(Boston) A study exploring the possibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and another looking at the swimming abilities of dead fish are among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.
Held less than a month before the announcement of the Nobel Prizes themselves, the 34e The annual Ig Nobel ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was hosted by the magazine’s website Annals of Improbable Research with the aim of making people laugh and think. The winners received a transparent box containing historical objects related to Murphy’s Law ― the theme of the evening ― and a nearly worthless $10 trillion Zimbabwean bill. Real Nobel laureates presented the winners with their prizes.
“While some politicians have tried to pass off sensible things as crazy, scientists have discovered crazy things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, the magazine’s emcee and editor-in-chief, said in an email interview.
The ceremony began with Kees Moliker, the 2003 Ig Nobel laureate for biology, giving safety instructions. He received the prize for a study demonstrating the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallards.
“That’s the duck,” he said, pointing to a duck. “That’s the one that died.”
After that, someone came on stage with a yellow target on his chest and a plastic mask. Soon, they were mobbed by spectators who threw paper airplanes at them.
PHOTO STEVEN SENNE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Then the awards show began ― several dry introductions that were interrupted by a girl who came on stage and repeatedly yelled, “Please stop. I’m bored.” The awards show was also interrupted by an international song contest inspired by Murphy’s Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the justice system.
The winners were recognized in ten categories, including peace and anatomy. Among them, scientists showed that a vine from Chile mimics the shape of nearby artificial plants, and another study examined whether the hair of people in the Northern Hemisphere swirls in the same direction as that of a person in the Southern Hemisphere.
Other winners include a group of scientists who demonstrated that a fake drug with side effects can be more effective than a fake drug without side effects, and a study showing that some mammals can breathe through their anuses — winners who took the stage wearing fish-inspired hats.
PHOTO STEVEN SENNE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the Peace Prize on behalf of her late father, B.F. Skinner, author of the study on pigeons and missiles. Julie Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.
“I want to thank you for finally recognizing his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for setting the record straight.”
James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, received the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
“I found that a live fish moves more than a dead fish, but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed by a stick also beats its tail in time with the current, like a live fish surfing the eddies, gathering energy from its surroundings. A dead fish does live fish things.”