The Best of Annals of Improbable Research

The Best of Annals of Improbable Research, Marc Abrahams, W.H. Freeman and Company, 2001

The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) is an actual bi-monthly magazine that combines two areas of human endeavor that are not thought to go together: science and humor. This is a collection of articles from AIR, written like actual scientific papers, some of which were published in real scientific journals.

The book (and magazine) cover all areas of science, from astronomy, to biology, chemistry, math and medicine. The titles include: The Aerodynamics of Potato Chips, Apples and Oranges: A Comparison, The Politically Correct Periodic Table, How Dead Is a Doornail?, The Medical Effects of Kissing Boo-Boos, The Ability of Woodchucks to Chuck Cellulose Fibers, How To Write a Scientific Paper, and the classic piece of scientific experimentation, The Taxonomy of Barney.

The author also looks at the IgNobel Prize ceremony held every fall at Harvard University (the author is also the Master of Ceremonies). Prizes are presented by real Nobel Prize winners, in various categories. A few past honorees include: a dentist from Minnesota for his study Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss, the authors of the painstakingly researched study Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis, and a man from South Carolina for calculating the exact odds, over 8.6 trillion to 1, that Mikhail Gorbachev is the Antichrist. Of course, who can forget IgNobel honoree Dan Quayle, for demonstrating the need for science education?

This book is hilarious. Some are going to say that science and humor don't belong in the same sentence, let alone the same book. Nonsense. It shows that scientists can laugh at themselves, and if it gets even one young person interested in science, this book will have been a success. It is highly recommended.