Ig Nobel Prizes

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Ig Nobel Winners Include Dead Trout, Drunk Worms

And a Japanese team found that many mammals can breathe through their anuses

(Newser) - Thursday was the biggest night on the calendar for weird science. The Annals of Improbable Research handed out Ig Nobel prizes honoring researchers including a Japanese team that found many mammals can breathe through their anuses. They won the Physiology prize for their research on "enteral ventilation," which...

Ig Nobel Winners Include Studies of Nose Hairs, 'Necrobotics'

Dead spiders were used to create gripping tools

(Newser) - Counting nose hairs in cadavers, repurposing dead spiders, and explaining why scientists lick rocks are among the winning achievements in this year's Ig Nobels, the prize for humorous scientific feats, organizers announced Thursday. The 33rd annual prize ceremony was a prerecorded online event, as it has been since the...

Studies of Doorknobs, Intoxicating Enemas Win Ig Nobel Prizes

Weird science prizes also went to teams studying constipated scorpions, legal language

(Newser) - Researchers who studied the sex lives of constipated scorpions were among the winners of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes, the annual celebration of weird and wonderful scientific research. Because of what organizers at the Annals of Improbable Research called the "lurking ambitions" of COVID-19, this year's ceremony...

The Weirdest Science Is Once Again Lauded
The Weirdest Science
Is Once Again Lauded
THE RUNDOWN
Sep 10, 2021 7:00 AM CDT

The Weirdest Science Is Once Again Lauded

The Ig Nobel peace prize went to a team that looked at how beards evolved

(Newser) - This year's Ig Nobel prizes were handed out virtually for the second year in a row—but the science involved was as delightfully weird as ever. Winners of the prizes for unusual research, which are usually awarded at a Harvard ceremony, included a team that determined transporting rhinos hanging...

Poop Knives and Other 2020 Ig Nobel Winners

Prizes were handed out virtually this year

(Newser) - Maybe this year's Ig Nobels, the spoof prizes for dubious but humorous scientific achievement, should have been renamed the Ick Nobels. An anthropologist who tested an urban legend by fashioning a knife out of frozen human feces, and a man who found that spiders oddly give scientists who study...

World's Most 'Bizarre' Science Discoveries Get Their Due

Among this year's Ig Nobel winners: a diaper-changing device, study on pizza as health food

(Newser) - Training surgeons is as easy as training dolphins or dogs—at least according to a study that Thursday earned a 2019 Ig Nobel, the annual Nobel Prize spoof that rewards weird, sometimes head-scratching scientific discoveries. This year's winners included, per the AP : Dutch and Turkish researchers who figured out...

Boss Revenge, Cannibal Calories Win Ig Nobels

'We wanted to understand why subordinates retaliate when it's bad for them'

(Newser) - Anyone who's ever been so furious with their boss that they feel like exacting revenge really needs to listen to Lindie Liang. The Wilfrid Laurier University professor of business and her colleagues found that abusing a virtual voodoo doll instead of your boss will make you feel better without...

Ig Nobel: See This Year's Goofiest Science Prizes

Studies of big ears and crocodiles' effect on gamblers were among the winners

(Newser) - Scientists who discovered that old men really do have big ears, that playing the didgeridoo helps relieve sleep apnea, and that handling crocodiles can influence gambling decisions are among this year's recipients of the Ig Nobel , the prize for absurd scientific achievement. The 27th annual awards were announced Thursday...

Weird Science Is Honored Once a Year. 'Goat Man' Won Big

Rat trousers also a winner at Thursday's Ig Nobel Prizes

(Newser) - Thursday night was the silliest night in scientists' calendars, and with winners including a man who wore prosthetic extensions to live among a herd of goats in the Alps for several days, this year's Ig Nobel awards did not disappoint. In front of a rowdy crowd, real Nobel winners...

