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The straight poop: “New study finds square feces may deliver information”

Some of the researchers who investigated the physics of why some wombats have cube-shaped poo [and who subsequently won a prize for having done that] have been pursuing the related question of “why”. The University of Georgia broadcast news of how they are faring: New study finds square feces may deliver information Most people have […]

The Possible Advantages of Square Cigarettes [focus-group report, 1999]

What might be the advantages of “square” cigarettes? In 1999, the US tobacco company R.J Reynolds employed the Opinion and Marketing Research firm Delta Research to investigate. Participants of two “Consumer Idea Generation” (CIG) focus groups from Indianapolis were paid $35 each (plus dinner) to list (amongst other things) possible advantages of “Square” cigarettes. The findings : […]

Embodying a new cross-sectional paradigm for a smokable rod [square cigarettes patent]

“A cigarette typically is employed by a smoker by lighting one end thereof and burning the tobacco rod. The smoker then receives mainstream smoke into his/her mouth by drawing on the opposite end (e.g., the filter end) of the cigarette.” – explains a patent granted to Big Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds. U.S. patent 7,967,018 B2, […]

“Wombat research that’s not to be sniffed at”

“Wombat research that’s not to be sniffed at” is the headline on this Royal Society of Chemistry article about a new research study: The findings – published today in our aptly named journal Soft Matter – could help develop new colon cancer diagnostics. An international team of scientists have been able to replicate how a wombat produces square poo […]

Improbable Research