Author Topic: The Ig Nobel Prizes (Read 5345 times)

islander · « **on:** September 17, 2013, 01:59:44 PM »

The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research.

The stated aim of the prizes is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The awards are sometimes veiled criticism (or gentle satire).

-wikipedia

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islander · « **Reply #1 on:** September 17, 2013, 02:00:08 PM »

Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater, and they are followed by a set of public lectures by the winners at MIT.

The name is a play on the words ignoble ("characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness") and the Nobel Prize. The pronunciation used during the ceremony is /ËŒÉªÉ¡noÊŠËˆbÉ›l/ IG-noh-BEL, not like the word "ignoble".

-wikipedia

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islander · « **Reply #2 on:** September 17, 2013, 02:01:40 PM »

A live frog is magnetically levitated, an experiment that earned Andre Geim from the University of Nijmegen and Sir Michael Berry from University of Bristol the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in physics. Geim went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 for his work on graphene.

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islander · « **Reply #3 on:** September 17, 2013, 02:27:05 PM »

2013 Ig Nobel Winners

The weird and wonderful experiments that won this year's Ig Nobel Prizes

The IG Nobel Awards celebrate the weirdest and funniest scientific discoveries

Researchers who found being drunk makes people think they are more attractive won the psychology prize

Probability prize went to a study that predicted the behaviour of cows

Awards were handed out by Nobel laureates at an annual ceremony

By Victoria Woollaston
13 September 2013

An experiment that proved people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive and another that showed lost dung beetles can use the Milky Way to find their way home were among the winners at this year's Ig Nobel Awards.

The ceremony was the 23rd annual event for awards that celebrate the weirdest and funniest scientific discoveries in fields including psychology, biology and physics.

The winners come from all over the world and Nobel laureates handed out the prizes during a ceremony at Harvard University on Thursday, sponsored by science magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

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islander · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2013, 02:29:51 PM »

The IG Nobel Prize for psychology went to an experiment that found people who are drunk also think they are attractive. Researchers from Ohio found that the higher a person's blood alcohol level, the higher their attractiveness rating. They also found this was the case when people drank alcohol-free placebos

Editor Marc Abrahams said the point is to make people laugh and then think.

'The combination of science that is funny on its own - not because someone is making a joke, but it is funny - that's an unusual notion in the United States,' he said. 'It is becoming more acceptable again.'

For the first time, the winners received cash prizes - $10 trillion, but in Zimbabwe dollars, which means they'll receive around four U.S. dollars each.

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islander · « **Reply #5 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:20:21 PM »

The inventor of the trillion dollar note, Gideon Gono, won the Ig Nobel Award in 2008.

Every year, organisers try to make the awards ceremonies more 'silly' than the last and this year's ceremony included a mini-opera and a contest to win a date with a Nobel laureate.

The winners are due to give short speeches during another event this weekend at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The psychology prize went to the experiment that found people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive.

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islander · « **Reply #6 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:21:06 PM »

This research was carried out by Laurent Begue, Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra and Medhi Ourabah of France and Brad Bushman, a professor at Ohio State University who also teaches in the Netherlands.

To test their theory, people in a bar were to rate how 'funny, original and attractive' they thought they were.The results found that the higher their blood alcohol level, the higher their attractiveness rating.

Researchers also noticed the same thing happened when people had been given an alcohol-free placebo but were told they had been drinking.

A separate group of people were also asked to rate how attractive they thought each of the participants were, but the ratings varied wildly compared to how attractive the individuals thought they were.

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islander · « **Reply #7 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:34:43 PM »

Dung beetles travel in straight lines by taking cues from the sun, during the day, and the moon at night. Yet the winners of the Ig Nobel biology and astronomy award found that the beetles also use light from stars on nights when the moon isn't visible

The dung beetle experiment won the joint prize in biology and astronomy, given to Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke Scholtz and Eric Warrant, who work in Sweden, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Germany.

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islander · « **Reply #8 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:37:16 PM »

Dung beetles travel in straight lines by taking cues from light released by the sun, during the day, and the moon at night.

They do this to make sure they can push any dung piles to safety quickly, using the most direct course, to avoid going over old ground and running into predators or rival beetles.

Yet the insects' ability to stay on course overnight when the moon wasn't visible led the researchers to discover the beetles can also use the location and light from stars in the Milky Way as a guide.

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islander · « **Reply #9 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:39:52 PM »

Masanori Niimi, from Teikyo University in Tokyo, won the medicine prize for his work into mice with heart transplants.

