On Thursday night, groundbreaking studies on how beards can soften punches to face, the benefits of transporting Rhinoceroses upside-down, and orgasms that act as nasal decongestants were honored with the Ig Nobel prize.
The Ig Nobels are not to be confused the more prestigious, lucrative Nobel Awards, which will be announced in Stockholm and Oslo next month. They celebrate the quirky realms of science and reward research that makes people smile and think.
Real Nobel laureates presented 10 Ig Nobels in an online ceremony to mathematicians, scientists, and economists from 24 countries across six continents.
David Carrier, a professor of biology at Utah who was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize, stated that he was nervous when he heard he had been selected. He said that he wanted the award.
Professor Carrier and his colleagues tested the controversial theory that men developed beards to protect themselves in fights. Charles Darwin, a man who was open to facial hair, believed beards were an ornament that could charm or excite other sex. However, Carrier discovered evidence of their protective properties. Carrier discovered that hairy skin absorbs more energy than skin with smoother skin after he dropped weights on a bone-like substance covered in sheep fleece.
Beards are not meant to provide protection. He said that a really powerful punch is always dangerous. We can only say that they protect the skin and bones. Now, he wonders if beards could also serve as obscurants, making it harder for the jaw to be targeted in a fist fight.
Scientists and singers performed a mini opera to inspire hope in the future. It was the first time that a miniature opera had been presented.
Pavlo Blavatskyy from Montpellier Business School won the Ig Nobel in economics. He used a computer vision algorithm, photos of politicians, and other means to prove that obesity is closely linked to national corruption. The physics prize was for research that explained why pedestrians don't always collide, while the kinetics award was for work that demonstrated why sometimes they do.
Cmdr John A. Mulrennan, a retired US Navy officer, was one of the newly minted Ig Nobel winners. He won the entomology prize after he eradicated cockroaches from submarines using a highly potent organophosphate insecticide. A group discovered that airlifting calmed rhinoceroses upside-down is better than having them carry them in slings. The ecology prize was awarded for research on bacteria found in chewing gum stuck on pavements. Dr Susanne Shtz from Lund University received the biology prize for her extensive work on feline communication, including the purrs and growls as well as trills, hisses and howls.
Cem Bulut (a professor at SLK Clinics Heilbronn, Germany) and his colleagues won the medicine prize. Their research suggests that sex with orgasm can be an effective nasal decongestant. Bulut, who had suspicions based solely on self-observation and enlisted the help of a few co-workers to investigate.
The willing couples were given a device to measure the nasal airflow of their partners before, during and after sex. This was done at regular intervals. The teams reported that sex was just as effective in clearing blocked noses for at least an hour as commercial decongestants. Bulut admits that he didn't get all the data. He said that some people were unable to focus on the device. Bulut believes there are many factors that could unblock the nose. He said that it is a combination of excitement, physical activity, and hormonal changes that are associated with orgasm.
Professor Jonathan Williams and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry won the Ig Nobel for Chemistry for their research on how cinema audiences react to screen violence, comedy and suspense. They also discovered that isoprene levels were highly variable in scary movies, which allowed them to differentiate between different movie ratings.
Williams stated that while we now know that humans broadcast signals depending upon their emotional state, the question is whether other people can perceive those signals. Would you pick it up if I was in a darkened room?
The event is produced and hosted by Annals of Improbable research. Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies, concludes the ceremony with the words: Even if you don't win an Ig Nobel tonight, and especially if your luck next year,