Pee Theory, Stung Penis Win Ig Nobel Prizes

'Huh?' you may ask, in every language

(Newser) - If you're willing to let a bee sting every part of your body in the name of science, you may have what it takes to win an Ig Nobel Prize. The annual awards ceremony for "improbable research" was held last night, the BBC reports, and a Cornell University...

Ig Nobel Prizes Honor Research on Pork and Poop

Annual ceremony celebrates the year's wackiest scientific pursuits

(Newser) - More than 1,000 people gathered at Harvard's Sanders Theatre yesterday to celebrate the 24th annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, which includes such traditions as throwing paper airplanes and seeing who wins a date with a Nobel laureate. But the real treat is the science itself—which, in addition...

Ig Nobel Winner: Scientists Who Ate a Parboiled Shrew

Yes, it's once again the 'weirdest night in science'

(Newser) - The 23rd Ig Nobel Awards—a spoof on the only slightly more prestigious Nobel Prizes—were held at Harvard last night, in what Slate describes as "the weirdest night in science." Legit scientific research is honored for its ability to make people laugh, the BBC reports, and the...

SpeechJammer, Ponytail Physics Win Ig Nobels

One weird science winner found brain activity in dead fish

(Newser) - Teams that scanned the brains of dead fish and studied the physics of coffee sloshing and ponytails were among the winners at this year's Ig Nobel celebration of strange scientific research. The acoustics prize went to the Japanese inventors of the SpeechJammer , a device that repeats a speaker's...

Wasabi Alarm, Beer Sex Beetles Win Ig Nobels

Weird science rewarded at Harvard ceremony

(Newser) - The annual Ig Nobel prizes for odd research were handed out last night and the winning scientists were as weird as ever. Among the winners were a Japanese team that determined the ideal level of airborne wasabi to awaken sleepers (for a potential fire alarm), a Norwegian who tried to...

Bat Oral Sex Researchers Snag Ig Nobel Prize

As do the researchers who proved that swearing eases stubbed-toe pain

(Newser) - The Journal of Improbable Research handed out Ig Nobel prizes yesterday to the gallant researchers who proved that wearing socks on the outside of your shoes can prevent you from slipping on ice. Other intrepid researchers took home the honor for studying bats having oral sex, using a remote-controlled helicopter...

Emergency Bra Now On Sale
 Emergency Bra Now On Sale 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 26, 2010 5:06 PM CDT

Emergency Bra Now On Sale

Device doubles as twin gas masks

(Newser) - A potentially life-saving "emergency bra" invented by a Ukrainian doctor has gone from award-winningly odd idea to actual commercial product. The bra, which doubles up as a pair of gas masks has gone on sale online for $29.95, Fox reports. Inventor Elena Bodnar, who witnessed the devastating effects...

'Ig Nobels' Laud Goofy Science
 'Ig Nobels' Laud Goofy Science 
Oct 2, 2009 1:30 PM CDT

'Ig Nobels' Laud Goofy Science

Bra gas masks and the benefits of naming cows among the discoveries honored

(Newser) - The scientific world’s best and brightest gathered last night to honor the silliest. Eight Nobel laureates showed up to hand out the “Ig Nobels,” which honor funny, weird, and downright silly discoveries. The winners included:
  • Public health: Dr. Elena Bodnar, who invented a bra that can turn
...

This Year's Not-So-Nobel Prizes

Spoof kudos for 'mad' scientist projects

(Newser) - Researchers who proved Diet Coke is an effective spermicide, a nation's declaration that plants have rights, and a study that proved dog fleas can jump higher than cat fleas have won Harvard University's annual Ig Nobel Prizes. The spoof awards recognize projects that "first make people laugh, and then...

'Gay Bomb,' Sword Eating Win Ig-Nobels

Making enemies 'sexually irresistible to each other' lights anti-Nobels' fuse

(Newser) - The US military does some pretty cutting-edge research, but a hypothetical bomb that would make enemy troops make love to each other instead of war on the US? The proposal—along with detailed research on the effects of sword-swallowing, extracting vanilla from cowpies, and curing hamster jetlag with Viagra—yesterday...

19 Stories