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Tue 7 Oct, 2008 09:20 pm
Spermicidal soda study wins Ig Nobel
By MARK PRATT Associated Press
Oct. 2, 2008, 10:53PM
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Some Ig Nobel winners:
PEACE : The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.
ARCHAEOLOGY: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino for showing armadillos can scramble the contents of an archaeological dig.
BIOLOGY: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert and Michel Franc for discovering that fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than fleas that live on a cat.
MEDICINE : Dan Ariely for demonstrating that expensive fake medicine is more effective than cheap fake medicine.
COGNITIVE SCIENCE: Toshiyuki Nakagaki and colleagues for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.
PHYSICS: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith for proving that heaps of string or hair will inevitably tangle.
LITERATURE : David Sims for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."
Deborah Anderson had heard the urban legends about the contraceptive effectiveness of Coca-Cola products for years.
For discovering in the lab that, yes indeed, Coke was a spermicide, Anderson and her team are among this year's winners of the Ig Nobel prize, the annual award given by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine to oddball but often surprisingly practical scientific achievements.
A group of Taiwanese doctors were honored for a similar study that found Coca-Cola and other soft drinks were not effective contraceptives.
Thursday's ceremony at Harvard University, in which actual Nobel laureates bestowed the awards, also honored a British psychologist who found foods that sound better taste better; a group of researchers who discovered exotic dancers make more money when they are at peak fertility; and a pair of Brazilian archaeologists who determined armadillos can change the course of history.
Anderson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University, and colleagues found that not only was Coca-Cola a spermicide, but also that Diet Coke worked best. Their study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1985.
"We're thrilled to win an Ig Nobel, because the study was somewhat of a parody in the first place," Anderson said.
Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely won an Ig Nobel for his study that found more expensive fake medicines work better than cheaper fake medicines.
"When you expect something to happen, your brain makes it happen," he said.
Geoffrey Miller's work could affect the earning potential of exotic dancers everywhere.
Miller, an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, and his colleagues knew of prior studies that found women are more attractive to men when at peak fertility.
So, they studied earnings of exotic dancers.
In the 18 subjects Miller studied, average earnings were $250 for a five-hour shift. That jumped to $350 to $400 per five-hour shift when the women were their most fertile.
"I have heard, anecdotally, that some lap dancers have scheduled shifts based on this research," he said.
Ig Nobel Prize
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October " around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced " for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.
[edit] History
The first Ig Nobels were awarded in 1991, at that time for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced." Ten prizes are awarded each year in many categories, including the Nobel Prize categories of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace, but also other categories such as public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research. With the exception of three prizes in the first year (Administratium, Josiah Carberry, and Paul DeFanti), the Ig Nobel Prizes are for genuine achievements. (See List of Ig Nobel Prize winners)
The awards are sometimes veiled criticism, as in the two awards given for homeopathy research, prizes in "science education" to Kansas and Colorado state boards of education for their stance regarding the teaching of evolution, and the prize awarded to Social Text after the Sokal Affair. Most often, however, they draw attention to scientific articles that have some humorous or unexpected aspect. Examples range from the discovery that the presence of humans tends to sexually arouse ostriches, to the statement that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell, to research on the "five-second rule," a tongue-in-cheek belief that food dropped on the floor won't become contaminated if it is picked up within five seconds.
[edit] Name
The name is a play on the word ignoble ("characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness") and the name "Nobel" after Alfred Nobel. The official pronunciation used during the ceremony is IPA: /ˌɪɡnoʊˈbɛl/ ("ig no-BELL"). It is not pronounced like the word ignoble (IPA: /ɪɡˈnoʊbəl/, "ig-NOH-buhl").
In Swedish, IG is short for "icke godkänt", a grade in school similar to F, or fail.
In Russian, the name is usually translated as "Шнобелевская премия" (Shnobel Prize).
[edit] Ceremony
The prizes are presented by genuine Nobel laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT but now in Harvard University's Sanders Theater. The ceremony is followed a few days later by the Ig Informal Lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which laureates have the opportunity to explain their achievements and their relevance to the general public. If such explanations become too longwinded, they are interrupted by the cries of Miss Sweety Poo (or Sweety-Poo), a little girl who repeatedly cries out "Please stop. I'm bored" in a high-pitched voice.[1] The awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If you didn't win a prize " and especially if you did " better luck next year!"
The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.
Throwing paper airplanes onto the stage was a long-standing tradition at the Ig Nobels, changed at the 2006 ceremony because of "security concerns." In past years, physics professor Roy Glauber has swept the stage clean of the airplanes as the official "Keeper of the Broom". In 2005, Glauber could not attend the awards as he was traveling to Stockholm to claim a genuine Nobel Prize in Physics.
The "Parade of Ignitaries" brings various supporting groups into the hall. At the 1997 ceremonies, a team of "cryogenic sex researchers" distributed a pamphlet titled "Safe Sex at Four Kelvin". Delegates from the Museum of Bad Art are often on hand to display some pieces from their collection, showing that bad art and bad science go hand in hand.
Actor Russell Johnson, known for his portrayal of The Professor on the TV series Gilligan's Island, once participated in the award presentation ceremony as "The Professor Emeritus of Gilligan's Island".
[edit] Tours and outreach
The ceremony is recorded and broadcast on National Public Radio and is shown live over the Internet. The recording is broadcast every year, on the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving, on the public radio program Science Friday. In recognition of this, the audience will repeatedly chant the first name of the radio show's host, Ira Flatow.
Two books have been published as of 2006 with write ups on some of the winners: The Ig Nobel Prize (2002, US paperback ISBN 0-452-28573-9, UK paperback ISBN 0-7528-4261-7) and The Ig Nobel Prize 2 (2005, US hardcover ISBN 0-525-94912-7, UK hardcover ISBN 0-7528-6461-0) which was later retitled The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself (ISBN 0-452-28772-3).
Gotta love it, edgar. And remember, most of this research was probably done with government grants. You and I paid for it. Thanx for posting that.
@Merry Andrew,
It's a lonely job, but somebody's gotta do it.
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