The Nobel Prizes took me by surprise this year. Usually I’m alert to them in early October, when they start announcing them, but the first one I heard about (Physics) may as well have fallen out of the sky. Between COVID, the election, and various other events occurring in my life right now, the Nobels got away from me.
Of course, once the Nobel Prizes come out, I know it’s also time to head over to the Annals of Improbable Research to check out the Ig Nobel Prizes. Their motto is “For achievements that first make people LAUGH, then make them THINK.”
Video of this year’s ceremony (which was virtual) is here:
The full list of awards is below the fold, as well as tonight’s comments. First, here’s a word from our sponsor:
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The 2020 Ig Nobel Prizes
For the literature citations, go to the awards page.
Acoustics [AUSTRIA, SWEDEN, JAPAN, USA, SWITZERLAND]:
Stephan Reber, Takeshi Nishimura, Judith Janisch, Mark Robertson, and Tecumseh Fitch, for inducing a female Chinese alligator to bellow in an airtight chamber filled with helium-enriched air.
PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE [CANADA, USA]:
Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas Rule, for devising a method to identify narcissists by examining their eyebrows.
PEACE PRIZE [INDIA, PAKISTAN]:
The governments of India and Pakistan, for having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door.
PHYSICS PRIZE [AUSTRALIA, UKRAINE, FRANCE, ITALY, GERMANY, UK, SOUTH AFRICA]:
Ivan Maksymov and Andriy Pototsky, for determining, experimentally, what happens to the shape of a living earthworm when one vibrates the earthworm at high frequency.
ECONOMICS PRIZE [UK, POLAND, FRANCE, BRAZIL, CHILE, COLOMBIA, AUSTRALIA, ITALY, NORWAY, ITALY]:
Christopher Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff, and Samuela Bolgan, for trying to quantify the relationship between different countries’ national income inequality and the average amount of mouth-to-mouth kissing.
MANAGEMENT PRIZE [CHINA]:
(奚广安) Xi Guang-An, (莫天祥) Mo Tian-Xiang, (杨康生) Yang Kang-Sheng, (杨广生) Yang Guang-Sheng, and (凌显四) Ling Xian Si, five professional hitmen in Guangxi, China, who managed a contract for a hit job (a murder performed for money) in the following way: After accepting payment to perform the murder, Xi Guang-An then instead subcontracted the task to Mo Tian-Xiang, who then instead subcontracted the task to Yang Kang-Sheng, who then instead subcontracted the task to Yang Guang-Sheng, who then instead subcontracted the task to Ling Xian-Si, with each subsequently enlisted hitman receiving a smaller percentage of the fee, and nobody actually performing a murder.
ENTOMOLOGY PRIZE [USA]:
Richard Vetter, for collecting evidence that many entomologists (scientists who study insects) are afraid of spiders, which are not insects.
MEDICINE PRIZE [THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM]:
Nienke Vulink, Damiaan Denys, and Arnoud van Loon, for diagnosing a long-unrecognized medical condition: Misophonia, the distress at hearing other people make chewing sounds.
MEDICAL EDUCATION PRIZE [BRAZIL, UK, INDIA, MEXICO, BELARUS, USA, TURKEY, RUSSIA, TURKMENISTAN]:
Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Narendra Modi of India, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald Trump of the USA, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan, for using the Covid-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can.
MATERIALS SCIENCE PRIZE [USA, UK]:
Metin Eren, Michelle Bebber, James Norris, Alyssa Perrone, Ashley Rutkoski, Michael Wilson, and Mary Ann Raghanti, for showing that knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work well.
And now, on to the comments!
Top Comments (October 12, 2020):
No nominations tonight.
Top Mojo (October 11, 2020):
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Top Photos (October 11, 2020):
Courtesy of jotter.