STORIES

About the Ig Nobel Prize

The Shnobel Prize - a parody of the Nobel Prize - is awarded "for achievements that make you first laugh, and then think." For pseudoscientific works, as well as discoveries that are useless and meaningless. The award was established by Mark Abrahams and the humor magazine Annals of Incredible Research in 1991.

The English name of the Ig Nobel Prize is a play on words and is consonant with the adjective "ignoble", which means "shameful". In Russian, the name of the award is most often translated as "Antinobel Prize" or "Ig Nobel Prize".

With the exception of the three prizes awarded in the first year, they were presented for real work. The first award ceremonies were held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, the Ig Nobel Prize is presented at Harvard on the eve of the Nobel Prize. The awards are presented by real Nobel laureates.

The awarding of the prize in some cases expresses veiled criticism, as, for example, in the case of the homeopathic research award. In most cases, awards are given to scientific papers whose title or subject contains elements of humor, such as a study showing that the presence of humans sexually arouses ostriches.

Every year, real Nobel laureates in fake glasses, with false noses and other buffoonish attributes present Ig Nobel laureates with their awards - medals made of foil or in the form of clattering jaws, as well as a certificate certifying the receipt of the award and signed by three Nobel Prize winners. Paper planes fly through the majestic 1,166-seat lecture hall at the Sanders Theater in Harvard, where the ceremony takes place. The award ceremony is broadcast on American television and radio in several languages. It can also be watched live on the official website of the award.

A few days after the ceremony, informal Ignobel lectures are held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the laureates can explain their research and its significance.

In 2000, our former compatriot Andrei Geim received the Shnobel Prize for his levitating frog. In 2010, he also received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the practical production of graphene (a layer of crystalline carbon, one atom thick). Thus, Andrei Game became the first and so far the only person in history to be awarded both the Ig Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prize.

Some Ig Nobel Prize Winners

Literature. U.S. Accounts Office - for compiling a report of reports of reports recommending the preparation of a report of reports of reports of reports of reports.

Acoustics. Japanese scientists Katsutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada - for developing a device to combat an annoying interlocutor - Speech Jammer (speech chewer). This device repeats spoken words with a delay of several milliseconds, creating an echo effect. The resulting annoying noise prevents a person from speaking and forces him to be silent.

Hydrodynamics. Professor from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a native of Russia Ruslan Krechetnikov and his graduate student Hans Mayer - for studying the cause of spilling coffee when walking. Physicists came to the conclusion that this was primarily due to the uneven step of the cup carrier.

Anatomy. Frans de Waal of the Netherlands and Jennifer Pokorny of the USA for the discovery that chimpanzees are able to recognize their relatives from photographs of their backs.

Psychology. Anita Eerland, Rolf Zwaan and Tulio Guadalupe for researching why the Eiffel Tower seems smaller when you turn your head to the left.

Physics. Joseph Keller, Raymond Goldstein, Patrick Warren and Robin Ball for their study of the forces acting on hair in a ponytail.

The medicine. A group of Dutch and American scientists who have shown that people with full bladders are better at making some decisions and worse at others.

Engineering. A group of British scientists led by Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse. For improving the method of collecting whale snot using a remote-controlled helicopter.

Healthcare. Elena Bodnar, Rafael Lee and Sandra Marihan from Chicago - for the invention of a bra, which, if necessary, transforms into a gas mask (a pair of respirators).

Literature. The Irish police - for issuing more than fifty traffic fines to a certain Prawo Jazdy, which in Polish means "driving license". The award was given to Karolina Levestam, a Polish citizen, who represented all Polish drivers. There were no representatives from the Irish police.

The medicine. Donald Unger of California, for experimental proof that knuckle-clicking does not lead to arthritis. For sixty years, he clicked the knuckles exclusively in his left hand. “And now, 60 years later, I looked at my fingers and found no signs of arthritis,” Unger, 83, told the Guardian. - Then I raised my eyes to the sky and said: Mom, how wrong you were!

Peace. Stefan Bolliger, Stephen Ross, Lars Osterhölweg, Michael Tali and Beat Kneubel from the University of Bern - for a comparative study of which beer bottle is better to hit the head - empty or full. “Empty bottles are stronger than full ones,” the researchers said. “At the same time, both empty and full bottles are theoretically capable of damaging a person’s skull.”

Biology. Marie-Christine Cadergaud, Christel Joubert and Michel Franck of the National Veterinary School of Toulouse, France, for discovering that fleas that live on dogs jump further than fleas that live on cats.

Economy. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tibur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional strippers who specialize in private lap dancing get more tips when they ovulate.

