Ig Nobels at Harvard University Honor Unusual Discoveries
Every September, Harvard University hosts the Ig Nobel Prizes, an unusual category of awards similar to the Nobel Prize but granted for research that people might at first find funny. "The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology," says the Ig Nobel description.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are put together by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, and the ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students and the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association. This year, the awards celebrated their 29th anniversary with research spanning from Italy to Japan. Here are the 10 winners of the Ig Nobels.
Medicine: Italy & the Netherlands
The award was granted to Silvano Gallus for gathering evidence that pizza could protect against illness and death as long as it is made and eaten in Italy.
Medical Education: U.S.
The award went to Karen Pryor and Theresa McKeon, for using an animal-training technique called "clicker training" to train surgeons for performing orthopedic surgery.
Biology: Singapore, China, Germany, Australia, Poland, U.S., Bulgaria
The prize went to Ling-Jun Kong, Herbert Crepaz, Agnieszka Górecka, Aleksandra Urbanek, Rainer Dumke, and Tomasz Paterek, for uncovering that dead magnetized cockroaches behave differently than the magnetized cockroaches who are alive.
Anatomy: France
Roger Mieusset and Bourras Bengoudifa produced research in France looking at measuring scrotal temperature asymmetry in naked and clothed postmen in the country.
Chemistry: Japan
The award went to Shigeru Watanabe, Mineko Ohnishi, Kaori Imai, Eiji Kawano, and Seiji Igarashi for estimating the volume of saliva that a typical 5-year-old child produces every day.
Engineering: Iran
The prize was granted to Iman Farahbakhsh for coming up with a diaper-changing machine that can be used on human infants.
Economics: Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany
Habip Gedik, Timothy A. Voss, and Andreas Voss were recognized for testing which country's paper money transmits most dangerous bacteria.
Peace: United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, U.S.
The award went to Ghada A. bin Saif, Alexandru Papoiu, Liliana Banari, Francis McGlone, Shawn G. Kwatra, Yiong-Huak Chan, and Gil Yosipovitch, for attempting to measure the pleasurability of scratching an itch.
Psychology: Germany
Fritz Strack was awarded this prize for "discovering that holding a pen in one's mouth makes one smile, which makes one happier -- and for then discovering that it does not."
Physics: U.S., Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the U.K.
The prize was granted to Patricia Yang, Alexander Lee, Miles Chan, Alynn Martin, Ashley Edwards, Scott Carver, and David Hu, for studying how and why wombats poop in the shape of a cube.
Sintia Radu covers international affairs and technology for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow her on Twitter @sintiaradu and send her suggestions and ideas at sradu@usnews.com.
