"first make people laugh, and then make them think"
The IgNobel Awards winners were presented with the awards on Thursday:
Medicine: Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest of the University of Amsterdam for discovering that asthma symptoms can be alleviated by a rollercoaster ride. I have to try this next year.
Physics: Lianne Parkin and associates at the University of Otago in New Zealand for proving that wearing socks outside the shoes makes it less likely to slip on icy sidewalks. I wonder what kind of shoes they have in New Zealand that make less friction then socks. Or maybe what kind of socks.
Biology: Gareth Jones of Bristol University and his team from China who showed that in the short-nosed fruit bat females who performed oral sex on their mates copulated for longer. "It is the first documented case of fellatio by adult animals other than humans to my knowledge, and opens questions about whether female animals can manipulate males via sexual activity, perhaps in this case to improve their chances of successful fertilization." This one I've heard of before. I remember seeing it on TV and thinking about how tiring it must be when they hung upside down and they have to bend up to do it. During the ceremony Jones invited the Laureates to join him in a demonstration with fruit bat puppets, thus exciting the audience as well as the Laureates who seemed oddly reluctant to return the toys.
Peace: Richard Stephens and associates of Keele University confirmed that swearing relieves pain. So those who swore off swearing are just get extra point for suffering. I also remember reading that screaming helps too. it seems the worst thing to do is suffer in silence.
Engineering: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and collaborators at the Institute of Zoology in London for perfecting a method of using small, remote-controlled helicopters for collect whales' snot. All the kinds of excrement contain a lot of information about the species. There are people specializing in studying them. At least these get to play with remote helicopters.
Transportation Planning: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero got their second IgNobel for playing with slime. This time they worked with other Japanese and UK scientists to show that slime mold could be used to model an effective railway network.
Management: Alessandro Pluchino and collaborators at the University of Catania for demonstrating mathematically that companies work more efficiently if staff are promoted at random. This is also something I've heard about and I still wonder if any company will try to test that.
Public Health: Manuel Barbeito at the Industrial Health and Safety Office in Maryland for studies showing experimentally that microbes cling to beards and thus bearded scientists are potential laboratory hazards. I wonder what PZ Myers will make of it.
Chemistry: Eric Adams of MIT and others, including researchers at BP for disproving a long-held belief that oil and water do not mix. Hey, I thought everyone knew about emulsions.
Economics: jointly the executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Magnetar for "creating and promoting new ways to invest money - ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof."
The only awards that made fun of the work of their Laureates but still are attended by most of them. This year all only Manuel Barbeito didn't come due to health issues. Maybe it was the microbes in his beard.
Medicine: Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest of the University of Amsterdam for discovering that asthma symptoms can be alleviated by a rollercoaster ride. I have to try this next year.
Physics: Lianne Parkin and associates at the University of Otago in New Zealand for proving that wearing socks outside the shoes makes it less likely to slip on icy sidewalks. I wonder what kind of shoes they have in New Zealand that make less friction then socks. Or maybe what kind of socks.
Biology: Gareth Jones of Bristol University and his team from China who showed that in the short-nosed fruit bat females who performed oral sex on their mates copulated for longer. "It is the first documented case of fellatio by adult animals other than humans to my knowledge, and opens questions about whether female animals can manipulate males via sexual activity, perhaps in this case to improve their chances of successful fertilization." This one I've heard of before. I remember seeing it on TV and thinking about how tiring it must be when they hung upside down and they have to bend up to do it. During the ceremony Jones invited the Laureates to join him in a demonstration with fruit bat puppets, thus exciting the audience as well as the Laureates who seemed oddly reluctant to return the toys.
Peace: Richard Stephens and associates of Keele University confirmed that swearing relieves pain. So those who swore off swearing are just get extra point for suffering. I also remember reading that screaming helps too. it seems the worst thing to do is suffer in silence.
Engineering: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and collaborators at the Institute of Zoology in London for perfecting a method of using small, remote-controlled helicopters for collect whales' snot. All the kinds of excrement contain a lot of information about the species. There are people specializing in studying them. At least these get to play with remote helicopters.
Transportation Planning: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero got their second IgNobel for playing with slime. This time they worked with other Japanese and UK scientists to show that slime mold could be used to model an effective railway network.
Management: Alessandro Pluchino and collaborators at the University of Catania for demonstrating mathematically that companies work more efficiently if staff are promoted at random. This is also something I've heard about and I still wonder if any company will try to test that.
Public Health: Manuel Barbeito at the Industrial Health and Safety Office in Maryland for studies showing experimentally that microbes cling to beards and thus bearded scientists are potential laboratory hazards. I wonder what PZ Myers will make of it.
Chemistry: Eric Adams of MIT and others, including researchers at BP for disproving a long-held belief that oil and water do not mix. Hey, I thought everyone knew about emulsions.
Economics: jointly the executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Magnetar for "creating and promoting new ways to invest money - ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof."
The only awards that made fun of the work of their Laureates but still are attended by most of them. This year all only Manuel Barbeito didn't come due to health issues. Maybe it was the microbes in his beard.