Last night, the winners of the 2010 Ig Nobel Prizes were announced at Harvard's Sanders Theater.
The Ig Nobles are one of the funniest science award ceremonies you will ever hear of. Prize winners get .... well, they get a small useless prize. But, they also get the chance to makes us all "Laugh and then Think".
Science Friday usually broadcasts the award ceremony on the Friday after Thanksgiving. If you can't wait that long, keep an eye on the improbable site. They will upload the video from last night at some point.
(The headline? It comes from one of the ignitaries, Miss Sweetie Poo. She is responsible for keeping everyone within the time limits of the show. Check the video for samples of her talents: http://improbable.com/2010/07/26/improbable-research-collection-129-the-best-of-miss-sweetie-poo/.)
The 2010 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
The
2010 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday night, September
30, at the 20th
First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre.
ENGINEERING PRIZE: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and Agnes Rocha-Gosselin of the
Zoological Society of London, UK, and Diane Gendron of Instituto Politecnico
Nacional, Baja California Sur, Mexico, for perfecting a method to collect whale
snot, using a remote-control helicopter.
REFERENCE: "A Novel Non-Invasive Tool for Disease Surveillance of Free-Ranging
Whales and Its Relevance to Conservation Programs," Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse,
Agnes Rocha-Gosselin and Diane Gendron, Animal Conservation, vol. 13, no. 2,
April 2010, pp. 217-25.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, Agnes Rocha-Gosselin,
Diane Gendron
MEDICINE PRIZE: Simon Rietveld of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
and Ilja van Beest of Tilburg University, The Netherlands, for discovering
that symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride.
REFERENCE: "Rollercoaster Asthma: When Positive Emotional Stress Interferes
with Dyspnea Perception," Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest, Behaviour
Research and Therapy, vol. 45, 2006, pp. 977–87.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest
TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PRIZE: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Atsushi Tero, Seiji Takagi,
Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi of Japan, and Dan Bebber,
Mark Fricker of the UK, for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes
for railroad tracks.
REFERENCE: "Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design," Atsushi
Tero, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Dan P. Bebber, Mark D. Fricker,
Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi, Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Science, Vol. 327. no. 5964,
January 22, 2010, pp. 439-42.
[NOTE: THE FOLLOWING ARE CO-WINNERS BOTH THIS YEAR AND IN 2008 when they were
awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for demonstrating that slime molds can solve puzzles:
Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero]
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Kentaro Ito, Atsushi
Tero, Mark Fricker, Dan Bebber
PHYSICS PRIZE: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the
University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths
in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside
of their shoes.
REFERENCE: "Preventing Winter Falls: A Randomised Controlled Trial of
a Novel Intervention," Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest,
New Zealand Medical Journal. vol. 122, no, 1298, July 3, 2009, pp. 31-8.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Lianne Parkin
PEACE PRIZE: Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University,
UK, for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain.
REFERENCE: "Swearing as a Response to Pain," Richard Stephens, John
Atkins, and Andrew Kingston, Neuroreport, vol. 20 , no. 12, 2009, pp. 1056-60.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Richard Stephens
PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Manuel Barbeito, Charles Mathews, and Larry Taylor of
the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA, for determining
by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists.
REFERENCE: "Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men," Manuel
S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor, Applied Microbiology,
vol. 15, no. 4, July 1967, pp. 899–906. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC547091/?tool=pubmed>
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Manuel S. Barbeito was unable to travel, due to
health reasons. A representative read his acceptance speech for him.
ECONOMICS PRIZE: The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman
Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar for creating and promoting
new ways to invest money — ways that maximize financial gain and minimize
financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof.
CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Eric Adams of MIT, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University,
Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, and BP [British Petroleum], for
disproving the old belief that oil and water don't mix.
REFERENCE: "Review of Deep Oil Spill Modeling Activity Supported by the
Deep Spill JIP and Offshore Operator’s Committee. Final Report," Eric
Adams and Scott Socolofsky, 2005.
<http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/377.htm>
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Eric Adams, Scott Socolofsky, and Stephen Masutani
MANAGEMENT PRIZE: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo
of the University of Catania, Italy, for demonstrating mathematically that
organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.
REFERENCE: “The Peter Principle
Revisited: A Computational Study,” Alessandro
Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo, Physica A, vol. 389, no. 3,
February 2010, pp. 467-72.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare
Garofalo.
BIOLOGY PRIZE: Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong,
Read more at improbable.com
Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of
Bristol, UK, for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.
REFERENCE: "Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time," Min
Tan, Gareth Jones, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi
Zhang and Libiao Zhang, PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 10, e7595.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Gareth Jones
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