Literature. David Sims of Cass Business School, London, UK, for his inspirational work "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations" about how it's better in a team to constantly remind the person you don't like that you don't like them , and even insult him than to keep emotions to yourself.

Linguistics. Juan Manuel Toro, Josep Trobalon Juan, and Nuria Sebastian-Galles of the University of Barcelona, ​​for their study showing that rats can't tell apart Japanese words spoken backwards from Dutch words spoken backwards.

Peace. Wright Brothers Air Force Laboratory (Dayton, Ohio) for their proposal to develop a "gay bomb", a non-lethal chemical weapon that would cause enemy soldiers to become sexually attracted to each other.

Aviation. Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano, and Diego A. Golombek of Argentina for discovering that Viagra helps hamsters cope with jet lag.

Chemistry. Work by Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito, José Bon from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and Carmen Rosello from the University of the Balearic Islands (Palma). Spanish scientists have found that the speed of sound in cheddar cheese depends on temperature.

Physics. Basile Odoli and Sebastien Neukirch of the Pierre and Marie Curie University of France for studying the reasons why dry spaghetti breaks into more than two pieces in most cases.

Nutrition. Wasmiya Al-Khouti and Faten Al-Musalam from Kuwait. They proved that dung beetles are fastidious eaters. As it turned out, adult dung beetles consume the liquid components of excrement and bury the whole excrement in the ground as food for their larvae. When the excrement of three herbivorous animals - a horse, a camel and a sheep - was offered to the beetles, they preferred the more liquid equines to all others. Sheep dung was more attractive than camel dung. The excrement of two carnivorous animals - dogs and foxes - was also taken by the beetles, but was less successful than the excrement of herbivores.

Literature. Daniel Oppenheimer, professor of psychology at Princeton, who published an article about the problems of erudite people needlessly using long and complex words in their professional jargon. He came to the conclusion that the most difficult to read texts come from the pen of the least intelligent authors.

Peace. Scientists from the University of Newcastle in England - for studying the activity of a locust neuron while watching episodes from the movie "Star Wars".

Biology. A group of scientists from different countries - for the study and cataloging of odors emitted by 131 species of frogs during stress.

Hydrogasdynamics. Viktor Benno Meyer-Rochov of the International University of Bremen and Josef Gal of the Lorand Eötvös University in Hungary for applying the basic laws of physics to calculate the pressure produced by penguins during defecation (defecation).

Economy. Gauri Nanda of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for inventing an alarm clock that runs and hides from being turned off, forcing people to wake up, which, as conceived by the inventor, should help at least partially eliminate the problem of being late for work, increasing the actual length of working hours.

Physics. Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael Turvey for research on the dynamics of hoop rotation. Scientists have proved what the whole world already knew - you can rotate the hoop with your hips, knees and ankles.

Biology. A team of five scientists who proved that communication in herrings is carried out by sounds produced by the release of gas bubbles from the anus.

Technology. Frank and Donald Smith - for inventing hair for people with bald patches. This patent did not bring them a cent.

Physics. Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrence, David Stewart and Robin Williams from Australia for the report "Analysis of the forces required to drag a sheep over various surfaces."

Literature. John Trinkaus - for collecting and publishing statistics that no one but him needs and that annoys him: what percentage of young people wear baseball caps backwards; what percentage of pedestrians wear sports shoes in white (rather than any other) color; what percentage of swimmers swim in the shallow part of the pool, and not in the deep; what percentage of drivers slow down near the stop sign; what percentage of passengers wear diplomats; What percentage of students don't like the taste of Brussels sprouts.

Interdisciplinary research. Stefano Ghirlando, Lieselotte Jansson and Magnus Enkist from Stockholm University - for the report "Chickens Prefer Beautiful People".

Peace. Lal Bihari from Uttar Pradesh (India) - for the triple achievement:
He led an active life after being officially declared dead;
Conducted a posthumous campaign against red tape and greedy relatives;
Established the Association of Dead People.

Biology. Norma E. Babier, Charles Paxton, Phil Bowers and D. Charles Deeming of the UK for their study "Ostrich mating courtship of humans on British farms".

Physics. Arnd Lake from the University of Munich - for proving that beer foam obeys the law of exponential decay (the law of radioactive decay). Beer foam first decreases with greater and then with lesser intensity.

Interdisciplinary research. Carl Kruzelnicki of the University of Sydney for his research on the debris that accumulates in the human navel.

Maths. K. Srikumar and Gyu Nirmalan from the Kerala University of Agriculture (India) - for the report "Calculation of the total surface area of ​​Indian elephants".

The medicine. Chris McManus from University College London - for the report "Asymmetry of the scrotum in antique statues".

