The WEIRDEST University Research (PHOTOS)

Invisibility cloaks? Cheating gorillas? The price of a pair of breasts? Find out which strange topics college researchers are digging into around the world -- and what their findings mean.

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Cheating Gorillas

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Gorillas don't believe in fair play. According to Dr. Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth, gorillas will cheat when engaged in games.

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Gorillas don't believe in fair play. According to Dr. Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth, gorillas will cheat when engaged in games.

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Comments

[jwwrox]

11:39 AM on 07/27/2010

HP needs to brighten up a little bit, none of these were "weird"... that was just an attention-getter. Instead of weird they should put "interesting", and take out a few that weren't really interesting at all.

[me again]

08:38 AM on 07/24/2010

I want some of that Cornell professor's grant money so I can do an emperical study to prove he's right.

[dualactionblend]

01:46 PM on 07/22/2010

Why can't there be an option to rate the research photos as pointless? The Hooters one is definitely that.

[HeresHoping]

07:00 PM on 07/20/2010

Pathetically ignorant science reporting -- SO par for the course here. Atrazine is a CHEMICAL component of herbicides that disrupts HORMONES; this phenomenon is NOT "genetically modifying" gender, not even close. And it isn't "weird", it's terrifying, because atrazine is a major groundwater contaminant and livestock, wildlife, and humans are responsive to it. The point of the study wasn't "oh let's mess with some frogs", it was to document a public health danger. It isn't "goofy" or "funny" to think of males being poisoned out of male-hood by herbicide residue. At least I don't think so. This kind of science "journalism" is part of what's killing our country's ability to think and act rationally about the environment, health, etc. SHAME ON HUFF PO.

[leftpinkie]

04:20 PM on 07/20/2010

Among other things, responsible reporting requires context. Decontextualize stories such as these make for great jokes but fail to enlighten readers. Granted some research questions seem obscure, and some research projects are jokes but could we get more context?

[rjmtx]

12:58 AM on 07/16/2010

I study fish, basically where they are and why, in streams. The most common question I get is, "Why do you get paid to do this?" and the most common comment I get is, "That's not work, you just fish for a living." My dad doesn't think it's a hobby anymore after taking him out for about a quarter of a normal work day in the field and running him into the ground, and I usually start my answer to why I get paid for this by asking the questioner if they ever drink water. I can give strong reasons for why all day from there...

The stuff above is all useful; the most basic reason is that it never hurts to know more. All of the studies above seems relevant to somebody somewhere. Maybe I'm biased, but the salmon and the frog problems are extremely important, and those are the types of findings that can help save a system, and ultimately us. I've found intersex fish in the wild, and it's not something to shrug off, especially when kids play in the same stream.

[billbb]

01:31 AM on 07/20/2010

Science has always been this way, and pure research has always been open to wild criticism, particularly from the unscientific right. In your case, it is critical to understand what fish do and what environment they need, since there is no way we could ever restore an enviroment we do not understand, at least on a basic level. The low-level estrogen problems you allude to are definately in that category.

A recent study comes to mind in this, one funded to study the interactions between truck drivers and prostitutes in India. The right went wild on this, as they do over anything involving human sexuality. In reality, this was an important study that showed truck drivers there as a major vector for spreading AIDS beyond the sex industry and gay populations into heterosexual communities.

It is really easy to make fun of a study of prostitutes until you realize the social costs. You have to have some understanding of a problem to know ho to fix it.

[BannedInBoston]

11:05 PM on 07/15/2010

You have to wonder if the guy who did the breast-size/tip correlation research had a government grant for it....

[aaaa1]

12:52 PM on 07/19/2010

No it was not funded. You can look that up. Most research is unfunded. This one is not funded. So who cares?

[bklynsparrow]

03:30 PM on 07/15/2010

I think some scientist is probably making a study of the correlation of inaccurate HP headlines and the number of posts those threads get. They will then pass that info on to HP who will pass it on to some gy who will write more bad headlines that are not accurate.

[SickHippie]

06:15 AM on 07/16/2010

They already have that - it's called Google Analytics.

[Clare53]

05:33 PM on 07/19/2010

Ahahaha, right!

[Lefty Pockets]

01:00 PM on 07/15/2010

There are a number of scientists working on "invisibility cloaks", not just this one scientist. But the near term applications aren't close to Harry Potter level stuff. We're talking about more mundane applications in communications technology involving microwave and infrared frequencies that would be useful for the military and eventually civilians. The long term outlook is definitely promising though.

[Havana Thinks]

03:48 AM on 07/16/2010

Oh yes, men who stare @ goats.....

[okchamali]

12:41 PM on 07/15/2010

One state legislator thinks research is a professor's hobby. There are just too many ironies in that one.

[SickHippie]

06:15 AM on 07/16/2010

We should apply for a grant so we can study those ironies further. You in?

[okchamali]

12:07 PM on 07/16/2010

Absolutely! There's so much ground to plow: "public" institutions and state budgets; "public" institutions and corporate structures; regents boards and administration relations. I could go on.

[chris stl]

12:29 PM on 07/15/2010

No scientific work is useless .... some could be weird, but we still learn from them.

[CRHsports]

01:14 PM on 07/15/2010

very true....the more obscure research allows for obvious observations that otherwise are normally overlooked....

[Christopher Sachs]

12:24 PM on 07/15/2010

Sound protecting fabric, meet flatulence.

[boomer7391]

07:33 AM on 07/16/2010

and you only have 4 fans? oh let me be number 5!

[JPMP]

12:05 PM on 07/15/2010

That's beyond weird, it's essentially a crime against nature -- you the system that literally made our lives and keeps them possible.

[jwwrox]

11:37 AM on 07/27/2010

What's beyond weird?

[isis]

12:00 PM on 07/15/2010

One time a professor I knew got a Golden Fleece award and made fun of for studying ants but later his work gave rise to the natural plant based insecticides that are found in many insect repellents.

[Peets101]

11:34 AM on 07/15/2010

This article is an example of how ignorant Americans are about science and how everything created by man evolved from "useless" or "strange", seemingly without purpose, curiosity about anything and everything. It's very doubtful that Franklin envisioned me, typing on my pc, when he began investigating electricity.

[boomer7391]

08:13 AM on 07/16/2010

uh...yeah...right.....that's because we don't have the fine institutions that you would find in oh, kenya or canada....didn't you know the space program started in mexico and the world beats on the doors of uganda's institutions just trying to get a seat at their universities and OH don't forget the folks from khyrgistan who brought us personal computers or those fine folks in india who brought us the modern call center...oh well forget that one....DUDE OR WHATEVER

[Peets101]

12:55 PM on 07/18/2010

You are doing two things which are examples of what I claim because you lack the curiosity to investigate the facts. You are confusing the accomplishments of a few leading schools and scientists with the average science skill level in America, and you are "resting on your laurels" because American students are performing worse than they have historically while other nations are improving. The fact is that the US ranks about 24th in the world (see link below). For instance, we are being outpaced by China and India - Yes by the "call center folks".

Your ignorance and your attitude that America is the best, no matter what the facts indicate, ensures that we will continue to do poorly. As an engineer, licensed since 1975, and as owner of a business which hires technicians, I can assure you, first hand, that, on average, the current crop of high school students can not read, write or calculate as well as students from other developed countries. It's simply a fact.

Now go back to sleep.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120400730.html