The weirdest researchers rewarded: counting nose hairs and licking stones

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The “Ig Nobel Prizes” (pronounced “despicable”, which translates as dishonorable) are awarded every year to the most bizarre scientific work.

The traditionally strange gala was held for the fourth consecutive year on Friday night as part of an online event. The aim of the 33rd annual pure entertainment awards is to “celebrate the unconventional and honor the imagination”, according to organisers.

For example, researchers from Poland and the USA were awarded in the “Chemistry and Geology” category for their research on the question of why many scientists like to lick stones. Researcher Jan Zalasiewicz said it gave him great pleasure to receive the award for such a “fundamental thing”. “Geologists do this all the time because something that isn’t completely clear becomes clearer when the surface gets wet.”

Researchers counted nose hairs on corpses

Scientists from the US, Canada, Iran and Vietnam received one of ten awards for using cadavers to investigate whether a person has the same number of hairs in both nostrils. In his acceptance speech, researchers said they investigated nearly 20 corpses and found around 110 to 120 hairs per nostril.

Researchers from China, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland, the USA and Japan received the award in the “Education” category for their methodical studies of boredom among teachers and students. Among other things, students are more likely to get bored in class if they wait in advance, the research team said in its acceptance speech. Students are also more likely to be bored in class if they get the impression that the teacher is bored.

Our colleagues from France, the UK, Malaysia and Finland received awards for their work investigating how people feel when they repeat a word many times. US researchers have been awarded for experiments in which they wanted to find out how many pedestrians on a city’s streets stopped and looked up when they saw strangers looking up.

Dead spiders came back to life

A South Korean American researcher invented the so-called Stanford toilet, which uses various tools to analyze substances excreted by people. “Don’t waste your waste,” researcher Seung Min Park said in his short acceptance speech for the award. Scientists from India, China, Malaysia and the USA resurrected dead spiders and used them as mechanical grasping devices, and received awards for this.

A team of researchers from Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Chile, China and the United States were honored for investigating the brain activity of people who were experts at speaking backwards. “Thank you for this fun award, we are happy to accept it,” scientist María José Torres-Prioris and colleague Adolfo García said back and forth.

The sexual activity of anchovy in seawater was investigated

A male and female researcher from Japan were also awarded for their experiments on the question of whether electric chopsticks and straws can change the taste of food. In addition, awards were given to scientists from Spain, Switzerland, France and England who investigated to what extent the sexual activity of anchovy is reflected in sea water.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the gala, which this year was attended by real Nobel Prize winners, including German physicist Wolfgang Ketterle, was watched by more than 1,000 spectators every year in a theater at the prestigious Harvard University. But the online awards ceremony, which lasted about an hour and a half and this time had the general theme of “water”, also featured flying paper planes, sketches, strange sound bites and much more strange nonsense, ended traditionally. Closing words from moderator Marc Abrahams, editor of a scientific journal on intriguing research: “If you haven’t won the Ig Nobel Prize this year, and especially if you have: better luck next year!” (SDA)

Source : Blick