He discovered that a mice with a heart transplant will survive longer if they listen to particular music.

For example, a control group of mice survived an average of seven days after a transplant, although those that listened to Verdi's opera La Traviata survived for an average of 27 days.

Opera Singer Penelope Randall-Davis as Violetta in La Traviata. Researchers discovered that mice with heart transplants lived longer after listening to Verdi's opera

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islander · « **Reply #10 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:42:41 PM »

Another animal study involved predicting the probability of when a cow is likely to stand up or sit down.

Bert Tolkamp and his team from research centres in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada discovered that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up. Yet once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again. They won the probability award

Bert Tolkamp and his team from research centres in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada discovered that that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up.

Yet once a cow stands up, it is now easy to predict how soon that cow will lie down again.

Although Tolkamp's study was branded 'silly' by the judges, it also has a serious side because the research can be used to determine health problems in the animals.

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islander · « **Reply #11 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:44:15 PM »

Gusto Pizzo's patent won the engineering prize for his 'anti-hijacking device' which involved an electro-mechanical system that could trap an airplane hijacker by dropping him or her through a trap door.

He or she would then be sealed into a package before being dropped from the plane, attached to a parachute, to the ground where police will be waiting.

The patent read: 'A partition or barrier located immediately aft of the pilots cabin is adapted to be raised dividing the aft section longitudinally into port and starboard areas, the floors of which are dropped on command to lower the hijacker into a capsule in the belly of the plane.

'The capsule is releasable through opened bomb bay doors having attached thereto a parachute for safely returning the hijacker within the capsule to earth.'

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islander · « **Reply #12 on:** September 17, 2013, 03:45:48 PM »

Other winners included Brian Crandall of the U.S. and Peter Stahl of Canada, who parboiled a dead shrew, then swallowed it without chewing so they could examine their excrement to see which bones would dissolve in the human digestive system and which wouldn't.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

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islander · « **Reply #13 on:** September 17, 2013, 07:53:02 PM »

THE 2013 IG NOBEL AWARD WINNERS

Psychology: An experiment that found people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive.

REFERENCE: â€œâ€˜Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beer Holderâ€™: People Who Think They Are Drunk Also Think They Are Attractiveâ€

Winners: Laurent BÃ¨gue, Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra, Medhi Ourabah and Brad Bushman.

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islander · « **Reply #14 on:** September 17, 2013, 07:57:38 PM »

Joint prize in biology and astronomy: An experiment that showed lost dung beetles can use the Milky Way to find their way home.

REFERENCE: â€œDung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Orientation,â€ Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke H. Scholtz, Eric J. Warrant, Current Biology, epub January 24, 2013. The authors, at Lund University, Sweden, the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the University of Pretoria

Winners: Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke Scholtz and Eric Warrant.

(AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

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islander · « **Reply #15 on:** September 17, 2013, 08:02:21 PM »

Medicine: A study assessing the effect of listening to opera on heart transplant patients who are mice.

REFERENCE: â€œAuditory stimulation of opera music induced prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival and maintained generation of regulatory CD4+CD25+ cells,â€ Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito Hirai, Atsushi Amano, Hisashi Bashuda and Masanori Niimi, Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, vol. 7, no. 26, epub. March 23, 2012.

Winners: Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito Hirai, Atsushi Amano, Hisashi Bashuda and Masanori Niimi.

Masanori Niimi (L), of Japan, is joined by colleague Xiangyuan Jin (R), dressed as a mouse, as they accept the 2013 Medicine Prize during the 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge. (Reuters Photo)

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islander · « **Reply #16 on:** September 17, 2013, 08:10:35 PM »

Safety engineering: An electro-mechanical system to trap an airplane hijacker by dropping him or her through a trap door, sealing him or her into a package and then dropping the packaged hijacker (with a parachute) to the ground where police will be waiting.

US Patent #3811643, Gustano A. Pizzo, â€œanti hijacking system for aircraftâ€, May 21, 1972.

Winner: Gustano Pizzo

(Credit: USPTO)
Gustano A. Pizzo's Anti-hijacking System for Aircraft

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islander · « **Reply #17 on:** September 17, 2013, 08:17:08 PM »

Physics: The discovery that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond - if both they and the pond were on the moon.