Biology. B. Weimer of Under-Tec Corp. in Pueblo, Colorado, for the invention of UnderEase, airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter to dispose of foul-smelling gases.

Healthcare. C. Andrade and B. S. Srihari of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurology, Bangalore, for discovering that nose-picking is an activity in adolescents, for which the authors used the term "rhinotillexomania".

Economy. J. Slamrod of the University of Michigan Business Institute and W. Kopchuk of the University of British Columbia for the conclusion that people are able to delay the date of their death if this reduces the inheritance tax.

Astrophysics. Jack and Rexell van Imp, Michigan, USA, for finding that black holes fit the bill to be the location of hell.

Information Technology. Chris Niswander of Tucson, Arizona for creating the PawSense program to detect when a cat is walking on a keyboard.

Literature. Helen Grieve, Australian writer - for Living on Light, in which she argues that a person does not need to eat at all for a normal life - just light and air are enough.

Peace. The Royal Navy of Great Britain - for the fact that during combat exercises on one of their training ships, its guns are always silent, and instead the cadets shout "Bang bang." Thus, the British treasury saves more than a million pounds a year on ammunition.

Physics. Russian-born Dutch scientist Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen and Sir Michael Berry of the University of Bristol, UK, for using magnets to demonstrate that frogs can levitate.

Literature. British Standards Institute for a six-page guide (BS-6008) on how to properly prepare a cup of tea.

Physics. Dr. Len Fisher from Bath, UK - for figuring out the best way to dip biscuits into drinks. And also Professor Jean-Marc Vanden-Broke from the University of East Anglia for calculating how you can pour tea without spilling a drop.

Education. The Kansas State Board of Education and the Colorado State Board of Education for deciding that children should not believe in Darwin's theory of evolution any more than they believe in Newton's theory of gravity, Maxwell's and Faraday's electromagnetic theories, and Pasteur's theory of that microorganisms cause disease.

The medicine. Norwegian doctor Arvid Vatle - for collecting and classifying the containers used by his patients to give urine for analysis.

Chemistry. Japanese Takeshi Makino - for participation in the creation of the S-Check aerosol, which allows wives to determine whether their husband has cheated on them or not. To test, a woman needs to spray S-Check on her husband's underwear.

Peace. Carl Fourier and Michel Wong of Johannesburg, South Africa - for inventing an anti-theft device consisting of a hidden pedal and a flamethrower.

The medicine. Patient Y and his Drs. C. Mills, M. Llewelyn, D. Kelly and P. Holt of the Royal Gwent County Hospital in Newport (Wales) for the article "The Man Who Pricked His Finger and Smelt of Pus for 5 Years".

Chemistry. French scientist J. Benveniste, for the second time (first time in 1991) for reporting a new "discovery" in the field of homeopathy: water not only has a memory, but the information stored in it can be transmitted by telephone or the Internet.

Literature. Dr. M. Sidoli of Washington, D.C., for the fascinating article "Releasing the Body from Gases with a Loud Sound as a Defense Against Excessive Fear."

Meteorology. B. Vonnegut for the article "Chicken Carrying as a Measure of Tornado Wind Speed".

Biology. A. Barheim and H. Sandvik from the University of Bergen (Norway) for the work "The effect of beer, garlic and sour cream on the appetite of leeches." The authors used Guinness Stout and Hansa Bock. Garlic proved to be deadly to leeches, so for ethical reasons, this study was not completed.

Healthcare. E. Kleist from Nuuk (Greenland) and H. Moi from Oslo for the study "Transmission of gonorrhea through air dolls".

Nutrition Science. J. Martinez, co-owner of J. Martinez & Co. in Atlanta, for claiming that Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, made from beans excreted (digested) by the palm civet (cat) that lives in Indonesia and fruit-eating coffee.

The medicine. M. E. Bubel, D. S. Shannahoff-Halsa, and M. R. Boyle for their study "Effects of Forced Single Nostril Breathing on Cognition."

Literature. D. B. Bush and J. R. Starling of Madison, Wisconsin for their study "Foreign bodies in the rectum: case reports and a comprehensive review of the world literature." Among the foreign bodies were seven electric lamps, two lanterns, a knife sharpener, a jewelry saw, a pewter cup, a beer glass, and much more.

Biology. W. B. Sweeney, B. Craft-Jacobs, J. W. Britton, and W. Hansen for the study "Constipation in the military: Prevalence in non-US servicemen" and especially for their numerical analysis of bowel movement frequencies.

Entomology. Veterinarian R. A. Lopez of Westport, New York, for a series of experiments on extracting ear mites from cats, placing mites in one's own ears, carefully describing the observations, and analyzing the results.

