Ig Nobel Awards Awarded
Severe people who make advances in the sciences with no purpose to them can be given the Ig Nobel Prize. Indeed, the name is intriguing. It is a clever pun. The joke works in that “ignoble” implies “not noble,” and that word is close to the name of Alfred Nobel. The Ig Nobel Prize is given for nine categories of discovery that is totally useless or ridiculous.
The Ig Nobel awards for 2010
The Ig Nobel Prizes this year were well deserved. The Guardian gave out this year’s awards. Anyone who found something ridiculous was awarded. The winners are as follows:
* Under medicine: The discovery that roller coasters can help asthma symptoms was found by Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest from the University of Amsterdam.
* Under physics: The University of Otago, Brand new Zealand had Lianne Parkin who discovered something. Wearing socks over shoes keeps one from slipping on ice.
* Biology category: Gareth Jones, from Bristol University, found that fruit bats enjoy sex for purposes other than procreation.
* Peace: Richard Stevens, of Keele University, found that pain is alleviated when individuals curse.
* Engineering: The Institute of Zoology in London had Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse discover something. Remote control helicopters could be used to clean up whale mucus.
* Then there’s transportation: Mark Fricker and Dan Bebber, along with help from other scientists, found how to model train systems using oatmeal and slime mold.
* Next is management: The University of Catania had Alessandro Pluchino discover something. Evidently random promotions make a business work more efficiently.
* Public health category: The Maryland Industrial Health and Safety Office had Manuel Barbeito discover something. Evidently microbes are collected in beards often.
* Category for chemistry: Eric Adams, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with help from Bp, found that oil and water, in fact, mix.
* Next is economics: Inventive investing gave a joint award to Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Magnetar, American International Group and Bear Stearns executive.
And what’ll come after that?
The website for the Ig Nobel prizes lists who showed up to collect their prizes. Some of the winners for Ig Nobel 2010 did not show up. The ones that didn’t show up were expected. These were the economics winners.
Information from
Guardian
guardian.co.uk/science/2010/oct/01/ig-nobel-awards-mould-bats
Improbable
improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2010