REFERENCE: â€œHumans Running in Place on Water at Simulated Reduced Gravity,â€ Alberto E. Minetti, Yuri P. Ivanenko, Germana Cappellini, Nadia Dominici, Francesco Lacquaniti, PLoS ONE, vol. 7, no. 7, 2012, e37300.

Winners: Alberto Minetti, Yuri Ivanenko, Germana Cappellini, Nadia Dominici, and Francesco Lacquaniti.

(Credit: PloS One)
Alberto Minetti and colleagues tried to emulate how lizards can walk on water, concluding that humans can too in low gravity.

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islander · « **Reply #18 on:** September 17, 2013, 09:25:37 PM »

Chemistry: The discovery that the biochemical process by which onions make people cry is even more complicated than scientists previously realised.

REFERENCE: â€œPlant Biochemistry: An Onion Enzyme that Makes the Eyes Water,â€ S. Imai, N. Tsuge, M. Tomotake, Y. Nagatome, H. Sawada, T. Nagata and H. Kumagai, Nature, vol. 419, no. 6908, October 2002, p. 685.

Winners: Shinsuke Imai, Nobuaki Tsuge, Muneaki Tomotake, Yoshiaki Nagatome, Toshiyuki Nagata and Hidehiko Kumgai.

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islander · « **Reply #19 on:** September 17, 2013, 09:39:04 PM »

Archaeology: Two researchers who parboiled a dead shrew, then swallowed it without chewing so they could examine their excrement to see which bones would dissolve in the human digestive system and which would not.

REFERENCE: â€œHuman Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton,â€ Peter W. Stahl and Brian D. Crandall, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 22, November 1995, pp. 789â€“97.

Winners: Brian Crandall and Peter Stahl.

Photo: Winslow Townson/AP
Brian Crandall is introduced as the winner of the Archaeology Prize during the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at Harvard University.

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islander · « **Reply #20 on:** September 17, 2013, 09:50:35 PM »

Probability: Researchers who discovered that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up, but that once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again.

REFERENCE: â€œAre Cows More Likely to Lie Down the Longer They Stand?â€ Bert J. Tolkamp, Marie J. Haskell, Fritha M. Langford, David J. Roberts, Colin A. Morgan, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol. 124, nos. 1-2, 2010, pp. 1â€“10.

Winners: Bert Tolkamp, Marie Haskell, Fritha Langford, David Roberts and Colin Morgan.

ready, up, down, up, down...

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islander · « **Reply #21 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:02:30 PM »

Public health: For medical techniques described in their report, 'Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam.' They recommend the techniques, except in cases where an amputated penis had been partially eaten by a duck.

REFERENCE: â€œSurgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam,â€ by Kasian Bhanganada, Tu Chayavatana, Chumporn Pongnumkul, Anunt Tonmukayakul, Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, Krit Komaratal, and Henry Wilde, American Journal of Surgery, 1983, no. 146, pp. 376-382.

Winners: Kasian Bhanganada, Tu Chayavatana, Chumporn Pongnumkul, Anunt Tonmukayakul, Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, Krit Komaratal, and Henry Wilde.

as for their diet, please ask mother duck

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islander · « **Reply #22 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:15:43 PM »

Ig Nobel Peace Prize: Belarus and its president, for making it illegal to applaud in public, and to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.

(Ig Nobel Peace prizewinners usually do not attend the awarding.)

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko
i said do not clap your hands and coo and coo...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ and other online sources

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islander · « **Reply #23 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:22:13 PM »

2013 Ig Nobel Prize Trophy

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islander · « **Reply #24 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:33:03 PM »

"The Stinker" is the official mascot of the Ig Nobel

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islander · « **Reply #25 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:54:39 PM »

Ceremony

The prizes are presented by genuine Nobel laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT but now in Sanders Theater at Harvard University.

Nobel Laureates, from left, Eric Maskin, Economics, 2007; Dudley Herschbach, Chemistry, 1986; Roy Glauber, Physics, 2005; and Frank Wilczek, Physics, 2004; look on during the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge (AP Photo)

It contains a number of running jokes, including Miss Sweetie Poo, a little girl who repeatedly cries out, "Please stop: I'm bored," in a high-pitched voice if speakers go on too long.

Muneaki Tomotake (L), of Japan, presents gifts to Miss Sweetie Poo, played by Sharanda Sundaram-Senders, as Tomotake and his colleagues accepted the 2013 chemistry prize during the 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 12, 2013. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If you didn't win a prize â€” and especially if you did â€” better luck next year!"

