October 07, 2005

This year's Ignobel winners! It's a rich crop. The velocity of penguin poo, Neuticles, locusts watching Star Wars, and smelly frogs. Science is glamorous!

The official Ignobel page has more info on the awards and lists of past winners.

posted by patita 19 years ago
  • There's even one for exploding trousers in New Zealand!
  • Guardian link.
  • Economics - A Massachusetts inventor who designed an alarm clock that runs away and hides when it goes off. Truly poetic.
  • 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". That's just beautiful.
  • I so fricken' need that clock.
  • rubber replacement testicles for neutered dogs
  • The bitumen experiment at Melbourne is actually really cool.
  • In fact so cool that it's in Brisbane.
  • patita, awwww! The clock is fuzzy!
  • Neuticles also previously discussed here.
  • New Scientist on penguin poo
  • Bah, I have more useless science experiments for breakfast.
  • Like...? C'mon Nick, share!
  • The FPP link describes these as "fake Nobel prizes"!?! c'mon now, the IgNobels have been around for 15 years and they ain't trying to be fake Nobel prizes. They are tongue in cheek sort of things with the name being, obviously, a play on the worlds ignoble and Nobel. Looks like the author of the treehugger.com piece had never heard of them? I love the idea. but fake Nobel prizes? Huh?
  • The 2006 winners have been announced! I'm particulary impressed with the diligent research that must have gone into the accomplishment in medicine.
  • BIOLOGY: Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy) for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet. REFERENCE: "On Human Odour, Malaria Mosquitoes, and Limburger Cheese," Bart. G.J. Knols, The Lancet, vol. 348 , November 9, 1996, p. 1322. REFERENCE: “Behavioural and electrophysiological responses of the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae (Diptera: Culicidae) to Limburger cheese volatiles,” Bulletin of Entomological Research, B.G.J. Knols, J.J.A. van Loon, A. Cork, R.D. Robinson, et al., vol. 87, 1997, pp. 151-159. REFERENCE: "Limburger Cheese as an Attractant for the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae s.s.," B.G,J. Knols and R. De Jong, Parasitology Today, yd. 12, no. 4, 1996, pp. 159-61. REFERENCE: "Selection of Biting Sites on Man by Two Malaria Mosquito Species," R. De Jong and B.G.J. Knols, Experientia, vol. 51, 1995, pp. 80–84. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY: Bart Knols Nice.
  • That Medicine award is glorious. Never has more research been accomplished while having one's thumb up one's ass.
  • Sock it to Me?
  • The 2006 Ignobel prizes, announced last week. It's been a slower year for funny science. This un's not bad, though: Blink-free photos, (almost) guaranteed
  • (on preview: oops)
  • Ach, but ye've missed presenting the best part - descriptions of the latest cure for hiccups. Only time can cure a teenager, though.
  • I'm proud to say that I have an umpteenth cousin who won an Ignobel.
  • 2009 Ignobels Including a gas mask built for two...