Twenty-third Nobel Prize
"Shnobelevki-2013" awarded for the navigation of beetles and opera for mice
The Ig Nobel Prize, established in 1991 by the American journal Annals of Improbable Research, is awarded annually for scientific achievements "that first cause laughter, and then make you think."
The ceremony of announcing the winners – the 23rd in a row – was held at the Sanders Theater of Harvard University.
The show opened with the traditional launch of paper airplanes into a human target on stage and a welcome speech consisting of two words - Welcome, Welcome. All the time, a man in a hat with the NSA inscription and a microphone was running around on stage and in the hall, and a nine-year-old girl, Sweetie Poo, was saving the audience from boredom, interrupting the talkative speakers endlessly repeating the words "Please stop, I'm bored."
The ceremony was interrupted by the performance of the opera "The Blonsky Device" (winner of the Nobel Prize, awarded for the invention of a centrifuge to facilitate childbirth – VM), lectures by Nobel laureates and venerable scientists (who had to meet in 1 minute).
It was announced to the public that the prize winners would receive a hammer (in a box under glass), a note on a piece of paper where IgNobel 2013 was written in the Nobel Laureate's hand, "as well as 10 trillion dollars! Zimbabwean. One bill." Moreover, the awards were presented by "real" Nobel laureates.
This year the award was presented in 10 nominations.
Medicine: Mouse cores and operaThe prize in medicine was awarded to a group of Japanese and Chinese scientists led by Masateru Uchiyama, who studied the effects of opera on mice undergoing heart transplantation.
The authors of the study, published in the Journal Cardiothoracic Surgery, took to the stage in mouse costumes, clutching large plush hearts in their hands, and performed several bars from "La Traviata" – until they were interrupted by Sweetie Poo.
Psychology: alcohol and attractivenessScientists from France, Holland and Poland, led by Loren Bege, were awarded the prize for confirming that those who consider themselves drunk, at the same time consider themselves attractive.
One of the authors, coming on stage, tried to perform his article with a guitar, but he could not sing for a long time.
Biology and Astronomy: Stars and dung beetlesEric Warrant from Sweden and his colleagues from Germany, Australia and South Africa proved that dung beetles, if they get lost, find their way home by navigating the Milky Way.
Warrant said that scientists used to consider the Moon the main reference point for African dung beetles. However, then they discovered that the beetles find their way well on moonless nights. In the end, they found out that the dung beetles are guided not by individual stars, but by the entire Milky Way at once, which they wrote about in the journal Current Biology.
Security and engineering: a method of protection against hijackingThe American Gastano Pizzo, who died in 2006, was awarded a prize for his invention, protected by a patent: a system of protection against aircraft invaders.
This system throws the terrorist through a special trap door, behind which he is packed and parachuted through a hatch. Called by an automatic radio signal, the police will be waiting for the attacker on the ground.
Physics: walking on water on other planetsThe physics prize went to a group of scientists with the participation of Russian Yuri Ivanenko for a publication in the journal PLoS ONE, where they proved that some people could run and stay on the surface of the water in a pond – if they themselves and the pond were on the Moon.
Chemistry: onions and tearsThe chemistry prize went to a group of scientists from Japan led by Hidehiko Kumgai, who proved that the biochemical processes that make people cry when cutting onions are even more complicated than previously thought.
The award ceremony was accompanied by a demonstration – cutting onions.
Archaeology: Digesting the ShrewBrian Crandall and Peter Stahl received the award for an experiment with swallowing an undercooked shrew, and further investigation of the fate of its remains.
So they tried to determine which bones of the shrew skeleton can survive digestion in the human digestive tract, and which cannot.
Peace Prize: Lukashenko and the policeThe award in this nomination was given to the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko "for turning public applause into an illegal action" and the Belarusian police "for arresting a one-armed man for applause."
Probability theory: will he get up or lie down?A group of scientists from Scotland led by Colin Morgan received the prize for two related discoveries.
Firstly, the longer the cow lies down, the more likely it is that she will get up. Secondly, if the cow is up, it is very difficult to predict how soon she will lie down.
Healthcare: the epidemic of penis amputationsA group of Thai doctors who could not attend the ceremony received an award for the medical methods they developed that should be used in the "epidemic of penis amputations in Siam", except in cases when part of the penis is eaten by a duck.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.09.2013