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islander · « **Reply #26 on:** September 17, 2013, 10:59:07 PM »

The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.

Throwing paper airplanes onto the stage is a long-standing tradition at the Ig Nobels.

Chemist Dudley Herschbach, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, throws a paper airplane during the 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 12, 2013. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

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islander · « **Reply #27 on:** September 17, 2013, 11:07:40 PM »

In past years, physics professor Roy Glauber swept the stage clean of the airplanes as the official "Keeper of the Broom" for years. Glauber could not attend the 2005 awards â€“ he was traveling to Stockholm to claim a genuine Nobel Prize in Physics.

Nobel laureate for Physics Professor Roy Glauber, the official "Keeper of the Broom" of the Ig Nobel

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islander · « **Reply #28 on:** September 17, 2013, 11:08:46 PM »

The "Parade of Ignitaries" brings various supporting groups into the hall. At the 1997 ceremonies, a team of "cryogenic sex researchers" distributed a pamphlet titled "Safe Sex at Four Kelvin". Delegates from the Museum of Bad Art are often on hand to display some pieces from their collection, showing that bad art and bad science go hand in hand.

/wikipedia

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islander · « **Reply #29 on:** October 08, 2015, 06:54:59 PM »

The 2015 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

The 2015 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday night, September 17th, 2015 at the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. The ceremony was webcast.

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islander · « **Reply #30 on:** October 08, 2015, 07:19:57 PM »

CHEMISTRY PRIZE

Callum Ormonde and Colin Raston [AUSTRALIA], and Tom Yuan, Stephan Kudlacek, Sameeran Kunche, Joshua N. Smith, William A. Brown, Kaitlin Pugliese, Tivoli Olsen, Mariam Iftikhar, Gregory Weiss [USA], for inventing a chemical recipe to partially un-boil an egg.

REFERENCE: "Shear-Stress-Mediated Refolding of Proteins from Aggregates and Inclusion Bodies," Tom Z. Yuan, Callum F. G. Ormonde, Stephan T. Kudlacek, Sameeran Kunche, Joshua N. Smith, William A. Brown, Kaitlin M. Pugliese, Tivoli J. Olsen, Mariam Iftikhar, Colin L. Raston, Gregory A. Weiss, ChemBioChem, epub January 2015.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Callum Ormonde, Tivoli Olsen, Colin Raston, Greg Weis

Un-Boiled Egg Cracks 2015 Ig Nobel Awards List

SEP 18, 2015
BY DISCOVERY NEWS

You Can't Un-Ring a Bell, But You Can Un-Boil an Egg

If it's September, it must be time once again for scientists to take a playful poke in the eye from Improbable Research's Ig Nobel prize. The goal of the award is to honor "achievements that first make people LAUGH, and then make them THINK," according to Improbable Research.

Last night's awards, handed out at Harvard University's Sanders Theater, did not disappoint. Let's take a look at the winners.

The Chemistry prize was awarded to a team of scientists from the United States and Australia that devised a chemical recipe for partially un-boiling an egg.

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islander · « **Reply #31 on:** October 08, 2015, 07:39:52 PM »

PHYSICS PRIZE

Patricia Yang [USA and TAIWAN], David Hu [USA and TAIWAN], and Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo [USA], for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).

REFERENCE: "Duration of Urination Does Not Change With Body Size," Patricia J. Yang, Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo, and David L. Hu, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014: 201402289.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Patricia Yang, David Hu, Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo

Peeing for 21 Seconds is Universal

The Physics Ig Nobel prize went to Taiwan and U.S. researchers for "testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds)."

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islander · « **Reply #32 on:** October 08, 2015, 08:05:45 PM »

LITERATURE PRIZE

Mark Dingemanse [THE NETHERLANDS, USA], Francisco Torreira [THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, USA], and Nick J. Enfield [AUSTRALIA, THE NETHERLANDS], for discovering that the word "huh?" (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language â€” and for not being quite sure why.

REFERENCE: "Is 'Huh?' a universal word? Conversational infrastructure and the convergent evolution of linguistic items," Mark Dingemanse, Francisco Torreira, and Nick J. Enfield, PLOS ONE, 2013. [a video accompanies the paper.]

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: The authors were unable to attend the ceremony; they sent a video acceptance speech. They will receive their prize at a special event in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on October 3: The European Ig Nobel Show

Huh?

"Huh" or its equivalent is an expression that exists in every human language, and a team of scientists hailing from the Netherlands to the United States to Belgium to Australia was honored with a Literature Ig Nobel for being able to nail down that linguistic nugget.

