Post by taxed on Oct 7, 2005 8:08:35 GMT -6
Winners of this year's Ig Nobel awards:
Medicine - Gregg Miller from the US for his invention of Neuticles - rubber replacement testicles for neutered dogs that are available in varying sizes and degrees of firmness. "Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honour," said Mr Miller.
Peace - A UK team for their pioneering research into the activity of locusts' brain cells while the insects watched clips from the Star Wars films.
Physics - John Maidstone from Australia for his part in an experiment that began in 1927 in which a glob of black tar drips through a funnel every nine years. Mr Maidstone shared the prize with a late colleague who died sometime after the second drop.
Biology - The University of Adelaide for "painstakingly smelling and cataloguing the peculiar odours produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed".
Chemistry - A University of Minnesota team who set out to prove whether people can swim faster in water or sugar syrup.
Economics - A Massachusetts inventor who designed an alarm clock that runs away and hides when it goes off.
Nutrition - A Japanese researcher who photographed and analyzed every meal he had consumed during a period of 34 years.
Literature - The many Nigerians who introduced millions of e-mail users to a "cast of rich characters... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled".
Agricultural History - A study entitled The Significance of Mr Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy-Farming between the World Wars."
Fluid Dynamics - Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh - Calculations on Avian Defecation .
Medicine - Gregg Miller from the US for his invention of Neuticles - rubber replacement testicles for neutered dogs that are available in varying sizes and degrees of firmness. "Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honour," said Mr Miller.
Peace - A UK team for their pioneering research into the activity of locusts' brain cells while the insects watched clips from the Star Wars films.
Physics - John Maidstone from Australia for his part in an experiment that began in 1927 in which a glob of black tar drips through a funnel every nine years. Mr Maidstone shared the prize with a late colleague who died sometime after the second drop.
Biology - The University of Adelaide for "painstakingly smelling and cataloguing the peculiar odours produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed".
Chemistry - A University of Minnesota team who set out to prove whether people can swim faster in water or sugar syrup.
Economics - A Massachusetts inventor who designed an alarm clock that runs away and hides when it goes off.
Nutrition - A Japanese researcher who photographed and analyzed every meal he had consumed during a period of 34 years.
Literature - The many Nigerians who introduced millions of e-mail users to a "cast of rich characters... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled".
Agricultural History - A study entitled The Significance of Mr Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy-Farming between the World Wars."
Fluid Dynamics - Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh - Calculations on Avian Defecation .