Peculiar Periodicals
It turns out there are even more unlikely publications than The Journal of Unlikely Science. Every Thursday, our very own Dr Steer turns his attention to another weird science journal.
This week: ICARUS
| Name – It's off to a cracking start with this one. Named after a Greek god with wax wings who flew too close to the Sun, and whose mother made love to a bull. The imagery. |  |
) "click to enlarge"){kind=small} Front cover – Okay, but I've seen more handsome designs and where's the 19th century painting of a scantily clad Greek adonis we were all expecting? |
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| Off-the-wallness – Promises research on the melting point of wax wings, delivers studies on comet impacts and Mars dust. Apparently the American Astronomical Society isn't interested in publishing articles about Greek gods. |  |
| Usefulness – It depends if you're planning on relocating elsewhere in the Solar System. Then you might want to know where you're most likely to be hit by a comet. |  |
| Impressiveness – It uses nice phrases like "chaotic terrains" and "classical transneptunian objects" but we don't know what those words mean. |  |
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| Overall – Nice title, but mostly about rocks and dust. Highly misleading. |  |
Impact factor: Not as big as the comets in it.Find more Peculiar Periodicals
The Null's other regular features:
Monday: Phunny Phobias
Tuesday: Strange Scientific Names
Wednesday: Doctor Doctor
Thursday: Peculiar Periodicals
Friday: End of the Week Timewasters
Image: Nicolas Raymond
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