I ’m standing amidst a concourse of people in the entrance hall of Harvard University ’s historic Sanders theater . Before me tolerate a man , wielding a fanfare light source , who is surface from head teacher to toe in glimmer silver body pigment ; he is wearing nothing , economize for a pair of read drinking glass and a diminutive , aluminum - colored speedo . To my right , a scientist in a lab coat is working away feverishly at the bellows of an piano accordion . On my left field , Nobel laureate Roy Glauber ( cathartic , 2005 ) squeezes past me with a smile and a nod . Oh , and I ’m pretty certain I just saw Amanda Palmer .
Am I dream ? No . By all account this is sound than daydream ; I am in attendance at the Twenty - First 1st AnnualIg Nobel Awards Ceremony .
The inspiration of Marc Abrahams — editor of the scientific humor magazineAnnals of Improbable Research — the Ig Nobels ( or “ Igs ” for short ) were base in 1991 to pique multitude ’ interest in skill , medicine , and engineering science by recognise those enquiry projects and societal donation that first make hoi polloi express mirth , and then make them think .
The Igs are modeled loosely ( and I do intend loosely ) after the veridical Nobel Prize ceremonies defy every year in Stockholm , Sweden . Yes , like the Nobel Prize ceremony , the Igs acknowledge scientist , artists , and public physique for contributing towards their respective fields … but that ’s pretty much where the similarities end .
Just about every vista of the effect is steeped in unconventionality . The audience , overtly vocal and incredibly fierce , whoop and applauds like a mob of rowdy sport fans at any mention of “ chemistry , ” the topic of this twelvemonth ’s ceremonial proceedings ; a strict 60 - indorsement rule is enforced by an eight twelvemonth honest-to-goodness missy who is all too well-chosen to yowl “ please give up , I ’m BORED ! ” in the typeface of any honour recipient role inauspicious enough to drone on for longer than a minute while delivering an acceptance spoken language ; members of the audience , over 1200 of them , are advance to hurl paper airplanes at the stage at various points throughout the evening .
It ’s also the only ceremonial in the world where you canlisten to Nobel laureates partake in an operatic ode to coffee ’s effects on the homo sphincter .
achiever at this year ’s Igs included a team of Nipponese researchers grant the prize in interpersonal chemistry for their design ofa fire consternation that use airborne wasabito rouse deaf mass from their sleep in the event of a fire ; while scientist from the US , the Netherlands , and the UK were grant the prize in medicine for “ demonstrating that citizenry make in force decisions about some kinds of things – but worse decisions about other kinds of things – when thy have a substantial urge to piss . ”
But the crowd ducky was almost certainly the succeeder of the Ig Nobel Peace Prize : Arturas Zuokas , the mayor of Vilnius , Lithuania , who , in the beginning this year , demonstrate that “ the job of illegally park luxury motorcar can be solved by running them over with an armored tank . ”
For those of you who miss the live broadcast , be sure to check out the video recording recording of the ceremonial occasion feature up top . you’re able to also tune intoNPR ’s Science Friday programthe 24-hour interval after Thanksgiving for their annual broadcast of the upshot .
The full listing of 2011 Ig Nobel Prizes and laurels recipient role can be witness below .
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The 2011 Ig Nobel Prize succeeder :
PHYSIOLOGY PRIZE
Anna Wilkinson ( of the UK ) , Natalie Sebanz ( of The Netherlands , Hungary , and AUSTRIA ) , Isabella Mandl ( of Austria ) and Ludwig Huber ( of Austria ) for their study ‘ No Evidence of catching Yawning in the Red - Footed Tortoise . ”
REFERENCE : ‘ No grounds Of Contagious Yawning in the Red - Footed Tortoise Geochelone carbonaria , ” Anna Wilkinson , Natalie Sebanz , Isabella Mandl , Ludwig Huber , Current Zoology , vol . 57 , no . 4 , 2011 . pp . 477 - 84 .
CHEMISTRY PRIZE
Makoto Imai , Naoki Urushihata , Hideki Tanemura , Yukinobu Tajima , Hideaki Goto , Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami of Japan , for define the ideal compactness of airborne wasabi ( pungent horseradish ) to wake slumber people in case of a fire or other emergency brake , and for applying this cognition to invent the wasabi warning equipment .
REFERENCE : US patent software 2010/0308995 A1 . Filing date : Feb 5 , 2009 .