The team got the award not only for the discovery but also for not being sure why what they learned was true. Huh?

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islander · « **Reply #33 on:** October 09, 2015, 12:56:21 AM »

MANAGEMENT PRIZE

Gennaro Bernile [ITALY, SINGAPORE, USA], Vineet Bhagwat [USA, INDIA], and P. Raghavendra Rau [UK, INDIA, FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY, JAPAN], for discovering that many business leaders developed in childhood a fondness for risk-taking, when they experienced natural disasters (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and wildfires) that â€” for them â€” had no dire personal consequences.

REFERENCE: "What Doesn't Kill You Will Only Make You More Risk-Loving: Early-Life Disasters and CEO Behavior," Gennaro Bernile, Vineet Bhagwat, and P. Raghavendra Rau, accepted for publication in the Journal of Finance, 2015.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Gennaro Bernile and P. Raghavendra Rau

Disaster Dodgers Make Good Managers

Researchers Gennaro Bernile, Vineet Bhagwat, and P. Raghavendra Rau took home a Management Ig Nobel for figuring out that many business leaders got a taste for risk-taking from experiencing natural disasters when they were children that had no dire personal consequences for them.

So, apparently, survive an earthquake, volcano eruption or tsunami as a child and you could be well on your way to a seat in the boardroom.

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islander · « **Reply #34 on:** October 09, 2015, 01:00:18 AM »

ECONOMICS PRIZE

The Bangkok Metropolitan Police [THAILAND], for offering to pay policemen extra cash if the policemen refuse to take bribes.

REFERENCE: Numerous news reports.

Be Good, Get Bonus Cash

Thailand's Bangkok Metropolitan Police force found a way to one-up the local bribery business. It snagged an Economics Ig Nobel for offering to pay its police officers extra cash if they refused to take bribes.

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islander · « **Reply #35 on:** October 09, 2015, 01:07:00 AM »

MEDICINE PRIZE

Awarded jointly to two groups: Hajime Kimata [JAPAN, CHINA]; and to Jaroslava DurdiakovÃ¡ [SLOVAKIA, US, UK], Peter Celec [SLOVAKIA, GERMANY], NatÃ¡lia KamodyovÃ¡, Tatiana SedlÃ¡ÄkovÃ¡, Gabriela RepiskÃ¡, Barbara SvieÅ¾enÃ¡, and Gabriel MinÃ¡rik [SLOVAKIA], for experiments to study the biomedical benefits or biomedical consequences of intense kissing (and other intimate, interpersonal activities).

REFERENCE: "Kissing Reduces Allergic Skin Wheal Responses and Plasma Neurotrophin Levels," Hajime Kimata, Physiology and Behavior, vol. 80, nos. 2-3, November 2003, pp. 395-8.
REFERENCE: "Reduction of Allergic Skin Weal Responses by Sexual Intercourse in Allergic Patients," Hajime Kimata, Sexual and Relationship Therapy, vol 19, no. 2, May 2004, pp. 151-4.
REFERENCE: "Kissing Selectively Decreases Allergen-Specific IgE Production in Atopic Patients," Hajime Kimata, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, vol. 60, 2006, pp. 545â€“ 547.
REFERENCE: "Prevalence and Persistence of Male DNA Identified in Mixed Saliva Samples After Intense Kissing," NatÃ¡lia KamodyovÃ¡, Jaroslava DurdiakovÃ¡, Peter Celec, Tatiana SedlÃ¡ÄkovÃ¡, Gabriela RepiskÃ¡, Barbara SvieÅ¾enÃ¡, and Gabriel MinÃ¡rik, Forensic Science International Genetics, vol. 7, no. 1, January 2013, pp. 124â€“8.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Jaroslava DurdiakovÃ¡ and Peter Celec will be at the ceremony. Hajime Kimata will be at the Ig Informal Lectures, on Saturday, Sept 19 (a prior commitment prevented him from attending the Thursday ceremony); he sent a video acceptance speech which was played at the Thursday night ceremony.

The Upsides of Smooching

A research team from the United States, Europe and Asia were handed a Medicine Ig Nobel for studying the biomedical benefits or biomedical consequences of intense kissing and other intimate, interpersonal activities.

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islander · « **Reply #36 on:** October 09, 2015, 01:12:19 AM »

MATHEMATICS PRIZE

Elisabeth Oberzaucher [AUSTRIA, GERMANY, UK] and Karl Grammer [AUSTRIA, GERMANY], for trying to use mathematical techniques to determine whether and how Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children.

