A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.
Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law—the theme of the night—and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.
“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.
The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.
“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”
After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.
A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. © AP Photo/Steven Senne
Then, the awards began—several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I’m bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy’s Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.
The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people’s heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone’s hair in the Southern Hemisphere.
Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn’t cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus—winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.
Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. © AP Photo/Steven Senne
Students walk past the “Great Dome” atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. © AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File
Professor Sander Woutersen, right, displays an oversized stuffed worm while accepting a shared Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry for working with a team of researchers using chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms, during a performance, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass. © AP Photo/Steven Senne
A performer places a stuffed toy cat on an inflatable cow, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, to demonstrate exploding a paper bag next to a cat that’s standing on the back of a cow, to explore how and when cows spew their milk, at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass. © AP Photo/Steven Senne
Eric Maskin, 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics, right, presents an Ig Nobel award to a members of a team of researchers who who used chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms, during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. © AP Photo/Steven Senne
Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.
“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”
James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”
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Citation:
Studies on pigeon-guided missiles, swimming abilities of dead fish among Ig Nobles winners (2024, September 13)
