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

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Insect Sex Organ Switcheroo — New Episode in NHK’s Ig Nobel Prize Winners TV Series

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
“Insect Sex Intersections” is a new episode (the seventh episode) in the series “Laugh Then Think: Japan’s Offbeat Science” broadcast by the Japanese TV network NHK. You can watch it online. The series looks closely and lovingly at some of Japan’s many Ig Nobel Prize winners. The producers summarize the new episode this way: “An investigation of a female insect with a penis-like sex organ earned entomologist Yoshizawa Kazunori an Ig Nobel Prize in 2017.
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Preparing for Bloodshed in Space, With Pigs

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
“Be Prepared!” cries the motto of several organizations. It could also be the motto of everyone connected with this study: “Extraterrestrial regolith is hemostatic and potentially suitable for hemorrhage control in space,” Nabil Ali-Mohamad, Ting-Hsuan Wang, Lih Jiin Juang, Nuoya Peng, Massimo F. Cau, Kevin Cannon, and Christian J. Kastrup, Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis, vol. 10, no. 1, 2026.
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Ig Nobel Show in LEIDEN Thursday, June 11

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
Join us this Thursday afternoon in  Leiden, the Netherlands. The show features Marc Abrahams and these Ig Nobel Prize winners: Mirjam Tuk (Medicine Prize, 2011): decision making with a full and empty bladder Antoine Deblais (Chemistry Prize, 2024): using chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms Ida Sabelis (Medicine Prize, 2000): sex in an MRI scanner – imaging male and female genitals in action Kees Moeliker (Biology Prize, 2003): documenting homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.
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The Duck Guy is Knighted in The Netherlands

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
This year’s Dead Duck Day celebration was spectacular in multiple ways. Maybe most spectacular, after the traditional commemoration of the incident that led to ornithologist Kees Moeliker’s eye-opening and Ig Nobel Prize-winning scientific paper “The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard“, was the arrival of Rotterdam’s deputy mayor bearing a message and a medallion from the Dutch king, bestowing a knighthood upon Kees Moeliker.
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Dead Duck Day celebration — Friday, June 5

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
This Friday, June 5, 2026 will be Dead Duck Day — and it will be the second most spectacular of all the Dead Duck Days. The most spectacular, of course, was the day the two ducks figured in the now-famous collision with, and hookup next to, the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
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An Effect of Deep Shrimp Poop on Climate Change

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
A small, deep example of the old saying that all things are connected: “Krill defecation at depth reduces carbon flux attenuation in the Weddell Sea euphotic zone,” Florence Sarah Atherden, Emily Rowlands, Gareth Flint, Sophie Fielding, Katrin Schmidt, Elaine Fileman, Angus Atkinson, and Clara Manno, prerint egusphere-2026-988, 2026.
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A Tooth, Not an Animal [A Short Long Story in One Abstract]

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
Much confusion arose as to what a thing was. Marc Furió and colleagues did some detective work, then reported what they think they found out: “No place for Pliocene tourists with Ockham’s razor in the pocket: Comment on Crespo et al. [doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2023.03.006] (2023),” Marc Furió, Raef Minwer-Barakat, and Antonio García-Alix, Palaeoworld, vol. 33, no. 6, December 2024, pp. 1727-1734, The authors explain: Crespo et al.
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The Twelve-Gorilla Nettle Experiment

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
Some humans eat nettles. So do some gorillas. This report looks at twelve gorillas and a small portion of their gastronomic experience with nettles: “An experimental study of nettle feeding in captive gorillas,” Claudio Tennie, Daniela Hedwig, Josep Call, and Michael Tomasello, American Journal of Primatology: Official Journal of the American Society of Primatologists, vol. 70, no. 6, 2008, pp. 584-593.
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The special FORCES issue of the magazine (Improbable Research)

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
The special FORCES issue (volume 32, number 3, May/June 2026) of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research has gone go out to subscribers.
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Each Worm to His Taste: A Man and His Nettle

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By Marc Abrahams 
| Annals of Improbable Research
When a person is hungry, what is a too-tempting food? This study, in addition to reporting a medical incident, begins to try to answer that question: “Each Worm to His Taste: Some Prefer to Eat Nettles – A Giant Gastric Phytobezoar,” Mahir Gachabayov, Abakar Abdullaev, Petr Mityushin, and Timur Gilyazov, Clinical Case Reports, vol. 4, no. 7, 2016, article 710. The authors report: “Nettle consumption, as well as persimmon, orange, coconut etc. can lead to phytobezoar formation.
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Annals of Improbable Research Journalists

Abrahams, Marc

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