What are the
Ig Nobel Prizes?
WHAT: Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK.
WHO: Here is a list of all the
winners.
WHY: The Igs are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. Here are some discussions
about the Ig, and about
what the Ig is and
is not, and perhaps
what it could mean.
Now ,here's the full list of winner's and the projects for which the won the awrds , for 2005 & 2004 respectively, to get a better idea of how these prestigious awards are distributed:-
The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize WinnersThe 2005 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday evening, October 6, at the
15th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. You can watch archived
video of the live webcast.
*AGRICULTURAL HISTORY: James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, for his scholarly study, "
The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers."REFERENCE: "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," James Watson, Agricultural History, vol. 78, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 346-60.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: James Watson
*PHYSICS: John Mainstone and the late
Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting
an experiment that began in the year 1927 -- in which a glob of congealed black tar has been slowly, slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years.REFERENCE: "
The Pitch Drop Experiment," R. Edgeworth, B.J. Dalton and T. Parnell, European Journal of Physics, 1984, pp. 198-200. WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: John Mainstone
*MEDICINE: Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing
Neuticles -- artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are
available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness.REFERENCES: US Patent #5868140, and the book
Going Going NUTS!, by Gregg A. Miller, PublishAmerica, 2004, ISBN 1413753167.ACCEPTING: The winner was unable to travel, and delivered his acceptance speech via video.
*LITERATURE: The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute
a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha,
Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- 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 and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.
*PEACE: Claire Rind and
Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in the U.K., for
electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie "
Star Wars." REFERENCE: "
Orthopteran DCMD Neuron: A Reevaluation of Responses to Moving Objects. I. Selective Responses to Approaching Objects," F.C. Rind and P.J. Simmons, Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 68, no. 5, November 1992, pp. 1654-66.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Claire Rind
*ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for inventing
an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Gauri Nanda
*CHEMISTRY: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and
Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for conducting a
careful experiment to settle the
longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in
syrup or in
water?REFERENCE: "
Will Humans Swim Faster or Slower in Syrup?" American Institute of Chemical Engineers Journal, Brian Gettelfinger and E. L. Cussler, vol. 50, no. 11, October 2004, pp. 2646-7.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Brian Gettelfinger and Edward Cussler
*BIOLOGY: Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide, Australia and the University of Toronto, Canada and the Firmenich perfume company, Geneva, Switzerland, and ChemComm Enterprises, Archamps, France;
Craig Williams of James Cook University and the University of South Australia; Michael Tyler of the University of Adelaide; Brian Williams of the University of Adelaide; and
Yoji Hayasaka of the Australian Wine Research Institute; for painstakingly smelling and cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.REFERENCE: "
A Survey of Frog Odorous Secretions, Their Possible Functions and Phylogenetic Significance," Benjamin P.C. Smith, Craig R. Williams, Michael J. Tyler, and Brian D. Williams, Applied Herpetology, vol. 2, no. 1-2, February 1, 2004, pp. 47-82.REFERENCE: "
Chemical and Olfactory Characterization of Odorous Compounds and Their Precursors in the Parotoid Gland Secretion of the Green Tree Frog, Litoria caerulea," Benjamin P.C. Smith, Michael J. Tyler, Brian D. Williams, and Yoji Hayasaka, Journal of Chemical Ecology, vol. 29, no. 9, September 2003.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Ben Smith and Craig Williams
*NUTRITION:
Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively
analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting).WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY:
Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats*
FLUID DYNAMICS:
Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu, Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as
detailed in their report "
Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation."PUBLISHED IN:
Polar Biology, vol. 27, 2003, pp. 56-8.ACCEPTING: The winners were unable to attend the ceremony because they could not obtain United States visas to visit the United States. Dr. Meyer-Rochow sent an
acceptance speech via video.
The 2004 Ig Nobel Prize WinnersThe 2004 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday evening, September 30, at the
14th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. You can
watch archived video of the live webcast.
*MEDICINE Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA and
James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, for their published report "
The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."PUBLISHED IN:
Social Forces, vol. 71, no. 1, September 1992, pp. 211-8.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: James Gundlach.
*PHYSICS Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and
Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.REFERENCE: "
Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping," Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael T. Turvey,
Biological Cybernetics, vol. 90, no. 3, March 2004, pp. 176-90.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael Turvey.
*PUBLIC HEALTH Jillian Clarke of the
Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and then Howard University, for
investigating the scientific validity of the Five-Second Rule about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Jillian Clarke
*CHEMISTRY The Coca-Cola Company of Great Britain, for using advanced technology to convert ordinary tap water into
Dasani, a transparent form of water, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers.
*ENGINEERING Donald J. Smith and his father, the late Frank J. Smith, of Orlando Florida, USA, for patenting the combover (
U.S. Patent #4,022,227).WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Donald Smith's son, Scott Jackson Smith, and daughter, Heather Smith.
*LITERATURE The American Nudist Research Library of Kissimmee, Florida, USA, for preserving nudist history so that everyone can see it.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Pamela Chestek, the daughter of ANRL director Helen Fisher.
*PSYCHOLOGY Daniel Simons of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and
Christopher Chabris of Harvard University, for demonstrating that when people pay close attention to something, it's all too easy to overlook anything else -- even a woman in a gorilla suit.REFERENCE: "
Gorillas in Our Midst," Daniel J. Simons and Christopher F. Chabris, vol. 28,
Perception, 1999, pages 1059-74.DEMO: <
http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/media/ig.html>WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris.
*ECONOMICS The Vatican, for
outsourcing prayers to India.
*PEACE Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for
inventing karaoke, thereby providing an
entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Daisuke Inoue.
*BIOLOGY Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia,
Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada],
Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science,
Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of
Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that
herrings apparently communicate by farting.REFERENCE: "
Sounds Produced by Herring (Clupea harengus) Bubble Release," Magnus Wahlberg and Håkan Westerberg,
Aquatic Living Resources, vol. 16, 2003, pp. 271-5.REFERENCE: "
Pacific and Atlantic Herring Produce Burst Pulse Sounds," Ben Wilson, Robert S. Batty and Lawrence M. Dill,
Biology Letters, vol. 271, 2003, pp. S95-S97.WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Lawrence Dill, Robert Batty, Magnus Whalberg, Hakan Westerberg.