Chemistry. Texas Senator B. Glasgow for passing the 1989 Drug Control Act through the Senate, which made it illegal to purchase flasks, test tubes, and other laboratory glassware without special permission.

Maths. Robert Feid (Greenville, South Carolina), who calculated that Gorbachev is the Antichrist with a 1 in 710609175188282000 chance.

The medicine. J. F. Nolan, T. J. Stilwell, and J. R. Sands (Jr.) for their study "Emergency treatment for trouser zipper entrapment in the penis."

Technique. Jay Schiffman of Farmington Hills for inventing a device that allows you to watch TV while driving; and the State of Michigan for allowing this device.

Common consumption goods. Ron Poupil for inventing and wildly advertising a number of unusual devices: a machine that slices tomatoes so thinly that "the slices only have one side"; a device that shakes an egg right in the shell, etc.

Biology. Dr. Cecil Jacobson, Patriarch of Sperm Banking, for creating a simple and accessible method of quality control. He used his sperm instead of the sperm of certain donors to artificially inseminate more than 70 patients. For which he went to jail.

Art. The award is divided into two: Jim Knowlton (USA) - for the poster "Penises of the Animal World", and the US National Endowment for the Arts - for offering to publish this work in the form of a clamshell brochure.

Literature. Yury Timofeevich Struchkov, employee of the Institute of Organoelement Compounds (INEOS) in Moscow - for publication from 1981 to 1990. 948 scientific papers (on average, one paper every 3.9 days).

The medicine. F. Kanda, E. Yagi, M. Fukuda, K. Nakajima, T. Ota, and O. Nakata of the Shiseido Research Center in Yokohama, for their work "Identification of the Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Odor" and especially for the conclusion that that "People who think their feet smell bad have really bad feet, and people who don't think they don't have bad feet."

Chemistry. Yvette Bassa of Kraft Foods - for "the highest achievement of chemistry of the 20th century" - obtaining a bright blue jelly.

Biology. Robert Clark Graham (born 1906), despite being 85 years old, an ardent supporter of the improvement of the human race - for creating the Repository of Genius Fetuses - a sperm bank that accepts deposits only from Olympic champions and Nobel laureates.

Peace. Edward Teller, H-bomb developer and SDI advocate, "for bringing a new understanding of the world to life."

Chemistry. Jacques Benveniste, Correspondent for Nature, for publishing an article that "water is a sentient fluid and has memory."

Did you know that there is an analogue of the Nobel Prize? However, this is rather its parodic antipode. The winners are inventors who, with their discoveries, can make the public laugh, and then make them think.

The ceremony itself is very unusual. The real winners of the Nobel Prize are invited to present the award, but they have only a minute to congratulate the winner. After 60 seconds, a little girl appears on the stage and reports that she is bored. Participants receive $10 billion for first place. But here's the bad luck, Zimbabwean dollars ... They have absolutely no price, because this currency was swallowed up by inflation, and it ceased to exist. In this article, we will look at a list of the most curious Ig Nobel Prizes.

In 1993, several writers, with the help of 972 co-authors, published only one medical material, it even had fewer pages than the participants in writing it. However, they also received a prize in literature.

1992 was a victorious year for our compatriot, Professor Yuri Struchkov. He managed to produce over 900 articles in just nine years. Enterprising judges gave him a literary prize.

Did you know that hiccups go away after rectal massage? But the recipients of this award in medicine knew.

In 1998, an apparently out-of-date homeopath made the "discovery" that information can be transmitted via the Internet!

The Dutch concluded that the more expensive placebo worked better.

The American army can also be proud of the Ig Nobel prize. In 2007, the US military invented a bomb that was supposed to cause opponents to be attracted to the same sex. Simply put, she turned the opposing side into a homosexual.

2013 changed the world, because physicists concluded that a person is able to walk on water! True, on the moon.

And again America: the government of this country received the award for literature for the report on reports. It recommended the preparation of an accountability report. True, representatives of the United States did not take the prize.

Well, the cutest story: some researchers studied cats as a liquid.

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Saliva cleansing, erection measurement stamps and healthy cannibalism are the most idiotic discoveries of 2018.

Ig Nobel Prize

The Ignobel Prize is a parody of the Nobel Prize, which is awarded for the most ridiculous, funny and unexpected "scientific" discoveries. The term is borrowed from French and Latin and means something unworthy. In the Russian version, the name Ig Nobel Prize has taken root. Ig Nobel Prize was invented by Harvard scientists who publish a scientific humorous magazine Annals of Improbable Research(AIR).

The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded annually at Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and is presented by real Nobel laureates. In September 2018, the winners of the 28th award for scientific research with dubious value were announced. For three decades, this award has become an integral part of the global scientific world.

