We’re a bit late in reporting this news, but we would be amiss in ignoring the 27th 1st Annual (not a typo!) Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded last September.
Not to be confused with the Nobel Prizes usually announced in October in Stockholm, Sweden, the Ig Nobel Prizes are intended to “honor achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.”
This year’s Ig Nobel Prize award winners this year included:
- For physics, a team of researchers from France, Singapore and the U.S. for their research using fluid dynamics to probe the question “Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?”
- For economics, researchers from Australia and the U.S. for their experiments to see how contact with a live crocodile affects a person’s willingness to gamble;
- For anatomy, a UK researcher for his study “Why Do Old Men Have Big Ears?”
- For fluid-dynamics, researchers from South Korea and the U.S. for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks backwards while carrying a cup of coffee;
- For cognition, a research team from Italy, Spain and the UK for demonstrating that many identical twins cannon tell themselves apart visually;
- And finally, for peace, a multi-national team for demonstrating that regular playing of a didgeridoo is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea and snoring.
Additional details of this year’s winners are available at the website of Improbable Research (the humorous folks behind the Ig Nobel Prizes) at https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2017.
