2015 Ig Nobel Prizes - "Celebrating" Improbable Research
“The Ig Nobel awards are arguably the highlight of the
scientific calendar.” – Nature
This is the Nobel season. Awards for Physics, Chemistry,
Medicine, and Literature have been announced. I will write about the Nobel in
another column. This column is about the Ig Nobel Prizes – awarded last month.
Founded in 1991 (and now in its 25th year) the
Ig Nobel is about celebrating improbable research – research that makes people laugh and then think. Real research, about anything and everything, from
everywhere, good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless, is
collected, filtered, and the “best” (?) ones are chosen for the honor.
The award ceremony is held at Harvard University’s Sanders
Theater, followed by public lectures at MIT.
Here’s the most improbable part of the event: Real Nobel Laureates present the Awards.
Here are the 2015 winning proposals with a brief
description of the research. For details, references, and acceptance speeches,
visit the official site: http://www.improbable.com/
Chemistry
Prize: 11 researchers (2 from Australia and 9 from the USA) for
inventing a chemical recipe to partially un-boil an egg.
Physics
Prize: 4 researchers (from USA and Taiwan) for testing the
biological principle that all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds
(plus or minus 13 seconds)
Literature
Prize: 3 researchers (The Netherlands and USA) for discovering
that the word “huh” (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language –
and for not being quite sure why.
Management
Prize: 3 researchers (Italy, USA and India) for discovering that
many business leaders developed in childhood a fondness for risk-taking, when
they experienced natural disasters (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
tsunamis, and wildfires) that – for them – had no dire personal consequences.
Economics
Prize: The Bangkok Metropolitan Police (Thailand) for offering to
pay policemen extra cash if the policemen refused to take bribes.
Medicine
Prize: 8 researchers (Japan, China, Slovakia, USA, UK, and
Germany) for experiments to study the biomedical benefits or biomedical
consequences of intense kissing (and other related activities).
Mathematics
Prize: 2 researchers (Austria and Germany) for trying to use
mathematical techniques to determine whether and how a bloodthirsty emperor of
Morocco managed, during the years 1697 – 1727, to father 888 children.
Biology
Prize: 5 researchers (Chile and the USA) for observing that when
you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then
walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have
walked.
Diagnostic
Medicine Prize: 8 researchers (Canada, New Zealand, Bahrain,
Belgium, Dubai, South Africa, UK, and the USA) for determining that acute
appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when the
patient is driven over speed bumps.
Physiology
and Entomology Prize: 2 researchers (USA and Canada) for
painstakingly creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the relative
pain people feel when stung by various insects, and on different locations of the
body.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is no laughing matter. The
organization that manages these awards, the Annals of Improbable Research
(successor to the Journal of Irreproducible Results) boasts of 20000 articles
culled from leading Journals, has eminent scientists including Nobel Laureates on its editorial board,
produces podcasts (distributed by CBS), has a newspaper column (in The
Guardian), a blog, books, and videos.
Please also remember that the research for which the
Prizes have been given have already been published or have been accepted for
publication in prestigious Journals.
Which brings us to the central question: Research is
supposed to showcase the ever growing capacity of humans to enlarge the
frontiers of knowledge and as a consequence of wisdom. If the work that has
been recognized (for the last 25 years) is indeed a representation of what is
really going on and how resources (public or otherwise) are being expended, is
it any wonder that we find ourselves in a world where problems exceed
solutions? If some form of legitimacy is sought to be bestowed on the circus by
having Real Nobel Laureates present
the prizes, what does it say about the ethos of the Laureates themselves? Or are
we supposed to dismiss this is a big joke and possibly a publicity stunt? It
would indeed be interesting to know who, if any, are the sponsors of this
annual and ongoing exercise in futility.
What do you think?
I like bribing the cops to encourage them to stop taking bribes. Nice! These were fun to read - Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteWhat do I think?
ReplyDeleteAmusing.
Hope I (my taxes) not paying for this research.
Oh to be happy in yourself to feel comfortable dedicating so much time to such causes/research.
Doe they contribute to knowledge 'creation'? Yes. Is the knowledge created of value (other than a chuckle)? Hmmm. ...but maybe there are spin off benefits ...if one can uncook an egg then can one uncook other foods (like overcooked pasta) and if you can uncook foods can you undo other chemical processes and are some of the processes ones that are desirable to undo ... climate change? growing old? ....