Scientists with a sufficient sense of humor consider it not shameful to come to the United States at their own expense and receive an award for their sometimes idiotic . The Shnobel Prize is awarded for works that first make you laugh and then think.

As before, each nominee received a $10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar award.

This time the award was received by scientists for achievements in ten categories.

Ig Nobel Prize in Nutrition

In his work, the scientist estimated the calorie content of the muscles and internal organs of the inhabitants of the Paleolithic era, to understand whether hunger could force them to engage in cannibalism. It turned out that the human body contains not enough calories to satisfy the nutritional needs of even a small group of people for even one day.

“Given the evidence of cannibalism among the primitives, it seems that this was a common practice, and I do not think that this was done just for survival,” the scientist said. So, it was calculated that the calorie content of an average person was 125 kilocalories, which could not be compared with the calorie content of a killed mammoth or bison, so it was foolish to waste useful time and energy on killing a person just for the sake of food. The work of scientists was published in the journal scientific reports.

Schnobel-2018 in the Medical Education section

In the medical education category, Japanese researcher Akira Horiuchi, author of Seated Colonoscopy: Lessons Learned from Self-Colonoscopy, was named the winner. In his article, published back in 2006 in the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the author notes that usually colonoscopy is performed in the supine position.

At the same time, he draws attention to the fact that the children's colonoscope developed by a Japanese company is quite suitable for so that the patient can independently carry out this procedure. To conduct it, scientists advise a person to sit on a chair in front of the monitor, hold the colonoscope remote control with his left hand, and insert it into his colon with his right hand.

After a series of experiments, scientists have established:

"Do-it-yourself colonoscopy is not only possible, but simple and effective."

Chemistry

This year's prizes in chemistry were awarded to three researchers who have dedicated their work to the study of like human saliva qualitatively.

Their paper "Human Saliva as a Cleaning Agent for Dirty Surfaces" appeared in the journal Studies in Conservation back in 1990. To evaluate the cleansing properties of saliva, scientists used five gilded sculptures from the 16th century. They applied different substances to them: saliva, white spirit solvent, toluene, isooctane and diluted ammonia.

In the work, the scientists estimated how much lipid remains in the dirt after wiping the treated surfaces with a rag. The results of the study showed that saliva is "the best cleaner for the studied surfaces, especially for gold-plated ones." "Alpha-amylase was found to be the most important component in giving saliva its cleansing properties," the scientists concluded.

Ig Nobel Peace Prize

The Ig Nobel Peace Prize went to a team of authors who dedicated their work to the study of yelling and cursing. Scientists have investigated the factors that cause shouting and insults as the main signs of aggressive behavior of drivers. During 1100 experiments, scientists observed adult drivers on the roads of Spain. They came to the conclusion that the manifestation of such signs of aggression on the road as screams and curses, driver stress, fatigue and personal characteristics.

The article was published in the magazine Journal of Sociology and Anthropology in 2017.

Literary Schnobel

Literary Schnobel awarded to scientists who have studied why people do not like to read the instructions for modern devices. Over the course of seven years, 170 people were interviewed. “We have found that instructions are not read by most people and do not use the full capabilities of the products,” they wrote in an article published in the magazine Interacting with computers .

Men read instructions more often than women, young people read them least of all than mature people.

Economy

This year's economics award went to a team of scientists from Canada for their study of a voodoo doll. They were looking for relief from being bullied by a voodoo doll representing their hated boss. Scientists have experimentally found that participating in "symbolic retribution" against the boss causes relief.

“We have found that a simple and harmless act of retribution can make people feel calmer and restore their sense of justice,” the scientists said. In these experiments, employees were asked to burn the dolls on a candle, pierce them with needles, and pinch them with pincers. The work was published in the journal The Leadership Quarterly.

Biology

The Biology Prize went to scientists from the Swedish Academy of Agricultural Sciences for a fly in a glass. Scientists have proven that a person can taste the wine that a fly has been in. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is known to produce the Z4-11Al pheromone to attract males. To test the hypothesis, the scientists hired seven professional sommeliers from Germany and gave them different wines to sample. In some glasses, female flies were first lowered, in others - males. It turned out that the wines in which the fly had been, the experts called stronger and having a stronger smell.

In the course of experiments, it was proved that even a fly quickly removed from a glass can leave an aftertaste. However, it remains unclear why, in the course of evolution, people learned to taste this pheromone.

