Every year around this time, shortly before the announcement of the Nobel Prizes, a ceremony takes place at Harvard University's Sanders Theater to award what are called the Ig Nobel Prizes. This year is the 25th year these prizes have been awarded. The current description of the awards is that they're for scientific or technological results "that first make you laugh, and then make you think." Most of the prize-winning research is at least worth a chuckle, and sometimes it'll induce a proper belly-laugh. This year's ceremony occurred on September 17. You shall discover the various awards if you venture past the orange medallion...
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I'm only giving the actual results that won each award. Keep in mind that each award is based on science published in articles in reputable science journals, or on newspaper reports. To learn the names of the awardees and other details, visit the Ig Nobel Prize website. It should also be noted that the exact number and categories of the prizes may vary from year to year depending on the sort of work that catches the eyes of the judges.
Chemistry Prize:
...for inventing a chemical recipe to partially un-boil an egg.
Physics Prize:
...for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).
Literature Prize:
...for discovering that the word "huh?" (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language--and for not being quite sure why.
Management Prize:
...for discovering that many business leaders developed in childhood a fondness for risk-taking when they experienced natural disasters (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and wildfires) that--for them--had no dire personal consequences.
Economics Prize:
...for offering to pay [Bangkok] policemen extra cash for not taking bribes.
Medicine Prize:
...for experiments to study the biomedical benefits or biomedical consequences of intense kissing (and other intimate, interpersonal activities).
Mathematics Prize:
...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 to 1727, to father 888 children.
Biology Pize:
...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.
Diagnostic Medicine Prize:
...for determining that acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed from the amount of pain evident when the patient is driven over speed bumps.
Physiology and Entomology Prize:
...for painstakingly creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the relative pain people feel when stung by various insects; and ...for carefully arranging for honeybees to sting him repeatedly on 25 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).
If you want to watch this year's award ceremony, which is always a hoot, here it is:
Now, on to the comments!
TOP COMMENTS
September 26, 2015
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From annominous:
I nominate this one by rktect: it is succinct, on point, and eloquent. From Laura Clawson's front page post Maine mayor wants public registry for welfare recipients, like for sex offenders
Fron Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
From the same Laura Clawson post linked above, rktect (again) came up with a better idea for a registry, and see BigDuck's reply, especially the last line.
From your humble diarist:
This comment by andrewj54 pretty much summed up the feeling of foreboding and dread I got from reading the recommended diary in which it was posted, The Dark Truth Of John Boehner's Resignation by RETIII, as well as watching the full video of Lawrence Wilkerson's speech at Lone Star College in Houston, posted as a link in Egberto Willies' recommended diary Lawrence Wilkerson discussed the possibility of the breakup of the US. Wilkerson is one of the last, very few sane Republicans out there, and he sees that the end is near...
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TOP PHOTOS
September 25, 2015
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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