ridiculous robe has to read out the abstract.
"A comparative study into the rate of decay of multi kilogauss strength magnetic fields at low temperatures between alive and deceased cockroaches."
To be honest, the robes are weirder.
Don't forget the one about the drugged-up dolphins earlier in the week !
So I see the title of this article and think that it's one of the weirder topics, I read it and then just as I finish reading it, a freakin' boxer bug crawls right between my hands on the keyboard - just now. It scared the living daylights out of me.. (And before anyone asks, no this is not a normal occurance - I don't see bugs in my flat very often).
Not about roaches, but ants suddenly becoming intelligent. By the King of Title Sequences, Saul Bass.
Something serious comes of a silly story for a change -
take two grapes and a cocktail stick (toothpick for the English impaired) and make a dumbbell. Suspend the dumbbell from its center with a fine thread so it's balanced and there are no twists in the thread. Now put a neodymium magnet near one 'weight' and see what happens. Then try marshmallows, satsumas, dried fruit, blu-tak, play-dough and anything else that's not "magnetic" you can find ... Hours of fun for the kids or anyone geeky in the physics department ...
Safety Warning:- you need a mighty big and potentially dangerous magnet to do this with watermelons but it's fun!
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