Anthropology-2018

The Anthropology Prize was awarded to Swedish scientists who proved that humans copy the habits and movements of chimpanzees as much as chimpanzees do. They came to this conclusion by observing the communication of keepers in zoos. It turned out that chimpanzees and humans copy each other in the same way when communicating - clapping their hands or hugging. The article was published in the journal Primates in 2017.

reproductive medicine

Once again, teamwork succeeds. The jury members appreciated Scientific research"Night monitoring of penile detumescence using postage stamps".

In this case, we can say for sure - the work has waited in the wings! After all, the article was published in the journal Urology back in February 1980. The current laureates have proven that men with psychogenic impotence have normal erections during sleep. While persons with organic impotence experience problems with this. The authors proposed their own method using a stamping ring.

A strip of four stamps is tightly fitted around the shaft of the penis at rest. It is necessary to strengthen it so that it does not slip. If by morning the ring is torn, it means that there were erections at night. If a man suffers from organic erectile dysfunction, then the strip will remain in place.

“A healthy man has 2 to 5 erections per night. In 1980, we checked this with postage stamps, and here we are,” said three old scientists who arrived almost 40 years later for a well-deserved award, to general laughter in the hall.

The medicine

Another discovery from the world of urology. Scientists at the University of Michigan have prove the medical benefits of such a famous and dangerous attraction as a roller coaster. A trip along the rails that fly into the abyss, then carry up the rails helps to remove stones from the kidneys. But - only in 70% of cases.

Not every attraction is suitable for achieving a positive effect. The Disney one is definitely suitable,” study co-author David Wartinger refers to his patients. One man, he said, got rid of three stones at once.

For the sake of the purity of the experiment, the scientist himself rode the roller coaster 20 times. With him, Wartinger carried a 3D model of a kidney with stones. As it turned out, the serial number of the trailer occupied by the patient affects the result. It is imperative to choose the last wagon - this increases the likelihood of success compared to the first wagon. Wartinger recommends his method for individuals with small stones or those who have previously undergone lithotripsy.

Frankly, no one has yet managed to get rich by getting Schnobel. The winner gets a foil medal or plastic clattering jaws. In addition, the Ig Nobel Committee does not pay the laureates the way to Harvard.

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It is believed that the Nobel Prize is an act more political than recognizing real scientific merit. But no one left the Anti-Nobel Prize ceremony offended.

This is a not-too-serious event dedicated to bringing out the year's most pointless or dubious scientific advances. And, accordingly, rewarding their authors.

The Ig Nobel Prize is translated into Russian as Antinobel, Gnobel or Shnobel. The last translation, although free, conveys the ironic context well. By analogy with how Nobel is consonant with the adjective Noble (“worthy”, “noble”), ignoble can be translated not only as “shameful”, but also as “simple”. The award was established by the Annals of Incredible Research in 1991, but thanks to the absurdity of the materials it works with, it soon gained popularity among people far from science.

Scientists are joking

The presentation of the Shnobelevka is a purely carnival event. As at a medieval carnival, top and bottom were reversed, the serious was ridiculed, so at the Ig Nobel ceremony everything happens that under no circumstances can happen at the Nobel ceremony.

Candidate nomination

Candidates for Shnobelevka are not prohibited from self-nomination. Candidates for the award from the list of nominees are selected by a special Ig Nobel jury, consisting of people who are far from science, as well as real Nobel laureates. A candidate for a Schnobel is checked only for two things: real existence in nature, and also whether the claimed work is really done by him. The final decision is made by clicking.

Dress code

A tailcoat for the Shnobelevka is optional. Moreover, participants are encouraged to look as freakish as possible: with funny fezzes, fake noses, and wigs.

Delivery procedure

The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded exactly one week before the announcement of the Nobel Prize winners. During the announcement of the laureates and the presentation of the Ig Nobel Prize, paper airplanes fly around the hall. For their cleaning at the end of the event, there is even a special position: "keeper of the broom of the Ig Nobel Committee." The permanent keeper of the broom is the physicist Roy Glauber, who skimped on his duties for the only time in 2005: he had to go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize.

Ig Nobel speech

It should last no more than a minute. Some of the winners' speech consisted of several words. If the rules are not respected, the Miss Sweetie Poo girl comes on stage and says: "Please stop, I'm bored."

Size of the Shnobel Prize

Frankly, no one has yet managed to get rich by getting Shnobel. The winner gets a foil medal or plastic clattering jaws. And one more important detail: the Ig Nobel Committee does not pay for the laureates' travel. You will have to travel to Harvard at your own expense.

Ceremony Final

The ceremony traditionally ends with the words: "If you did not win this award, and especially if you did, we wish you good luck next year!"

Look for who benefits

The purpose of the Ig Nobel Prize is by no means to convict scientists of the irresponsibility of their research topics. As the organizers declare, the prize exists in order to make people "first laugh, and then think" - that is, in fact, stir up public interest in science.

