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Special Coverage: Ig Nobel Prizes
Special Ig Nobel coverage sponsored in part by The Alchemist and HMS Beagle
Traditions are important to us here at Science Friday. And one of the most sacred of our traditions is the annual broadcast of highlights from the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. (This year, it's the Ninth First Annual Ig Nobel Awards, but that's another matter.) So turn off the football for a while, and pay some attention to the Super Bowl of scientific silliness - the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony.
| The Igs are awarded each year by the publishers of the Annals of Improbable Research for accomplishments "that cannot or should not be reproduced." They say that they ceremony is designed to "celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and spur people's interest in science." But we think they mostly want to have a good time. Hear highlights of the ceremonies on Science Friday's radio broadcast - and check out some of the bonus material we're able to bring you through the magic of the Web. | Multimedia:
The opening ceremonies
The Ig-Ig-Ig Nobel Chant (audio)
The Ira-Ira Chant (audio)
A procession of dignitaries (video) |
The Award Winners
Steve Penfold, of York University in Toronto, won the prize in Sociology for his PhD thesis on Canadian donut shops. Penfold asserts that donut shops are an essential part of Canadian culture - a point backed up by Troy Hurtubise, winner of a prize last year for his grizzly-bear-proof suit.
The British Standards Institution won the Literature Prize for its six-page specification (BS-6008) of the proper way to make a cup of tea. (audio) (video) The take-home message? It took them thousands of years to develop this standard, so don't expect to see an iced tea standard any time soon.
| Some of the awards were more pointed than others. The Kansas State Board of Education and the Colorado State Board of Education, were awarded the prize for science education due to their work to remove the teaching of evolution from the classroom.
Also in the "pointed" category is the award made to the late George and Charlotte Blonsky of New York City and San Jose, California. The pair invented a device (US Patent #3,216,423) to aid women in giving birth. The method works by strapping the woman onto a circular table, which is then rotated at high speed, thus impelling the baby out of the body. Commentators at the ceremony believe that this invention may bring "drive-through deliveries" one step closer. Result? The Ig Nobel award for Managed Health Care.
Dr. Len Fisher of Bath, England and Sydney, Australia and Professor Jean-Marc Vanden-Broeck of the University of East Anglia, England, and Belgium, shared this year's Physics Ig. Fisher calculated the optimal way to dunk a biscuit, while Vanden-Broeck calculated how to make a teapot spout that does not drip. The award was accepted by Dr. Fisher, who spoke later about his research in one of the Heisenberg Certainty Lectures (audio) (video). | 
An explosion of excitement at this
year's Ig Nobel Award Ceremony.
| Multimedia:
The Acceptance Speeches
Tell them what they've won! (audio)
Literature Prize: Tea Specifications (audio) (video)
Chemistry Prize: S-Check infidelity detector (audio) (video)
Environmental Protection: Perfumed Suit (audio) (video)
A tribute to the Perfumed Suit (audio)
Medicine: Specimen Containers (audio) (video) |
Got Milk? The theory of the
Perfect Dunk is tested. | | Dr. Arvid Vatle, a "country doctor" from Stord, Norway, carefully collected, classified, and contemplated which kinds of containers his patients chose when submitting urine samples. He was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine. (audio) (video)
In the useful invention category, four prize winners stood out.Takeshi Makino, president of The Safety Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan, has the answer to questions of marital fidelity: S-Check, an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands' underwear. He won this year's prize for Chemistry. (audio) (video) Charl Fourie and Michelle Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa invented an automobile burglar alarm consisting of a detection circuit and a flamethrower. No more stolen radios = the Ig Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Paul Bosland, director of The Chile Pepper Institute, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, has bred a spiceless jalapeno chile pepper, thus winning the Biology Ig. And Hyuk-ho Kwon of the Kolon Company in Seoul, Korea, invented the self-perfuming business suit - a clear candidate for the prize in Environmental Protection. (audio) (video) Remember - the more you rub it, the more it smells! Tasty!
| Heisenberg Certainty Lectures
It's the Heisenberg Certainty Lectures, strictly held to a 30-second time limit by Official Referees! As a bonus, we've included one of this year's micro-lectures on the evolution of respiration. Listen - and get inspired about respiring! | Multimedia: Special Lectures
An aerodynamical analysis of Congress (audio) (video)
How to get the perfect dunk (audio) (video)
A review of the medical literature (audio) (video)
Bonus Micro-Lecture: Evolve! (audio) (video) |
All photos this page by Jon Chase of the Harvard News Office. All video courtesy of HMS Beagle and The Alchemist)
Guests:
Marc Abrahams
Master of Ceremonies
Editor, Annals of Improbable Research
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Various Genuinely Bemused Nobel Laureates
Sanders Theater
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
A bunch of rather silly people
Sanders Theater
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Hot AIR - Annals of Improbable Research site
Official IgNobel Prize Webcast (sponsored by HMS Beagle and The Alchemist)
Science Friday 1998 IgNobel Coverage
What Is This Ig?
HMS Beagle - Profiles of Ig Nobel Winners
HMS Beagle Art Gallery - Seed-y Opera
Kansas Board of Education - winner of the Education Prize
British Standards Institution (writers of the Tea Specification)
Chile Pepper Institute (makers of the spiceless chile pepper)
Kolon's Self-Perfuming Business Suit
US Patent #3,216,423 - the Blonsky "birth-assisting" device
This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth and Annette Heist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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