IgNobel Prizes

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I personally find these more fascinating than the real thing http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html

Highlights include:

PHYSICS: John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting an experiment that began in the year 1927 -- in which a glob of congealed black tar has been slowly, slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years.

PEACE: Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in the U.K., for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie "Star Wars."

CHEMISTRY: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?

FLUID DYNAMICS: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu , Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation."

[Combat Ingrid]

What about a pooping giraffe? The internal hydrodynamics is probably regulated differently than that of a defecating penguin. Further research in this important area is imperative!

[pchang]

You forgot Medicine: Neuticles - silicon implants to make neutered pets look like they still have testicles.

[Lul Thyme]

All missed the best :
LITERATURE: The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.
Its fun they also mention which attended the ceremony.
A lot of them did (not Nigerian entrepreneur though )

Actually I checked and the Ig Nobel are prestigious enough now that at least one from each team except the Nigerians was present, except this one guy who couldn't get a visa and even had a video acceptance speech!

[Lul Thyme]

Physics at its best

Here is a picture from the physics experiment.
Look at the paper on the right :

[Lul Thyme]

You know some of these experiments or papers are funny when you read their description but most are actually somewhat to pretty interesting.

They are probably near the average importance and interest of most papers in their respective field, but they stand out because of their peculiar subject for the layman.

[Lul Thyme]

I tried to access the one about swimming in syrup but you have to pay.
A few of these articles were interesting.
Couldn't resist, sorry :

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As someone who has done research science you wonder what they wrote on their grant applications

[Lul Thyme]

Love the conclusion from the penguin article :
Wheter the bird deliberately chooses the direction into which it decides to expel its faeces or wheter this depends on the direction from which the wind blows at the time of evacuation are questions that need to be addressed or another expedition to Antartica.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Physics at its best

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
Here is a picture from the physics experiment.
Look at the paper on the right :

It's quite amasing that they have kept that piece of paper for that long.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
Love the conclusion from the penguin article :
Wheter the bird deliberately chooses the direction into which it decides to expel its faeces or wheter this depends on the direction from which the wind blows at the time of evacuation are questions that need to be addressed or another expedition to Antartica.

Hilarious


And about the people who attended the ceremony - here is to not taking oneself too seriously

[BeBMan]

My favourite is this:

ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.

[VetLegion]

I need that

[Provost Harrison]

That is a fantastic idea...I want one

[Az]

Re: Physics at its best

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
Here is a picture from the physics experiment.
Look at the paper on the right :

I don't care what you say, that's pretty fricking cool. I imagine this stuff standing in this room in the basement of the physics dept., and this guy going in to check on it once a month.

****ing awesome