Last night , geeks celebrate at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony , whereAnnals of Improbable Researcheditor Marc Abrams honored ( among others ) researchers who made diamonds from tequila and others who created a brassiere that converts into gasmasks . More victor below .
The Ig Nobels are an annual consequence at Harvard full of bizarre opera singing , extremely silly behavior from factual Nobel Prize winners ( including our scifi swot homeboy Paul Krugman ) , and much throwing of paper airplanes . The prizes are awarded for the good scientific research that induce you laugh – and think .
As the organizers noted after the event , which many of us look on via stream telecasting :
The eventide also feature numerous tributes to the evening ’s musical theme of “ Risk . ” The one - minute - foresighted keynote destination was deliver by Benoit Mandelbrot , the mathematician who demonstrate how financial market place are pregnant with wildness and hazard ( and who also manufacture fractal ) . Throughout the intact ceremony , Professor Mandelbrot and the ten Nobel laureates took turns playing in a poker game on stagecoach . . . [ Also present was ] Dan Meyer ( co - author of a bailiwick about the medical issue of sword - swallowing ) . During the ceremony , Mr. Meyer arrange a new creation ’s record for how many Nobel laureates can simultaneously crawfish a blade from the throat of a sword - swallower .
So rent ’s take a look at the winners , shall we ? Here are the prize victor and citation to relevant research , as explain by the Ig Nobel Prize commission itself . . .
VETERINARY MEDICINE PRIZE : Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University , Newcastle - Upon - Tyne , UK , for showing that cows who have figure give more Milk River than cows that are nameless .
REFERENCE : “ Exploring Stock Managers ’ perception of the Human - Animal Relationship on Dairy Farms and an Association with Milk Production , ” Catherine Bertenshaw [ Douglas ] and Peter Rowlinson , Anthrozoos , vol . 22 , no . 1 , March 2009 , pp . 59 - 69 . DOI : 10.2752/175303708X390473 .
PEACE PRIZE : Stephan Bolliger , Steffen Ross , Lars Oesterhelweg , Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern , Switzerland , for determine – by experiment – whether it is well to be smash over the fountainhead with a full bottle of beer or with an empty nursing bottle .
REFERENCE : “ Are Full or Empty Beer bottle Sturdier and Does Their Fracture - Threshold Suffice to Break the Human Skull ? ” Stephan A. Bolliger , Steffen Ross , Lars Oesterhelweg , Michael J. Thali and Beat P. Kneubuehl , Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine , vol . 16 , no . 3 , April 2009 , pp . 138 - 42 . DOI:10.1016 / j.jflm.2008.07.013 .
ECONOMICS PRIZE : The directors , executives , and auditors of four Icelandic banks – Kaupthing Bank , Landsbanki , Glitnir Bank , and Central Bank of Iceland – for demonstrating that petite banks can be rapidly transform into immense banks , and vice versa – and for demonstrating that similar thing can be done to an entire home saving .
CHEMISTRY PRIZE : Javier Morales , Miguel Apátiga , and Victor M. Castaño of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , for creating diamonds from liquid – specifically from tequila .
address : “ increase of Diamond Films from Tequila , ” Javier Morales , Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano , 2008 , arXiv:0806.1485 .
MEDICINE PRIZE : Donald L. Unger , of Thousand Oaks , California , USA , for investigate a potential cause of arthritis of the fingers , by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left-hand deal – but never cracking the knuckles of his right script – every day for more than sixty ( 60 ) years .
reference point : “ Does Knuckle Cracking Lead to Arthritis of the Fingers ? ” , Donald L. Unger , Arthritis and Rheumatism , vol . 41 , no . 5 , 1998 , pp . 949 - 50 .
PHYSICS PRIZE : Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati , USA , Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University , USA , and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas , USA , for analytically watch why pregnant woman do n’t tip over .
consultation : “ Fetal Load and the Evolution of Lumbar Lordosis in Bipedal Hominins , ” Katherine K. Whitcome , Liza J. Shapiro & Daniel E. Lieberman , Nature , vol . 450 , 1075 - 1078 ( December 13 , 2007 ) . DOI:10.1038 / nature06342 .
LITERATURE PRIZE : Ireland ’s constabulary inspection and repair ( An Garda Siochana ) , for writing and exhibit more than fifty dealings tickets to the most frequent get wrongdoer in the area – Prawo Jazdy – whose name in Polish means “ Driving License ” .
PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE : Elena N. Bodnar , Raphael C. Lee , and Sandra Marijan of Chicago , Illinois , USA , for inventing a brassiere that , in an parking brake , can be speedily convert into a dyad of gas masks , one for the brassiere wearer and one to be give to some needy bystander .
REFERENCE : U.S. patent # 7255627 , granted August 14 , 2007 for a “ Garment machine Convertible to One or More Facemasks . ”
MATHEMATICS PRIZE : Gideon Gono , governor of Zimbabwe ’s Reserve Bank , for giving hoi polloi a mere , casual way to get by with a wide chain of mountains of number – from very little to very adult – by have his bank print bank notes with designation wander from one penny ( $ .01 ) to one hundred trillion dollars ( $ 100,000,000,000,000 ) .
source : Zimbabwe ’s Casino Economy – Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges , Gideon Gono , ZPH Publishers , Harare , 2008 , ISBN 978 - 079 - 743 - 679 - 4 .
BIOLOGY PRIZE : Fumiaki Taguchi , Song Guofu , and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara , Japan , for attest that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90 % in tidy sum by using bacteria extract from the feces of giant pandas .
REFERENCE : “ Microbial Treatment of Kitchen Refuse With Enzyme - Producing Thermophilic Bacteria From Giant Panda Feces , ” Fumiaki Taguchia , Song Guofua , and Zhang Guanglei , Seibutsu - kogaku Kaishi , vol . 79 , no 12 , 2001 , pp . 463 - 9 . [ and pilfer in Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering , vol . 92 , no . 6 , 2001 , p. 602 . ]
viaIg Nobel Ceremony 2009
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