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Feedback: A quacking idea to use ducks as research assistants

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

1 November 2017

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

diving cartoon

Paul McDevitt

A quacking idea

LONG-TIME readers will recall the continuing adventures of Phillip Clapham’s dog, a canine researcher with an enviable publication record (15 June 2013). After becoming fed up with invitations to speak at dubious pay-to-attend conferences of no relevance to his work, Phillip began returning applications in his terrier’s name, on topics such as the potential to power city grids with giant hamsters running in wheels.

Credited as Alice N. Wünderlandt, (a graduate of Lutenblag State University with a dissertation entitled “Locomotor energetics of Sciurus carolinensis in flight: strategies for pursuit”), his dog’s most recent effort…

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