Here are your winners of the 2018 Ig Nobel Prize

Have you ever wondered why so many people do not read instruction manuals or how many calories were there in the human body? Or if stabbing a voodoo doll representing your ugly boss with pins could help reduce tension in the workplace? This year's Nobel prize winners have you covered. These research topics and other unusual topics were honored tonight at a ceremony at the Sanders Theater of Harvard University.

Created in 1991, the Ig Nobels are a parody of the Nobel Prizes, highlighting "the achievements that make people laugh and then make them think". Prizes have always been viewed as a celebration of scientific stupidity, an impression reinforced by the awards ceremony. The festivities include mini-operas, scientific demonstrations and 24/7 lectures, where the experts have to explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds and the second in seven words. The acceptance speeches are limited to 60 seconds, strictly enforced by an eight-year-old girl nicknamed "Miss Sweetie-Poo", who interrupts those who exceed the time limit by repeating: "Please, stop, I'm bored. " Until they stop.

"The honored search may seem ridiculous, but that does not mean that it is devoid of scientific foundation."

Everything is in good mood. But there is also a serious side to Ig Nobels. Honored research may seem ridiculous at first sight, but that does not mean that it is devoid of scientific foundation. Take the 2006 Ig Nobel for Physics, awarded to French researchers for exploring why dry spaghetti often breaks into more than two pieces when it is bent. This work has resulted in a new flexible brush in Adobe Illustrator 5. More importantly, it is essential to study how cracks form and propagate in various types of materials to detect imminent failures, for example on spans or bays. human bones. Last month, MIT physicists published a follow-up article. But more people are likely to read about breaking spaghetti than reading an academic article titled "Controlling Torsion Fracture and Extinction Fatalities".

Founder Marc Abrahams admits that when he created the Ig Nobel Prize and the Journal of Irreproducible Resultshe had a hard time finding a ruthless slogan that captured the company's entire intent. He opted for science "that can not or should not be reproduced," but in his mind he told only half of the story. It took several years to talk to a reporter before finding the current slogan.

The reporter in question took the opportunity to make fun of what he considered a frivolous and therefore useless science, citing a married couple who invented a special type of underwear containing a charcoal filter . Abrahams pointed out that the wife of this couple was suffering from Crohn's disease, a serious inflammation of the intestine that affects 1.6 million people in the United States alone. One of the side effects is especially odorous gaseous emissions; underwear was a way to improve one's quality of life.

One of my favorite articles in 2015 was that of two Berkeley physicists who noticed a quirk while spinning their wedding rings at the café one day. They determined that a wedding ring rotates more like a boomerang than a coin because of the hole in the center. The work has this idiot Ig Nobel element. But it could also one day help to improve the design of hydrofoils, speed boats or race cars, for example, to achieve a better balance between frictional forces and aerodynamics during the duel when it is not possible. they cross a surface.

Even when there is no immediate utility, there is always a strong argument to make on the basis of pure curiosity. Scientists have naturally curious minds, and it is good to encourage the line from time to time. At least one of the Nobel Ig winners, Andre Geim, has won a Nobel Prize, even though it is another area of ​​research.

It is in this spirit of curiosity and sense of play that we offer you the winners of the 2018 Ig Nobel Prize.

Drug

To laugh: Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, for using a roller coaster to accelerate the passage of kidney stones.

ThoughtKidney stones make up about 300,000 emergency room visits each year, and patients usually wait for the calculations to be successful, which can be long and painful. Recipients heard enough anecdotal evidence of people skipping stones by bungee jumping or roller coaster rides (such as the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Drive at Walt Disney World). If you've ever had kidney stones, you'll appreciate knowing that sitting back on the roller coaster is a good way to get past them faster.

Anthropology

To laugh: Tomas Persson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc and Elaine Madsen, for collecting evidence in a zoo about chimpanzees mimicking humans about as often and humans imitating chimpanzees.

Thought: Imitation is the most sincere of flatteries. It is also crucial for human development, especially with regard to social links and the transfer of skills and knowledge. It was assumed that chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates did not engage in imitation games. This study of the interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors suggests that this may not be the case. Chimpanzees have proven to be closer to humans by indulging in imitation games than previously believed.

Biology

To laugh: Paul Becher, Sebastien Lebreton, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenstrom, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jorger and Peter Witzgall, for demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine.

