An ice cream flavoured with cow dung extract has this week won its creator a Nobel Prize. Also among this year’s winners was a bottomless bowl of soup, and a study into the side-effects of sword-swallowing…
Now maybe that was a misleading opening. I’m not talking about the Nobel Prize (which is scheduled for December), but rather the lesser known ‘Ig’ Nobel Prize, founded in 1991 at Harvard and presented to a range of winners at the university each year.
The prize recognises genuine achievements from a range of categories (chemistry, physics, engineering, computing etc) whose work has a ’special’ quality but a low chance of being recognised by mainstream awards such as the Nobel Prize.
The awards tread an entertaining line between science and satire, - all underscored by a bizarrely surreal atmosphere. After all, this is no student prank; previous recipients include actual Nobel winners and some of the world’s leading scientific figures.
Organised by the scientific humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), recent Ig conference highlights have included studies proving that ostriches become sexually aroused in the presence of humans, and a detailed report on the ‘five second rule’ - investigating the attractive delusion that food dropped onto the floor doesn’t become dirty for the first five seconds.
Some have criticised the levity of the Ig Nobel awards - saying that sometimes serious scientific research is mocked or devalued. Personally I think it sounds like great fun, and would love to see other industry sectors and professions embrace their lighter side with such wholesome gusto.
(For those who really should be working but aren’t; a full list of previous Ig winners can be found here)
Dejan Levi