Whatever can go incorrect , will go ill-timed . That ’s Murphy ’s Law . It was also the subject of the thirty-fourth Ig Nobel Prizes , the yearly ceremonial occasion which accolade all variety of kookie research from across the scientific fields . Needless to say the ceremony was a complete success .
This year ’s 10 prizes were produced by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine and award by literal Nobel laureate . If you ’re looking forthoseawards , the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prizeswill be announcedMonday , October 7 through Friday , October 11 . But if you need to watch about some truly engrossing research , keep reading .
Kees Moeliker , the 2005 Ig Nobel laureate in biology for his work on homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck ( Moeliker proceeded to pander a dead mallard duck’s egg from a bag before the eager audience ) , gave the obligatory safety gadget lecture at the beginning of the awards .
Paper airplanes flying at last night’s ceremony.Screenshot: Improbable Research / Youtube
Before you get any funny estimate : this research is serious . It may be the recipient of a not - so - Nobel award , presented in a silly style , but the research that each scientist was being recognized for was done with all the sincerity and steadfast rigor that comprise any worthwhile inquiry .
Here are some standouts from this twelvemonth ’s prizes : The flora award was awarded to a squad that found some plants that grow alongside plastic plant mimic the shapes of those plastic plants ; the anatomy prize was awarded to a French - Chilean squad for “ studying whether the whisker on the caput of most people in the northerly hemisphere swirl in the same way as hairsbreadth on the heads of most mass in the southern hemisphere . ” The aperient prize went to a researcher whose piece of work , publishedin theJournal of Experimental Biology , described the swimming ability of a stagnant trout . Again , these whole caboodle are actual enquiry papers , the full list of which can be foundhere .
The plunder in demography ( a personal favorite ) go to an Australian squad that found supercentenarians and other masses with remarkable age records tend to be born in places with no birth certificates and forgetful animation duet . Makes you think !
Last year ’s winners feature a team that discover how expecting a irksome lecture could induce boredom in the audience . Another team studied why citizenry block and attend up when they see others doing the same . A third squad count olfactory organ hairs in cadavers to confirm whether both nostrils had the same number .
The complete list of last year ’s winners can be foundhere .
Last but not least — in fact , it was the first prize awarded last night — the Ig Nobel Peace Prize was posthumously present to B.F. Skinner for “ experiments to see the feasibility of lodging live pigeon inside missiles to guide the flight paths . ” The award was go for by Skinner ’s daughter , Julie Skinner - Vargas .
Skinner ’s paper on the matter opened with “ This is the history of a nut case idea , born on the wrong side of the tracks intellectually speaking , but finally justify in a variety of halfway class respectability . ” If that does n’t sum - up the Ig Nobel prizes themselves I do n’t know what will .
nobel prize
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