![\"New](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/26122052\/SEI_197467421.jpg?width=1200\")
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nBerate the refs<\/h2>\n
There is new evidence that it can pay to scream at referees in sports stadiums. That evidence appears in the study \u201cVerbal aggressions against Major League Baseball umpires affect their decision making\u201d, by Jo\u00ebl Gu\u00e9rette, Caroline Blais and Daniel Fiset at the University of Quebec in Outaouais, Canada. They published it in the journal Psychological Science<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Gu\u00e9rette, Blais and Fiset probed data from 10 years of major league professional baseball games. These games, they stress, unfold in \u201can ecological environment where excessive criticism is rampant\u201d.<\/p>\n
They detected what they call \u201ca two-sided benefit of resorting to verbal abuse\u201d. After being severely criticised, \u201chome-plate umpires were less likely to call strikes to batters from the complaining team and more prone to call strikes to batters on the opposing team\u201d.<\/p>\n
B. McGraw (first name unspecified) brought this to Feedback\u2019s attention, impressed by the deployment of disciplined academic speak when the authors say: \u201cOur findings support the hypothesis that, under certain conditions, verbal aggression may offer an advantage to complainants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Your ice cream nozzle<\/h2>\n
Questions arise when things start growing on your nozzle \u2013 questions that grow less pressing if you diligently clean the nozzle after you use it to dispense a serving of ice cream. Because if you don\u2019t clean a food machine\u2019s nozzle and other parts, things get a healthy (from the things\u2019 point of view) chance to grow on them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Psychrotrophs are bacteria that can grow at low temperatures \u2013 temperatures that might be found, say, inside refrigerators or freezers.<\/p>\n A study called \u201cPsychrotrophic bacteria equipped with virulence and colonization traits populate the ice cream manufacturing environment<\/a>\u201d brings up the necessity of nozzle-tending. The discussion aims to forestall horror stories. The authors, at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, say: \u201cWe provide evidence of the existence of complex microbial communities overcoming sanitation in an ice cream-producing facility.\u201d Harken, therefore, ice creamer. Tend your nozzle.<\/p>\n Unexpected, vaguely related questions can arise when you consider what shape of nozzle to use for, say, 3D printing chocolate. A study in Frontiers in Psychology<\/i> looks at one question that is surprisingly subtle and complex: how much chocolate is too much chocolate when it comes to matters of taste? The study is called \u201cThe influence of bouba- and kiki-like shape on perceived taste of chocolate pieces<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n \u201cBouba\u201d and \u201ckiki\u201d are concocted words that, some psychological experiments suggest, somehow evoke notions of shape. To many, \u201cbouba\u201d seems curvy and \u201ckiki\u201d seems spiky<\/a>. The researchers found evidence that bouba can taste subtly sweeter than kiki, but to measure that distinction, they had to restrict the amount of chocolate in a bite.<\/p>\n They write: \u201cPrior studies found no differences in participants\u2019 reports of taste differences following actual consumption of round and angular chocolate pieces. We assumed that the amount of chocolate eaten in this prior study was too large, which caused the actual taste to dominate any effect of perceived shape on taste.\u201d<\/p>\n They engineered a solution: \u201cWe designed a ring-shaped stimulus that was not filled with chocolate at its center to avoid the need to consume excessive chocolate taste\/flavor, while maintaining perceived differences in shape.\u201d<\/p>\n Using sweeter-tasting shapes to reduce chocolate consumption, they say, would benefit even non-chocolate-eaters by reducing the production of chocolate and thus of greenhouse gases. By implication, bouba\/kiki-aware chocolate-dispenser nozzle selection can be a not-just-symbolic weapon in the struggle against global warming.<\/p>\n Bevel your nozzles, if you insist on equipping your jet aircraft with turbofan engines \u2013 and if quiet is what you seek. Bevel them. That\u2019s the word from Julien Christophe, Julien de Decker and Christophe Schram at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium. Writing in Flow, Turbulence and Combustion<\/i>, they explain why: \u201cBeveled nozzles achieve a noise reduction for all radiation angles with a maximum decrease up to 2 dB at receiver locations perpendicular to the plate.\u201d For tranquility\u2019s sake, bevel.<\/p>\n If there is a competition for most jargon-dense research writing about sketchy financial undertakings, maybe put your cryptocurrency on a study called \u201cEmoji driven crypto assets market reactions<\/a>\u201c, by Xiaorui Zuo, Yao-Tsung Chen and Wolfgang Karl H\u00e4rdle.<\/p>\n The word \u201cpith\u201d is sometimes defined as \u201cthe spongy white tissue lining the rind of oranges and other citrus fruits\u201d. This study includes a pithy description of itself: \u201cWe leverage GPT-4 and a fine-tuned transformer-based BERT model for a multimodal sentiment analysis, focusing on the impact of emoji sentiment on cryptocurrency markets.\u201d The paper doesn\u2019t say what \u201cBERT\u201d is. The paper does say: \u201cSimilar sentiment analysis techniques could be applied to broader financial markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Marc Abrahams created the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and\u00a0co-founded\u00a0the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Earlier, he worked on unusual ways to use computers. His website is\u00a0<\/em>improbable.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Got a story for Feedback?<\/b>Your chocolate nozzle<\/h2>\n
Your bevelled nozzle<\/h2>\n
Crypto-emojis<\/h2>\n
You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com<\/a>. Please include your home address. This week\u2019s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n