You all resented on the topic of weird sometimes studies performed by scientists who gave them equipment and money to them. Present you certainly the best of the best: Harvard, USA, was held the 26th ceremony of the IG Nobel prize.
Chemistry
the Victory in this nomination was awarded with a fair amount of sarcasm: garvanza awarded to discredit the company Volkswagen. The wording of the IG Nobel Committee was as follows: “for an automatic, Electromechanical solution to the problem of exceeding the norms of emissions from motor vehicles, whenever tested cars.”
the First information about what programs and equipment of the company issued incorrect information regarding the actual exhaust emissions of cars of the concern, appeared exactly a year ago, the very next day after the award ceremony, IgNobel Prize 2015 (which we also told).
as evidence of the “achievements” of the German manufacturer is the press release of the Agency for environmental protection of the United States from 18 September 2015.
Remember the motto of the IG Nobel prize for achievements that first make laugh and then reflect.” Announced the problem is really serious for the environment. A simple example. As in Russia and other countries of the world, Europe and the United States have a huge number of agricultural fields along the roads. Compliance of vehicles specified States standards means that the field gets a certain amount of harmful substances emitted with exhaust gases, including heavy metals. It is clear that any manipulation of the results in this area is causing serious damage to nature and health of the citizens of these countries.
Reproduction
In this category an award for the study of the impact of pants in the male rats received late Egyptian biologist and a urologist Ahmed Shafiq (Ahmed Shafik). He found that as a contraceptive for rodents you can use underwear made from polyester.
Professor Cairo University made laboratory rodents for their pants, which consisted of different materials: 100% polyester, 50/50% polyester and cotton, 100% cotton and 100% wool. It turned out that polyester is the worst affects the sexual activity of rats. Scientists have suggested that this is due to the static electricity created by synthetic materials.
Medicine
Skobelevka in medicine went to German scientists, led by Andreas Sprenger (Andreas Sprenger of the University of lübeck. A team of researchers has managed to prove that it is possible to relieve the itching on one side of the body, if you look in the mirror and scratch the opposite side. In fact, there is deception of the brain, while the itch is bad sometimes the comb intact.
the Study was published in 2013 in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.
Literature
the winner of the prize in literature was a Swedish entomologist Fredrik Seeberg (Fredrik Sjöberg), who wrote the three-volume work “The Fly Trap” (“flypaper”). This autobiographical work about the joys of collecting flies – dead and alive. It also describes the personal invention of the author – special trap for insects.
the First volume of a trilogy titled “the path of the collector of the flies” was published in English only in 2015, though the home of entomologist books have become bestsellers. “I’m 15 years wrote books which nobody read, until I realized that it is better to write about what you know well. The topic is not important,” — shared Sieberg with new generations of writers.
Biology
In this category the victory celebrated by the real British researchers.
One of them, citizen of London Thomas Thwaites Thomas Thwaites), felt on their skin what it’s like to live in a herd of goats. His friend made him a special prosthesis, which served as a continuation of the hands and feet of crazy experimenter.
With their help, the 35-year-old Thomas was able to walk like a goat and became three days of the flock to graze on the hills of the Swiss Alps, and observe the life of animals. Then another three days he spent in the mountains alone.
the Main conclusion of Thwaites from his “research” was the fact that the life of a goat is not as easy as it seemed: he is almost always on the descent, I rolled down from the hills, he was always cold and, of course, he had to chew grass. In addition, other members of the herd it did not take long, but in the end one of the goats all followed pseudo-extreme and even licking his face from time to time. Later, Thomas wrote about his adventures the whole book, in which he told that his life in London was also very difficult, he lost his job and was left all alone.
difficulties made Thomas on a desperate experiment, and now he has promoted the idea of reverse evolution. Thomas I am sure that people in the future will increasingly choose this way of life to avoid difficulties.
Another winner of the IG Nobel prize — Charles foster (Charles Foster). He had to eat earthworms, because he and his 8-year-old son became for several days the badger family. Foster also released a book about his misadventures in Wales in the image of the beast.
By the way, earlier foster also appeared before a distinguished audience in the form of otters, deer, foxes and even birds. Well, anything for science!
Physics
This category has the largest number of authors. However, in the physics of this, I may say, the trend can be traced.
Researchers from Hungary, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland have found that horses with white coat almost horseflies do not bite. By the way, another important conclusion of other work of the same group: dragonflies irresistibly drawn to black tombstones.
Why these researchers won the award in physics, not biology? Because scientists have studied light and its influence on the resistance to flies” and “the appeal of graves.”
Psychology
the Prize in psychology took an international team of scientists from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada and the United States. They held a joint study entitled “From the youngest to the oldest Pinocchio.” We are talking about liars: psychologists have found that the most skilled liars are young people and teenagers.
the study involved more than a thousand people at the age from 6 to 77 years old were asked how often they lie, how well they succeed and how they improved their skills over the years. It turned out that children lie more as they get older, reaching “peak bullshit” in adolescence. Adults lie an average of twice a day, and with the age of this figure (with rare exceptions) is reduced.
the award ceremony and the co-author of the study Professor Gordon Logan (Gordon Logan) asked why he was so sure that the respondents did not lie to him. “We are not sure about it,” retorted the psychologist, receiving a well-deserved award.
Perception
the Japanese Atsuki Higashiyama (Higashiyama Atsuki) and Kohei Adachi (Adachi Kohei) found that things look different if you bend over and look at them between your legs.
Actually, scientists have determined how a human brain in this difficult situation, estimates the size of objects and distance to them. Despite the apparent senselessness of the study, its conclusions can have very specific applications. How a person or animal perceives the position of your body and its separate parts in space is important, for example, for robotics.
Economy
the new Zealand researchers Shelagh Ferguson (Shelagh Ferguson) and mark Avis (Mark Avis), and also their colleague from the UK Sarah Forbes (Sarah Forbes) won an honorary award, considering not much apparent personality of the stones from the point of view of sales and marketing prospects.
In his article, published in the journal Marketing Theory, the researchers explain that the images of the stones was chosen to test one of the marketing methods of valuation as they may associate people with no names.
the Abstract of the article ends with the phrase: “the findings highlight the importance of critical test methods used to determine marketing principles. Indeed, many people today suffer from a lack of critical thinking. Young people, for example. (Cm. following the nomination.)
peace Prize
the IG Nobel peace prize was awarded to the team from Canada and the United States for the study of identification and perception “pseudoglobulin nonsense”. Scientists have issued a meaningless set of words as aphorisms and wise sayings, and studied their perception of the Internet among students.
the Results showed that young people are the most receptive to the “philosophical nonsense” type of “Hidden meaning converts abstract matchless beauty” or “the Integrity of their silence exceeds the the phenomenon of infinity”.
Scientists believe that the delusional statements, the real logical phenomenon that never circulated in the modern era of the ubiquitous Internet. As examples, they cited some tweets of known personalities have millions of subscribers.
In 2016, the theme of Nose became Time. All award winners were given a “statuette” in the form of a wall clock, the hands which had replaced the hourglass. As always symbolic.
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