We geeks have a sense of humour too (but no one gets what we are laughing about)

Date: Oct 09, 2008 | Author: Santiago B. | Categories: Entertainment, Science and Tech

Last week at Harvard University they announced the 2008 Ig Nobel Awards, an interesting version of the Nobel Prizes to recognize research where the funny subject “first makes you laugh, then makes you think”, organized by the journal ‘Annals of Improbable Research’.

The name comes from a pun with the word “ignoble” but there is nothing ignoble about the winners! I would say they are shameless geniuses.

As an example, two of last year’s winners: in Medicine it was won by two scientists who wrote a paper on: “Sword swallowing and its side effects”. You can see above the pic of the moment when they accepted the award.

The Peace award was given to a US Air Force Lab that researched to develop a chemical weapon nicknamed “the gay bomb” because it makes the enemy soldiers feel sexually irresistible to each other.

Let’s see some of this year’s winners, and then I will propose a contest:

I will start with Economics. The winner was an American scientist called Geoffrey Miller for a paper called:”Ovulatory Cycle Effects on Tip Earnings by Lap Dancers: Economic Evidence for Human Estrus?“. They discovered that thanks to very subtle unconscious clues about their fertility, lap dancers that are ovulating make on average 60% more on tips, going from $250 to $400 per 5-hour shift. South American Note: That is more than most scientists, teachers and academics make around here!

The next one is the Chemistry award, which was given to two papers: one that says that spraying the vagina with Coca Cola after sexual intercourse is an effective spermicide and another one that says it is not. Whether to try it at home or not, I leave it up to you.

The Medicine award will be very appealing to Leo, who is a big fan of all related to pricing: a group of researchers from several US Universities gave two groups of patients the same placebo pill, telling them it was a painkiller. But to one group they told them the pill costed $2.50 each and the others $0.10. The ones taking the “expensive” pill felt better afterwards! Free consulting for Pharma companies: raise prices to make your meds more effective…

The Biology award recognized a group of French vets who proved that fleas living on dogs jump further than fleas living on cats.

The Cognitive Science award was given to several scientists who showed that an amoeba can solve mazes.

Diego Golombek recibe su premio en 2007 (Foto: AFP)

Lastly, the Nutrition award was for an Italian and a Brit who showed that by making crispy sounds while someone ate a french fry they could make that person believe it is crispier and fresher than it really is.

To close I want to mention that last year Argentina had a winner! The brilliant (and friend) Diego Golombek won the Aviation award, for proving that Viagra helps rats to recover faster from jet lag.

And I start a contest. In honor of Diego’s unbelievable achievement, I will give a copy of his book “Cavernas y palacios: En busca de la conciencia en el cerebro” to the reader who in the next seven days proposes the smartest practical application of any of the discoveries mentioned in this post. Diego himself will be the judge!