Folks who have weekly subjected themselves to the ramblings of a mad man may remember one of my favorite times of the year is September. September is when the pointy-headed brainiacs out east (way out east in Cambridge, MA) get together and present the Ig Nobel Prizes.
Sorta like the Nobel Peace Prize, but not, the Ig Nobels honor achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think. The awards were doled out at Harvard University. The event was produced by the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), and cosponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.
So, without further eloquence, here are some of this year’s winners (?).
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I’m gonna? start with the localish connection.
Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin, won the Medicine Prize for treating ‘uncontrollable? nosebleeds, using the method of nasal-packing-with-strips-of-cured-pork.
Who wouldn’t laugh at a nose packed with bacon? Who woulda thunk to do it in the first place?
How is this local? They all work Detroit Medical Center! Humphreys also has contact information at Michigan State University. I guess Moo U, is turning to the other white meat, pork. Oink.
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The entire country of Italy was honored for their economic plan, ? . . .for proudly taking the lead in fulfilling the European Union mandate for each country to increase the official size of its national economy by including revenues from prostitution, illegal drug sales, smuggling, and all other unlawful financial transactions between willing participants.?
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Norway’s Eigil Reimers and Sindre Eftest’were ‘honored? for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears.
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The Psychology Prize was awarded to Peter Jonason, Amy Jones, and Minna Lyons, for amassing evidence that people who habitually stay up late are, on average, more self-admiring, more manipulative, and more psychopathic than people who habitually arise early in the morning. (That’s good to know.)
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In Japan they study lots of stuff and Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai were awarded for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that’s on the floor. For destroying the fun of this slapstick gag, hey got the Ig Nobel for Physics.
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The Neuroscience Award went to Jiangang Liu, Jun Li, Lu Feng, Ling Li, Jie Tian, and Kang Lee for trying to understand what happens in the brains of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast. Quick answer: Think comics, think thought bubble above the Jesus Toast viewer. Inside the thought bubble see, $$$$$.
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Cat people will not like this but . . . went to scientists from the Czech Republic, Japan, USA and Inda for investigating whether it is mentally hazardous for a human being to own a cat.
Quotes from the study: ‘Changes in personality profile of young women with latent toxoplasmosis.?
‘Decreased level of psychobiological factor novelty seeking and lower intelligence in men latently infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii Dopamine, a missing link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis?? and,
‘Describing the Relationship between Cat Bites and Human Depression Using Data from an Electronic Health Record.?
They got the Public Health Award.
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I am running out of space, but other awards were given to the studiers who carefully documented when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth’s north-south geomagnetic field lines; or measuring the relative pain people suffer while looking at an ugly painting, rather than a pretty painting, while being shot [in the hand] by a powerful laser beam.
Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies (and editor of the ‘Annals of Improbable Research?), closed the ceremony with the traditional, ‘If you didn’t win an Ig Nobel Prize tonight ? and especially if you did ? better luck next year.?
The awards ceremony is recorded and can be seen on your computer (google it).