An Improbable FPP

January 13, 2008 8:31 PM

The Annals of Improbable Research magazine is available in two free online formats. Tagline: Research the makes people LAUGH and then THINK. Visit some of the site's classics or simply check out the newest members in the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Hours and hours of brain stimulating fun.
posted by spock (8 comments total)

When I was a kid my mother subscribed to the Journal of Irreproducible Results (not much in the link). Same kind of thing.

Also, reminds me of my favorite scientific article, "Why Cats Have Nine Lives" by Jared Diamond, originally published in Nature, April 1988, in a slightly longer version (with charts!).
posted by johngumbo at 8:47 PM on January 13, 2008

It's worth mentioning that AIR is the sponsor of the IgNobel Prize, which has been on the blue at least once before.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 8:47 PM on January 13, 2008

I have a great affection for their Postal Experiments.
posted by dansdata at 8:59 PM on January 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I've always loved this article, which pokes fun at publications in particle physics. I rediscovered it a year or two ago when the Wikipedia article on peanut butter linked to it (which, sadly, it no longer does).
posted by neuron at 9:12 PM on January 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

Journal of Irreproducible Results was the direct ancestor of AIR. Or rather, it was the much earlier-founded one, and AIR was founded when a bunch of JIR staffers left the magazine due to a publishing change in the early 1990s. (But hey, now there are two such magazines, and we all win)
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:43 PM on January 13, 2008

air awards the ig nobel prizes, my favorite of which went to the author of a paper that concluded that it is easier to drag a sheep downhill than it is to drag one uphill. isaac newton rests easy.
posted by bruce at 11:09 PM on January 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I discovered JIR in the 1970s when I worked at an academic library; I have enjoyed it and its successor off and on ever since. Thanks for the post.
posted by TedW at 5:42 AM on January 14, 2008

The account of the first woman to have sex in an MRI is fascinating-- especially because of the strange translation from the Dutch.

I find the mix of real science and joke science appealing.

My Dad had the Journal of Irreproducible Results as well; it seems to have inspired a lot of scientists and science journalists.
posted by Maias at 3:44 PM on January 14, 2008