Science

Your Guide to Science’s Wild Ig Nobel Awards: Findings That ‘Cannot or Should Not Be Reproduced’

Science isn’t all serious business. To honor these findings that “that cannot, or should not, be reproduced”, the Annals of Improbable Research runs the Ig Nobel awards each year since 1991.

Here are the winners from this year’s 21st 1st annual Ig Nobel Prize awards.

1) Physiology: Further evidence — from research of Red-Footed Tortoises – suggests yawns are not contagious. First of all, yes, tortoises yawn. Watch the video below. But one tortoise’s yawn does not induce another to yawn. According to an article in The Guardian when the research was announced earlier this year, because tortoises are not known to mimic each other, they are “the idea subjects for examining this question.” The Blaze recently reported the controversy of contagious yawning and its theorized purposes.

2) Chemistry: Here’s a spicy wake up call. Japanese researchers were recognized for figuring out the ideal density of airborne wasabi that could be used to wake up people in case of emergency, like a fire. A device that would sound — er, spray — the alarm is patent pending and is guaranteed to not burn your eyes. This is the fifth year in a row that Japanese researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize.

21st First Annual Ig Nobel Awards Honor Quirky Science

Wasabi alarm device. (Photo: Air Water Safety Service via CNET)

3) Medicine: Gotta go? Maybe you should hold it just a little longer. Evidence from collaborative research out of the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States and Australia found that controlling your bladder could make you better at controlling yourself when it comes to life decisions. Psychological Science reported that the researchers gave participants five cups of water and waited 40 minutes, at which time participants were asked a series of questions that could result in an immediate reward or a larger, delayed reward. Those with full bladders were willing to wait. Perhaps because at the time they would rather run to the restroom?

21st First Annual Ig Nobel Awards Honor Quirky Science

4) Psychology: Frustrated? Give a good huh. That is, sigh. Why do we do this when exasperated, angry, content? There are many different tones to sighing even. Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, Norway, was honored for looking into just why we express ourselves in a sigh. In three studies on the topic, Teigen found that “sighs are often unintentional expressions of an activity, plan or desire that has to be discarded, creating a pause before it can be replaced by a novel initiative.”  Teigen played on the Ig Nobels’ own catchphrase to describe his feelings. “Ig Nobel prizes are assumed to make people laugh and then think — and I would add: then sigh.”

21st First Annual Ig Nobel Awards Honor Quirky Science

5) Biology: Although “tequila may make her clothes fall off”, according to country singer Joe Nichol’s song, beer is what does it for this beetle. The reflections on round bumps of some beer bottles confuse this Australian beetle into thinking it’s a female.

21st First Annual Ig Nobel Awards Honor Quirky Science

(Photo: Darryl Gwynne via Live Science)

6) Physics: Watch the following videos. Are you dizzy?

Well, according to two researchers, hammer throwers don’t get dizzy while discus throwers do. Odd considering they both spin. Video analysis found that hammer throwers have more “visual bearings” than discus throwers and the fact that discus throwers leave the ground and the motion of their head is what causes reported motion sickness.

7) Mathematics: Several scientists were recognized for “teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations. They are as follows “Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999) and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on October 21, 2011).”

8) Peace: Luxury cars + armored tank = problem solved. Citizens of Vilnius, Lithuania, can thank their mayor.

Read The Blaze article or watch it here:

9) Public Safety: John Senders from the University of Toronto conducted experiments on distracted driving. Sometimes science doesn’t have to be complex. Senders created a helmet with a visor that flaps over the eyes whilst driving to see the affect of distracted driving on a major highway.

Watch him conduct the experiment himself:

You can watch the full Ig Nobel ceremony here.

Also, if you’re interested, the “ig” comes from the word “ignoble,” which according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary means characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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