Ian Sample - Frozen poo and narcissists' eyebrows studies win Ig Nobel prizes
Gongs were also awarded for research into vibrating earthworms, French kissing and bellowing alligators.. The peace prize honoured the governments of India and Pakistan for having their diplomats ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night and run away before anyone answered… The annals of science brim with researchers who pushed the boundaries of sense and good taste in a laudable quest for knowledge. With the unveiling of the 30th annual Ig Nobel awards, another case shall be added.. This year’s awards included a physics prize for work that recorded the shapes earthworms adopt when vibrated at high frequency.
To test the validity of a story in a work of ethnographic
literature, Metin Eren, an anthropologist at Kent State University in Ohio,
made a knife from his frozen faeces. He then set about butchering an animal
hide, an endeavour that ended in failure. “It’s an honour to be recognised,”
Eren said, before the ceremony in which he was honoured for his work on
Thursday. “I’ve followed the Ig Nobels my entire life. It’s a dream come true.
Really.”
Not to be mistaken for the more prestigious – and lucrative
– Nobel prizes,
to be doled out in Scandinavia next month, the Ig Nobels celebrate research
that “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think”. In a ceremony held
online, rather than at Harvard University as usual, 10 awards were handed out
for notable achievements in physics, peace, psychology, economics, medicine and
more. In lieu of a handsome windfall and medal, the winners received a paper
cube and a £10tn
dollar bill from Zimbabwe.
Study of French postmen's testicles is an Ig Nobel winner