If the award of the Ig Nobel Prize can somehow undermine the reputation of the researcher, then it is given to another applicant. For example, in 1995, Robert May, a scientific adviser to the British government, asked the Anti-Nobel Committee to leave the British alone, believing that the award of the Carnival Prize jeopardized all other serious British research. However, most British researchers did not agree with him. “Today we just laugh at studies that seem strange to us, but before they were burned at the stake for this,” said one of the Shnobelevka nominees.

And, by the way, the studies that deserve the Ig Nobel Prize are by no means always distinguished by their isolation from life and inadequacy. For some reason, these studies may be useful, if not to humanity, then at least to their author.

For example, our compatriot Yuri Struchkov, who published 948 scientific materials in 9 years (that is, an average of one article in 4 days), thanks to the Ig Nobel Prize in Literature, became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Len Fischer, who received the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics in 1999, immediately found a publisher to publish his book How to Dip Cookies Properly.

Peter Bars, who studied injuries from falling coconuts, became a media star: in the months after the award, he lost track of how many interviews he gave.

Anti-Nobel Prize-winning Research: Selections from the Past 10 Years

2006 Chemistry: Temperature dependence of supersonic speeds in cheddar cheese. Ornithology: why the woodpecker does not have a headache.

2005 Physics: in which liquid the swimmer moves faster - in water or in sugar syrup. World: Locust activity while watching episodes of Star Wars.

2004 Medicine: The impact of country music on suicide rates. Technology: the invention of hairstyles for people with bald patches.

2003 Physics: An analysis of the effort required to drag a sheep over various surfaces.

2002 Chemistry: giving the periodic table the form of a four-legged periodic table.

2001 Biology: the invention of pants with a replaceable carbon filter to block gases. Economics: Study "Death as a Way to Cut Taxes".

2000 Peace: the winner is the British Royal Navy, who ordered the sailors not to use shells in the exercises, but instead to shout "boom!"

1999 Chemistry: An underwear spray to help detect a husband's infidelity. World: car alarm with a flamethrower.

1998 Physics: Using Quantum Physics to Achieve Personal Happiness. Literature: article "Releasing the body from gases with a loud sound as protection against excessive fear."

1997 Entomology: identification of insects by blots on the windshield.

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What is the Ig Nobel Prize for? For the most ridiculous inventions and studies of scientists, which are sometimes brought to complete absurdity. This award is the opposite of the Nobel Prize. Let's take a look at the most interesting cases of the latest awards, as well as original moments from past ceremonies.

What do they give for the Ig Nobel Prize?

The 27th ceremony was held at Harvard University. As you know, the award is awarded for dubious and fake achievements from the point of view of science. The winner receives 10 trillion Zimbambwean dollars, which, due to crazy inflation, have long been withdrawn from circulation. It is worth noting that in 2009 a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe cost 50 trillion. In addition, each participant receives one minute for public speaking. This time the winners were interrupted by a little girl who said they were boring and uninteresting.

Physics

In this category, Marc Antoine Fardin won, stating that cats can exist not only in their usual state, but also take on solid, liquid and gaseous configurations. According to the scientist, the ability to fill vessels with cats refers to the parameters of a liquid, and he ranked the full coverage of the volume as a gas criterion.

Category "Peace Prize"

In this part of the audience, an equally interesting statement awaited the audience than a treatise on the rheology of cats. The "award" went to a team of scientists who announced the discovery of a new way to treat snoring. This know-how was the original musical instrument - the didgeridoo. According to many months of research by a group of enthusiasts, playing on this device can ensure a peaceful sleep for relatives and friends after four months of using the product for snorers. The didgeridoo itself is a hollow trunk of a eucalyptus tree used by the Australian Aborigines as a kind of wind instrument.

Biology and hydrodynamics

Here the palm went to Charles Foster and Thomas Thwaites. The Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to these scientists for attempting to transform into an Alpine goat. For three days, Thomas grazed in the meadows, using special prostheses to bring conditions as close as possible to the life of an artiodactyl animal. It is worth noting that Foster also reincarnated as animals. He, in the role of a fox, dug in garbage cans, slept in gardens. The purpose of the study is to get rid of the stressful state created by modern civilization and to better understand the life of animals.

The funniest Shnobel Prizes include an award that scientists from Korea and the USA received. Their research was to study the most convenient way to transport coffee. It turned out that it is best to carry a drink, so as not to spill it, in a wine glass (when walking fast). Slow movement involves the use of a standard cup, and the most effective method is to cover the mug with the palm of your hand, while walking backwards.

