arthwollipot
Observer of Phenomena, Pronouns: he/him
The 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced. These are awarded every year for science that makes you laugh, then makes you think. Here they are, with references in spoilers because some of them are fairly long.
Literature Prize [USA]
The late Dr. William B. Bean, for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years.
(Tl;dr: Growth slows as you age)
Psychology Prize [Poland, Australia, Canada]
Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac, for investigating what happens when you tell narcissists — or anyone else — that they are intelligent.
(Tl;dr: They get more narcissistic. Remind you of anyone?)
Nutrition Prize [Nigeria, Togo, Italy, France]
Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek, and Luca Luiselli, for studying the extent to which a certain kind of lizard chooses to eat certain kinds of pizza.
(Tl;dr: they like four-cheese pizza)
Pediatrics Prize [USA]
Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp, for studying what a nursing baby experiences when the baby’s mother eats garlic.
(Tl;dr: They appear to like it)
Biology Prize [Japan]
Tomoki Kojima, Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yuki Uchiyama, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Naoto Aoki, Say Sato, Tatsuaki Masuda, Junichi Ueda, Hiroyuki Hirooka, and Katsutoshi Kino, for their experiments to learn whether cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid being bitten by flies.
(Tl;dr: It works)
Chemistry Prize [USA, Israel]
Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich, and Frank Greenway, for experiments to test whether eating Teflon [a form of plastic more formally called “polytetrafluoroethylene”] is a good way to increase food volume and hence satiety without increasing calorie content.
(Tl;dr: It is)
Peace Prize [The Netherlands, UK, Germany]
Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann, for showing that drinking alcohol sometimes improves a person’s ability to speak in a foreign language.
(Tl;dr: aka Dutch Courage aka it's good to get drunk with Germans)
Engineering Design Prize [India]
Vikash Kumar and Sarthak Mittal, for analyzing, from an engineering design perspective, how foul-smelling shoes affect the good experience of using a shoe-rack.
(Tl;dr: Badly)
Aviation Prize [Colombia, Israel, Argentina, Germany, UK, Italy, USA, Portugal, Spain]
Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine, and Berry Pinshow, for studying whether ingesting alcohol can impair bats’ ability to fly and also their ability to echolocate.
(Tl;dr: It does both)
Physics Prize [Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria]
Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti, for discoveries about the physics of pasta sauce, especially the phase transition that can lead to clumping, which can be a cause of unpleasantness.
(Tl;dr: Specifically, the perfect Cacio e Pepe has 5g of starch for 200g of cheese)
That's it for this year! Congratulations to all the prize winners. More here:
www.theguardian.com
Literature Prize [USA]
The late Dr. William B. Bean, for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years.
(Tl;dr: Growth slows as you age)
Psychology Prize [Poland, Australia, Canada]
Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac, for investigating what happens when you tell narcissists — or anyone else — that they are intelligent.
(Tl;dr: They get more narcissistic. Remind you of anyone?)
Nutrition Prize [Nigeria, Togo, Italy, France]
Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek, and Luca Luiselli, for studying the extent to which a certain kind of lizard chooses to eat certain kinds of pizza.
(Tl;dr: they like four-cheese pizza)
Pediatrics Prize [USA]
Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp, for studying what a nursing baby experiences when the baby’s mother eats garlic.
(Tl;dr: They appear to like it)
Biology Prize [Japan]
Tomoki Kojima, Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yuki Uchiyama, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Naoto Aoki, Say Sato, Tatsuaki Masuda, Junichi Ueda, Hiroyuki Hirooka, and Katsutoshi Kino, for their experiments to learn whether cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid being bitten by flies.
(Tl;dr: It works)
Chemistry Prize [USA, Israel]
Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich, and Frank Greenway, for experiments to test whether eating Teflon [a form of plastic more formally called “polytetrafluoroethylene”] is a good way to increase food volume and hence satiety without increasing calorie content.
(Tl;dr: It is)
Peace Prize [The Netherlands, UK, Germany]
Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann, for showing that drinking alcohol sometimes improves a person’s ability to speak in a foreign language.
(Tl;dr: aka Dutch Courage aka it's good to get drunk with Germans)
Engineering Design Prize [India]
Vikash Kumar and Sarthak Mittal, for analyzing, from an engineering design perspective, how foul-smelling shoes affect the good experience of using a shoe-rack.
(Tl;dr: Badly)
Aviation Prize [Colombia, Israel, Argentina, Germany, UK, Italy, USA, Portugal, Spain]
Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine, and Berry Pinshow, for studying whether ingesting alcohol can impair bats’ ability to fly and also their ability to echolocate.
(Tl;dr: It does both)
Physics Prize [Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria]
Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti, for discoveries about the physics of pasta sauce, especially the phase transition that can lead to clumping, which can be a cause of unpleasantness.
(Tl;dr: Specifically, the perfect Cacio e Pepe has 5g of starch for 200g of cheese)
That's it for this year! Congratulations to all the prize winners. More here:
Teflon diet, garlic milk and zebra cows triumph at 2025 Ig Nobel prizes
Researchers into idea to blend powdered PTFE into food as a zero-calorie filler to curb hunger win chemistry prize
www.theguardian.com
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