Annals of Improbable Research
Magazine
The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) is a bimonthly magazine devoted to scientific humor, in the form of a satirical take on the standard academic journal. AIR, published six times a year since 1995, usually showcases at least one piece of scientific research being done on a strange or unexpected topic, but most of their articles concern real or fictional absurd experiments, such as a comparison of apples and oranges using infrared spectroscopy. Other features include such things as ratings of the cafeterias at scientific institutes, fake classifieds and advertisements for a medical plan called HMO-NO, and a very odd letters page. The magazine is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Source
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| Scope | National |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United States of America |
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| Frequency | Bimonthly |
Recent Articles
Search ArticlesLOOKING BACK: Official kudos for then-new Ig Nobel Prize winners
If you’d like some warm nostalgia, look back to the year before the Covid pandemic arrived. Here are some accolades from home institutions of some of the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize winners. Centre for Quantum Technologies [Singapore]: Cockroaches win award for quantum researchers The application of an advanced quantum technology to cockroaches has won an international team of researchers an Ig Nobel Prize. CQT Principal Investigator Rainer Dumke is among the winners announced on 12 September.
From Your Brain, Please, Not Your Bot
If you want to submit an article for possible publication in the magazine, write it using only the brain inside your head. Please do NOT send us anything ‘written’ with or by an AI program. Recently we have been receiving a wave of articles written by or with ChatGPT, Claude, or some other large language model computer program. None of those are much funny. Most seem to be some simple notion set into a framework of words that *look like* articles generally look.
July issue of the newsletter (mini-AIR), with Head Carrying Capacity Stuff
The July 2026 issue of mini-AIR, our teeny tiny free little e-newsletter of overflow detritus that did not fit in the magazine (Annals of Improbable Research), has just gone out. The issue contains (among other stuff) info about research on the carrying capacity of heads. It includes a quick look at the study “Why do Indonesian Ambrosia Beetles Carry Eggs on Their Heads?”, and glimpses of other things wondrous or mundane.
Excremental Joint Lecture in Seoul
“Ig Nobel Laureates Patricia Yang and Park Seung-min Deliver First Joint Public Talk in Korea on Excrement Research” says the headline of a July 23 report by DongA Science. The report goes on to explain: “Dong-A Science marks its 40th anniversary with a July 25 event at Seoul National University featuring Ig Nobel Prize–winning studies on urine, feces, and smart toilets….
Pedagogical Density About Pedagogical Density
Some people worry about pedagogical density. Some of them write about that worry, so that others can read about it. A new addition to all this is the study: “Introducing pedagogical mediation to make theory-dense linguistics research available for classroom intervention,” Eloy Romero Muñoz and Dilin Liu, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, vol. 5, no. 3, 2026, article 100335.
The special PEOPLE issue of the magazine (Improbable Research)
The special PEOPLE issue (volume 32, number 4, July/August 2026) of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research has gone go out to subscribers. Even if you are not a subscriber you can read several of its articles online free, for looks at many aspects of digestion and/or indigestion: People Research Review Unattractive and Attractive People Little People Big People Massive People Looking at People: Spousal Likeness May We Recommend: Who Does the Child Look Like?
Herman Chernoff, who invented Chernoff Faces, has died
Herman Chernoff, who invented Chernoff Faces, has died Chernoff faces are an unusually human way of representing statistical data. Herman Chernoff, who conceived of them, died on July 6, 2026. Read an appreciation of him from the Stanford University department of statistics (where he was for many years on the faculty). We have many times celebrated the wonder and power of Chernoff faces, in the magazine (Annals of Improbable Research, in the Improbable Research podcast, and elsewhere.
Intravenous Jellybean
An unusual kind of eye candy surprised two doctors, who wrote this medical report about it: “Intravenous Jellybean,” Mark J. Koelemay and Evert J. Kooi, European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, epub 2026. The authors, at Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands, report: “A 71 year old man presented with a slowly growing asymptomatic tumour on the medial side of his right forearm….
Dead Duck Day 31 : Royal swan song for the ‘duck man’
An appreciative writeup of the recent Dead Duck Day celebration in Rotterdam, which turned out to be the biggest and most festive of the 31 Dead Duck Day celebrations, appears in the news publication De Stadsruit. Bjorn de Leeuw wrote it. Here is a machine translation from the original Dutch into English: Dead Duck Day 31 : Royal swan song for the ‘duck man’ The garden of the Natural History Museum turned blacker than ever with people on Friday, June 5, for the 31st and final Dead Duck Day.
Host an Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Watch Party
The 2026 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony is almost here, and the best way to enjoy it is with others. If you can’t make it to Zurich (we moved the ceremony to Europe!), the second best way is hosting a Watch Party. The ceremony will be live-streamed on Thursday, 3 September 2026, 7:00 – 8:30 pm Central European Time (CET). Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.