Ig Nobel – 2020
"Shnobelevka" was awarded for alligators under helium and standing waves in earthworms and
The winners of the Nobel Prize for 2020 were scientists who studied the roar of alligators under helium, the connection between eyebrows and narcissism, conducted experiments with standing waves in earthworms and knives from frozen feces, as well as the authors of other equally important works. The list of laureates is published on the award's website.
The awarding of Nobel laureates has been held annually since 1991. Prizes in 10 nominations are awarded for research "that makes you laugh first, and then think." This year, the ceremony was held online for the first time, so the traditional launch of paper airplanes at the beginning of the ceremony had to be arranged and videotaped by the audience, and the minute speech of the laureates was recorded in advance.
The award in the nomination "Acoustics" was awarded to a group led by Stephan Reber from the University of Vienna. Scientists in 2015 published in The Journal of Experimental Biology study acoustic characteristics of the roar of Chinese alligators (Alligator sinensis). They placed a female alligator in a sealed chamber and recorded the roar at moments when the animal was breathing ordinary air and a mixture of helium and oxygen (which shifted the resonant frequencies). You can listen to recordings of the roar of alligators "under helium" and without it on the magazine's website. The experimenters came to the conclusion that the acoustics of the roar directly indicates the size of the animal's body (which is important for mating behavior) and their results can be useful for reconstructing the sounds of archosaurs – the ancestors of modern crocodiles. The prize of 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars was presented to the laureates by the Nobel (and Nobel) laureate Andrei Geim.
In the Psychology category, Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas Rule from Canada and the USA "for the invention of the method of determining daffodils by studying their eyebrows." The laureates described in the Journal of Personality a series of experiments in which they tried to determine how narcissistic character traits can be judged by the shape and outlines of eyebrows. They received a series of photographs of volunteers, including those who, according to psychological testing data, demonstrated narcissistic character traits. Then the scientists glued the eyebrows from one picture to another, and checked to what extent other people could correctly "diagnose" narcissism from these pictures. The award was presented to scientists by the Nobel Prize laureate in Economics Eric Maskin.
This year's Peace Prize was awarded to the Governments of India and Pakistan for "forcing their diplomats to ring each other's doorbell in the middle of the night and run away before the door was opened."
The physics Prize was awarded to Ivan Maksimov and Andrey Potocki from Australia – "for experiments that allowed us to find out what happens to the body of living earthworms with high-frequency vibration. Scientists have demonstrated that standing nonlinear waves similar to Faraday waves can appear on a vibrating solid surface in the body of earthworms. The experiment was carried out on four types of worms – Eisenia fetida, Lumbricus terrestris, Lumbricus rubellus and Aporrectodea caliginosa. They received the award from the hands of Eric Maskin.
In the economic category, the prize was awarded to a group of scientists led by Christopher Watkins from Scotland, who tried to find out how the level of economic inequality in different countries is related to the frequency of romantic kisses. They analyzed data on the frequency of kissing at different stages of a relationship – from courtship to establishing a strong bond, and how these data relate to the economic situation in 13 different countries. The award was presented to the authors by Frances Arnold.
In the category "Management" awards were awarded to five professional assassins from The Chinese, who consistently handed each other a contract to kill, leaving themselves a "commission", and in the end did not kill anyone.
The award in the field of entomology was received by the American scientist Richard Vetter, who discovered that many entomologists are afraid of spiders, which are not insects. The award was presented to him Richard Roberts.
The award in the category "Medicine" went this year to Nina Vulink from the Netherlands and his colleagues who discovered a new disease – misophonia. People suffering from this disorder experience stress when they hear other people chewing. The award was presented to them by Frances Arnold.
In the nomination "Medical education" The award was given to the leaders of nine countries – Belarus, Brazil, Britain, India, Mexico, USA, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Russia. The presidents of these countries during the COVID-19 pandemic proved by their example that politicians have a much greater influence on life and death than doctors and scientists. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko receives the award for the second time. In 2013, he received the Peace Prize together with the Belarusian police for banning public applause and a fine for violating this ban, which was issued to a one-armed man.
The prize in the last nomination – "Materials Science" – went to James Norris and his colleagues from the USA and Britain, which experimentally proved that a knife made of frozen human feces can not cut. (Scientists wanted to check out the story of how an Inuit made a knife out of frozen feces, killed a dog with it, turned its bones into a sled and disappeared into the night. The experiment of scientists ended in failure – VM).
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru