Right on the heels of the somewhat more prestigious Nobel Prizes recently awarded for Chemistry, Physics, and Medicine, Slashdot reminded me about the 15th Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony of last week. What are the Ig Nobel Prizes, you might ask?
Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK… [They] are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative – and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.
This year’s winners include:
- Medicine: Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing Neuticles – artificial replacement testicles for dogs.
- Chemistry: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?
- Peace: Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in the U.K., for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie “Star Wars.”
- Literature: The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters – General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others – each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.
No cure for cancer yet. ;-p