Medicine and obstetrics

In the Ig Nobel Prize, the funniest victories were in medicine and obstetrics. For example, neuroscientists from France have presented evidence that there is an area in the human brain responsible for the love of cheese. According to their theory, in people who categorically do not perceive cheese, this part of the brain looks like a pale ball and black substance.

A Spanish group of scientists conducted an equally interesting study. According to its results, a child in the womb perceives musical works much better if they are played in the vagina. Moreover, a device for such manipulation has already been patented.

Anatomy and Economics

After the "liquid" cats, the Ig Nobel Prize in the field of anatomy went to British scientists. This time, the object of study was the large ears of the elderly. It turned out that after thirty years, this body begins to grow again. Moreover, in men this happens more actively than in women, which is explained by several objective reasons.

As for the economy, here two scientists from Australia proved that the interaction of a crocodile and a person (direct contact) increases the degree of gambling of a person. As an experiment, those who wished were allowed to hold the reptile in their arms, after which the player's style of play changed, unless, of course, he experienced discomfort and fear during contact with the alligator.

Sphere of nutrition

Marc Antoine Fardin introduced the theory of liquid cats, and scientists from Latin America studied bats. It turns out that these animals have human DNA. We are talking about a specific type of flying rodents, the so-called "vampires". The presence of human cells is associated with the disturbance of the habitat of animals as a result of urbanization. In connection with these, the "flyers" are forced to feed on the "human".

Ig Nobel Prize: the funniest facts about famous people

In 2013, the award in question went to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. He was awarded the prize in connection with the fact that, in order to avoid disturbing public order and undermining the authority of the country, he passed a law prohibiting loud applause in public places. The authorities took these measures in response to the protests and discontent of the population of the republic. The punishment was a fine or 15 days of arrest. One of the most notorious violators of this law was a one-armed invalid who had to pay a $200 fine.

Back in 1993, the Ig Nobel Prize winner was Robert Feid, who, using mathematical calculations, determined the likelihood of how Gorbachev could be the Devil himself. The probability was 1 in 710,609,175,188,282,000.

In addition to the theory of cat rheology, scientists received the Ig Nobel Prize for no less absurd projects. Among them:

1. The posthumously considered award was presented to the Egyptian scholar Ahmed Shafik. The researcher put underpants made of different materials on rats and came to the conclusion that the sexual activity of rodents decreases if they wear underwear with the addition of synthetics.
2. Professor Mark Avis from New Zealand received the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics. She got to him for the work in which he claimed that the stones have a pronounced individuality. This presentation came to the economic sphere due to the criticism of the popular marketing theory of Jennifer Aaker, the main idea of ​​which was that the user perceives the trademark as a celebrity, correlating the brand's fame with his personality. As a result, Aaker's theory was completely destroyed.
3. Christoph Helmen and his colleagues received the Schnobel Prize in Medicine. Scientists have found that if a person has something itchy on the right side, you need to go to the mirror and scratch a similar place on the left.
4. In the category "Psychology" the winner was the Belgian Evelyn Deby, who studied the influence of age on the ability to lie. The subjects spoke deliberately lies, after which the speed with which they did so was evaluated. It turned out that over the years, lying is not so easy, and the most skillful liars are teenagers.
5. A pair of paleontologists from North America (B. Krendel and P. Stahl) examined the remains of the inhabitants of the Paleozoic. In the process, they decided to pour boiling water over an ancient petrified shrew, after which they swallowed it without chewing. The purpose of the experiment is to study the excreted excrement in order to understand which parts of the chitinous shell and bones of the animal are not subjected to the process of digestion.
6. Takeshi Makino, president of the Japan Security and Investigation Agency, has developed a special gel. He allowed to determine the infidelity of her husband to his wife. To do this, it was enough to spray the spray on the man's underwear. After contact with seminal fluid, the aerosol turned bright green, confirming the fact of treason.
7. One received the Schnobel Prize for providing evidence of why some people experience terrible discomfort when chalk or a fingernail squeaks on a blackboard. It turned out that the increased volume of this sound resembles the cries of a chimpanzee, announcing danger.
8. No less entertaining is the work of Michael Smith. He decided to find out which parts of the body most painfully react to a bee sting. To do this, he placed insects on his organs. It turned out that the most vulnerable was the genital organ, as well as the nostrils and upper lip.

In conclusion

One of the strangest competitions in the world is the Ig Nobel Prize. Liquid cats is one of the sections that is referred to as the most extraordinary and funny achievement of 2017. If you study all the nominations for different years, then among the winners of this award, almost all scientists have some oddities that are incomprehensible to ordinary people and more serious colleagues.