REFERENCE: "The Case of Moulay Ismael-Fact or Fancy?" Elisabeth Oberzaucher and Karl Grammer, PLOS ONE, vol. 9, no. 2, 2014, e85292.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Elisabeth Oberzaucher

Fathering 888 Children, by the Numbers

The top Mathematics Ig Nobel prize went to Elisabeth Oberzaucher and Karl Grammer for trying to use math to determine whether and how Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children.

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islander · « **Reply #37 on:** October 09, 2015, 01:22:53 AM »

BIOLOGY PRIZE

Bruno Grossi, Omar Larach, Mauricio Canals, Rodrigo A. VÃ¡squez [CHILE], JosÃ© Iriarte-DÃaz [CHILE, USA], for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked.

REFERENCE: "Walking Like Dinosaurs: Chickens with Artificial Tails Provide Clues about Non-Avian Theropod Locomotion," Bruno Grossi, JosÃ© Iriarte-DÃaz, Omar Larach, Mauricio Canals, Rodrigo A. VÃ¡squez, PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 2, 2014, e88458. [NOTE: The paper is accompanied by a video.>

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Bruno Grossi, JosÃ© Iriarte-DÃaz, Omar Larach, Rodrigo A. VÃ¡squez

Chicken-a-Saurus Rex?

Bruno Grossi, Omar Larach, Mauricio Canals, Rodrigo A. VÃ¡squez, and JosÃ© Iriarte-DÃaz were awarded a Biology Ig Nobel for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked.

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islander · « **Reply #38 on:** October 09, 2015, 01:33:33 AM »

DIAGNOSTIC MEDICINE PRIZE

Diallah Karim [CANADA, UK], Anthony Harnden [NEW ZEALAND, UK, US], Nigel D'Souza [BAHRAIN, BELGIUM, DUBAI, INDIA, SOUTH AFRICA, US, UK], Andrew Huang [CHINA, UK], Abdel Kader Allouni [SYRIA, UK], Helen Ashdown [UK], Richard J. Stevens [UK], and Simon Kreckler [UK], for determining that acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when the patient is driven over speed bumps.

REFERENCE: "Pain Over Speed Bumps in Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis: Diagnostic Accuracy Study," Helen F. Ashdown, Nigel D'Souza, Diallah Karim, Richard J. Stevens, Andrew Huang, and Anthony Harnden, BMJ, vol. 345, 2012, e8012.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Diallah Karim, Anthony Harnden, Helen Ashdown, Nigel D'Souza, Abdel Kader Allouni

Speed Bumps: The New Diagnostic Tool

A raft of medical researchers teamed up to figure out that an acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when the patient is driven over speed bumps. For this, the scientists took home a Diagnostic Medicine Ig Nobel.

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islander · « **Reply #39 on:** October 09, 2015, 01:53:36 AM »

PHYSIOLOGY and ENTOMOLOGY PRIZE

Awarded jointly to two individuals: Justin Schmidt [USA, CANADA], for painstakingly creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the relative pain people feel when stung by various insects; and to Michael L. Smith [USA, UK, THE NETHERLANDS], for carefully arranging for honey bees to sting him repeatedly on 25 different locations on his body, to learn which locations are the least painful (the skull, middle toe tip, and upper arm). and which are the most painful (the nostril, upper lip, and penis shaft).

REFERENCE: "Hemolytic Activities of Stinging Insect Venoms," Justin O. Schmidt, Murray S. Blum, and William L. Overal, Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology, vol. 1, no. 2, 1983, pp. 155-160.
REFERENCE: "Honey Bee Sting Pain Index by Body Location," Michael L. Smith, PeerJ, 2014, 2:e338.

WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Justin Schmidt and Michael Smith

Taking Stings for the Team

The Ig Nobel for Physiology and Entomolgy was awarded to two scientists.

Justin Schmidt was honored for creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the relative pain people feel when stung by various insects.

Michael L. Smith, meanwhile, was given mad Ig Nobel props for carefully letting honey bees sting him repeatedly, on 25 different locations on his body, to learn which locations are the least painful (the skull, middle toe tip, and upper arm) and which are the most painful (the nostril, upper lip, and penis shaft). Eeeeow! Now that's dedication!

sources: news.discovery.com/, dailymail.co.uk/, improbable.com/

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