The 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes

[arthwollipot]

The 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/...tructions-ig-nobel-prize-study-shows/10242560

Amongst them are findings that nobody reads the instructions, and that stabbing a voodoo doll of your boss makes you feel better!

Here's the full list, from the news article linked above:

• Anthropology: Tomas Pesson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc, and Elainie Madsen, Lund University
  "Spontaneous Cross-Species Imitation in Interaction Between Chimpanzees and Zoo Visitors"
• Biology: Paul Becher, Sebastian Lebreton, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenstrom, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jorger and Peter Witzgall
  "The Scent of the Fly"
• Chemistry: Paula Romão, Adília Alarcão and the late César Viana, Regional Government of the Azores
  "Human Saliva as a Cleaning Agent for Dirty Surfaces"
• Economics: Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris and Lisa Keeping
  "Righting a Wrong: Retaliation on a Voodoo Doll Symbolizing an Abusive Supervisor Restores Justice"
• Literature: Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson, Queensland University of Technology
  "Life Is Too Short to RTFM: How Users Relate to Documentation and Excess Features in Consumer Products"
• Medical Education: Akira Horiuchi, Showa Inan General Hospital
  "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy"
• Medicine: Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, Michigan State University
  "Validation of a Functional Pyelocalyceal Renal Model for the Evaluation of Renal Calculi Passage While Riding a Roller Coaster"
• Nutrition: James Cole, University of Brighton
  "Assessing the Calorific Significance of Episodes of Human Cannibalism in the Paleolithic"
• Peace: Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartin, Constanza Calatayud and Beatriz Alamar, University of Valencia
  "Shouting and Cursing While Driving: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment"
• Reproductive Medicine: John Barry, Bruce Blank and Michel Boileau
  "Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps"

 

[SelfSim]

Now these two are definite winners! .. (just what we've all been waiting for .. and soo practical also! ):

[*]Economics: Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris and Lisa Keeping
"Righting a Wrong: Retaliation on a Voodoo Doll Symbolizing an Abusive Supervisor Restores Justice"
...

[*]Peace: Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartin, Constanza Calatayud and Beatriz Alamar, University of Valencia
"Shouting and Cursing While Driving: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment"

 

[rjh01]

Here is the one on driving. It reads useful and so should get disqualified.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...equency_Reasons_Perceived_Risk_and_Punishment

 

[Bikewer]

NPR’s Science Friday used to air the entire “ceremony” the day after Thanksgiving, complete with the musical numbers and all. Hilarious.
Currently, they’ve taken to airing a much-condensed version of the highlights.

 

[Horatius]

Here is the one on driving. It reads useful and so should get disqualified.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...equency_Reasons_Perceived_Risk_and_Punishment

Being useful isn't actually a disqualification:

Improbable research is research that makes people laugh and then think.

We collect improbable research. Real research, about anything and everything, from everywhere. Research that's maybe good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless.

Studying how/why people swear while driving is one of those things that most people would probably rate as a "well, Duh!" kind of topic. But maybe if you ignore that, and actually study it, you'll find something new and surprising.

That's what makes it "improbable".

 

[Trebuchet]

Indeed, the gas mask bra from a few years back could be very useful even if you don't need the mask.

 

[EHocking]

Indeed, the gas mask bra from a few years back could be very useful even if you don't need the mask.

Or the bra. . .

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Now these two are definite winners! .. (just what we've all been waiting for .. and soo practical also! ):

Both those were my top favs.

 

[shemp]

I think this one is Best of Show:

Medical Education: Akira Horiuchi, Showa Inan General Hospital
"Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy"

 

[angrysoba]

I think this one is Best of Show:

Did you pull the data from your ass?

 

[CORed]

The [*]Reproductive Medicine: John Barry, Bruce Blank and Michel Boileau
"Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps"

Wait: What?

 

[Darat]

In the UK they used to use a plaster, stamps would seem to be too fragile.

 

[Darat]

I heard the senior researcher in the kidney stone one and that was a useful bit of work. If it had worked out it could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain and potentially serious surgery.

 

[angrysoba]

I heard the senior researcher in the kidney stone one and that was a useful bit of work. If it had worked out it could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain and potentially serious surgery.

Yeah, the problem with a lot of research that superficially sounds frivolous may end up being more important to other researchers than laypeople realize. It reminds me slightly of Sarah Palin's famous "Golly gee, WTF! We are spending money on fruit fly research?!? How pointless!" even though fruit flies are a well-attested model for all kinds of genetic research.

I also realize that the Ig Nobels have their own figleaf about how they are giving awards for research that at first makes you laugh, then makes you think, but I am slightly uncomfortable if it results in researchers fearing some kind of stigma.

Oh well, maybe I am just getting offended on someone else's behalf who isn't offended.

 

[arthwollipot]

Wait: What?

You wrap the penis in a row of perforated stamps, and if in the morning the perforations are broken, you know that the penis has become engorged during the night.

 

[dann]

I heard the senior researcher in the kidney stone one and that was a useful bit of work. If it had worked out it could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain and potentially serious surgery.

As it is, it may have saved a lot of people from a lot of pointless and potentially nauseating rollercoaster rides ...

 

[EHocking]

In the UK they used to use a plaster, stamps would seem to be too fragile.

Not if you’re wearing Dr. Martens.

 

[Giordano]

Being useful isn't actually a disqualification:




Studying how/why people swear while driving is one of those things that most people would probably rate as a "well, Duh!" kind of topic. But maybe if you ignore that, and actually study it, you'll find something new and surprising.

That's what makes it "improbable".

Exactly! What I enjoy about the IgNobles is that they are clear their goal is to pick unusual, quirky, even odd research that has a humorish twist, not that it is necessarily useless. Many of the recipients recognize this and make an effort to attend the presentation ceremonies.

 

[Darat]

Exactly! What I enjoy about the IgNobles is that they are clear their goal is to pick unusual, quirky, even odd research that has a humorish twist, not that it is necessarily useless. Many of the recipients recognize this and make an effort to attend the presentation ceremonies.

Yeah the researcher with the kidney stones and roller-coaster was happy about it being awarded and was chuffed it gave him a chance to talk about science and research.

 

[catsmate]

I heard the senior researcher in the kidney stone one and that was a useful bit of work. If it had worked out it could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain and potentially serious surgery.

Indeed. Perhaps some less bulky machine could be developed.