ThoughtFemale fruit flies emit a pheromone with a strong, unpleasant odor, easily detectable by humans, making it an excellent way to distinguish between male and female fruit flies. The researchers were able to identify the specific pheromone, so powerful that a single female fly could spoil a glass of wine. After all, fruit flies like fruits, like dipping into that glass of wine that you are trying to savor. Thanks to science, if a fly lands in your wine, you will immediately know of the smell and taste "off" if it was a female fly. You can mourn with the loss of an excellent vintage.

Chemistry

To laugh: Paula Romao, Adilia Alarcao and the late Cesar Viana, for measuring how human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces.

Thought: Admit it, you've been known to occasionally use a little saliva to clear a trace from time to time. Preservatives prefer their own saliva when cleaning delicate surfaces, such as gold leaf or painted ceramics. The experience of the authors has shown that intuition is a good science: saliva cleans golden surfaces especially better than other cleaners used by ecologists. They even identified the responsible component, which brings us closer to producing a synthetic version of saliva for cleaning.

Medical Education

To laugh: Akira Horiuchi, for the medical report "Colonoscopy in a sitting position: lessons learned from self-colonoscopy".

Thought: Colonoscopies are never pleasant, but some people have more difficulties with them than others. There is a long tradition of scientists using themselves as guinea pigs – in this case, to know if it would be better to do a colonoscopy in a sitting position compared to the usual lying position. That's exactly what the recipient did, not just once, but four different times, with varying degrees of discomfort. Thus, even the experiences of isolated patients can vary. He called for further study by comparing sitting and supine positions to determine whether the former could be better for problem patients.

Literature

To laugh: Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and Helen Thompson, for documenting that most people using complicated products do not read the instruction manual.

Thought: People who design our consumer products (cell phones, DVD players, etc.) often complain that customers do not read the manual and never use all the advanced features. In turn, customers feel overwhelmed by "feature issues" and do not find these manuals particularly useful, often preferring to fend for themselves by tinkering. As the recipients indicate in their document, "life is too short for RTFM". Understanding who does and does not do RTFM could help companies design better textbooks in the future – which, let's face it, most of us still do not read.

Nutrition

To laugh: James Cole, for calculating that calorie intake from a human-cannibalism diet is significantly lower than the caloric intake of most other traditional meat diets.

Thought: Why would one want to calculate the nutritional value of the human body, with the exception of the members of the Giving Party? Someone who is interested in studying the rare cases of cannibalism through history, that's who, not only in modern man, but also in the fossil remains of the Paleolithic. It turns out that the human body does not have a particularly high nutritional value, especially compared to other types of meat. This suggests that there were mainly social and cultural reasons for which people resorted to cannibalism.

Peace

To laugh: Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartin, Constanza Calatayud and Beatriz Alamar, for measuring the frequency, motivation and effects of screams and insults driving a car.

Thought: Most of us are prone to mumbling a bit of blasphemy when they are stuck in traffic, but about a quarter of us are particularly aggressive when it comes to screaming and cursing others drivers (especially in Spain). Recipients studied the frequency of this behavior and possible stressors, as well as the impact on road safety. Most people consider that such behavior is relatively harmless whereas in reality, this level of aggression is associated with a higher accident rate (major cause of death and injury). in the world).

Reproductive medicine

To laugh: John Barry, Bruce Blank and Michel Boileau, for using postage stamps to verify the proper functioning of the male sexual organ, as described in their study titled "Surveillance of Penile Tumescence at the Night". using stamps ".

Thought: Impotence is certainly embarrassing, but it can also be a symptom of more serious diseases (diabetes, lymphoma or arteriosclerosis, for example). One way to tell the difference between "psychogenic" impotence and impotence that has an underlying physical cause is whether the patient gets erections while asleep. Of course, you can connect your member to a strain gauge at night or ask your sexual partner to follow your nocturnal erections. But it's so much easier to wrap the "stamp ring" (similar in size to the Christmas seals) around him at night and check if the erection has broken the perforations during the night.

Economy

To laugh: Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, Lance Ferris and Lisa Keeping, for investigating whether employees could use voodoo dolls to seek revenge against abusive bosses.

Thought: Even recipients admit in their diaries that "it is difficult to offer direct practical implications of our study". But if you have a supervisor regularly subjecting you to public mockery, scapegoats, or other abusive behavior, chances are you'll end up fighting back by trying to restore a sense of justice. This usually worsens the situation and could have a negative impact on the net profit of the company. Hitting a voodoo doll representing your supervisor with pins can be cathartic. It is a type of psychological tool that balances the feeling of being harmed, and it may encourage discussion of other non-confrontational strategies for dealing with this common work problem.