MEDICINE PRIZE
Mirjam Tuk ( of The Netherlands and the UK ) , Debra Trampe ( of The Netherlands ) and Luk Warlop ( of Belgium ) . and together with to Matthew Lewis , Peter Snyder and Robert Feldman ( of the USA ) , Robert Pietrzak , David Darby , and Paul Maruff ( of Australia ) for demonstrating that people make better decisions about some form of thing – but uncollectible decisions about other variety of things ‚ when they have a strong urge to urinate .
REFERENCE : “ repressing spillover : increase Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains , ” Mirjam A. Tuk , Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop , Psychological Science , vol . 22 , no . 5 , May 2011 , pp . 627 - 633 .
REFERENCE : “ The Effect of Acute Increase in Urge to Void on Cognitive Function in Healthy Adults , ” Matthew S. Lewis , Peter J. Snyder , Robert H. Pietrzak , David Darby , Robert A. Feldman , Paul T. Maruff , Neurology and Urodynamics , vol . 30 , no . 1 , January 2011 , pp . 183 - 7 .
PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE
Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo , Norway , for prove to empathise why , in daily life , multitude suspire .
REFERENCE : “ Is a Sigh ‘ Just a suspiration ’ ? Sighs as Emotional Signals and Responses to a Difficult Task , ” Karl Halvor Teigen , Scandinavian Journal of Psychology , vol . 49 , no . 1 , 2008 , pp . 49–57 .
LITERATURE PRIZE
John Perry of Stanford University , USA , for his Theory of Structured Procrastination , which says : To be a high achiever , always work on something significant , using it as a way to avoid doing something that ’s even more important .
REFERENCE : “ How to Procrastinate and Still Get thing Done , ” John Perry , Chronicle of Higher Education , February 23 , 1996 . Later republish elsewhere under the title “ Structured Procrastination . ”
BIOLOGY PRIZE
Darryl Gwynne ( of Canada and Australia and the USA ) and David Rentz ( of Australia and the USA ) for discovering that a sure sort of beetle mates with a sure form of Australian beer bottle .
REFERENCE : “ Beetles on the Bottle : Male Buprestids Mistake Stubbies for Females ( Coleoptera ) , ” D.T. Gwynne , and D.C.F. Rentz , Journal of the Australian Entomological Society , vol . 22 , 1983 , pp . 79 - 80 .
REFERENCE : “ Beetles on the Bottle , ” D.T. Gwynne and D.C.F. Rentz , Antenna : Proceedings ( A ) of the Royal Entomological Society London , vol . 8 , no . 3 , 1984 , pp . 116 - 7 .
PHYSICS PRIZE
Philippe Perrin , Cyril Perrot , Dominique Deviterne and Bruno Ragaru ( of France ) , and Herman Kingma ( of The Netherlands ) , for determining why discus throwster become giddy , and why hammer throwers do n’t .
REFERENCE : “ Dizziness in Discus Throwers is Related to Motion Sickness Generated While Spinning , ” Philippe Perrin , Cyril Perrot , Dominique Deviterne , Bruno Ragaru and Herman Kingma , Acta Oto - laryngologica , vol . 120 , no . 3 , March 2000 , pp . 390–5 .
MATHEMATICS PRIZE
Dorothy Martin of the USA ( who anticipate the earth would end in 1954 ) , Pat Robertson of the USA ( who predicted the universe would end in 1982 ) , Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA ( who predicted the world would end in 1990 ) , Lee Jang Rim of KOREA ( who predicted the world would end in 1992 ) , Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA ( who predicted the world would finish in 1999 ) , and Harold Camping of the USA ( who predicted the world would end on September 6 , 1994 and subsequently bode that the world will end on October 21 , 2011 ) , for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical premiss and computation .
PEACE PRIZE
Arturas Zuokas , the mayor of Vilnius , Lithuania , for evidence that the trouble of lawlessly parked sumptuousness railroad car can be solved by running them over with an armored tank car .
PUBLIC SAFETY PRIZE
John Senders of the University of Toronto , Canada , for deal a series of condom experiment in which a soul drives an automobile on a major main road while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face , blinding him .
reference point : “ The Attentional Demand of Automobile Driving , ” John W. Senders , et al . , Highway Research Record , vol . 195 , 1967 , pp . 15 - 33 .
BiologyChemistrymathMedicinePhysicsPsychologyScience
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