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This article was taken from the April issue of Wired UK magazine. Be the first to read Wired’s articles in print before they’re posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online

Not many grad students see the funny side of science. Meredith Carpenter and Lillian Fritz-Laylin, from the Molecular and Biology Department at UC Berkeley, not only see it but blog it. Their site, ncbirofl.com (National Center for Biotechnology Information, Rolling On the Floor Laughing), is a repository for absurd published scientific papers. Here is their top ten…

Optimising the sensory characteristics and acceptance of canned cat food: use of a human taste panel. (Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition)

Effects of cocaine on honeybee dance behaviour. (Journal of Experimental Biology)

Swearing as a response to pain. (NeuroReport)

Pigeons can discriminate “good” and “bad” paintings by children. (Animal Cognition)

The “booty call”: a compromise between men’s and women’s ideal mating strategies. (The Journal of Sex Research)

Intermittent access to beer promotes binge-like drinking in adolescent but not adult Wistar rats. (Alcohol)

Fellatio by fruit bats prolongs copulation time. (PLoS One)

More information than you ever wanted: does Facebook bring out the green-eyed monster of jealousy? (Cyberpsychology and Behavior)

Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull? (Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine)

The nature of navel fluff. (Medical Hypotheses)

4 By Poe

A Collection of 4 Stories by Edgar Allen Poe

Edited and Designed by Eric Mongeon

read and see more here.

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The Geist Writers and Artists Fund

In honour of Geist’s 20th birthday, the Geist Foundation is launching the Geist Writers and Artists Fund, a fund dedicated to commissioning work from Canadian writers, photographers and artists, both up-and-coming and established.

Over the past three years, thanks to two special grants related to the Olympics, the Geist Foundation has been able to commission work from several B.C. writers, artists and photographers. The long photo essays “Beatrice Street” by Anne Grant (Geist 71), “Memory in Belgrade” by Goran Basaric (Geist 72), “Land’s End” by Christopher Grabowski (Geist 73) and “Memory and the Valley” by David Campion and Sandra Shields (Geist 74), and the Haida graphica piece “RE ME MB ER” by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Geist 70), would not have been possible without this extra funding. These works have made significant contributions to Canadian culture, and they have strengthened the work of the artists and writers who created them.

Read more here.