This past September's Ig Nobel Prize winners included not one, but six people who believed they knew when the end was coming. Sadly, though perhaps not surprisingly, four of the six were fellow US citizens, among them Harold Camping, who recently corrected his original prediction, September 6th 1994 to October 21st 2011. Nice try Harry.
On the 29th, he and fellow fortune tellers were recognized with an Ig for "teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations." But what do you expect from a ceremony that keeps speeches appropriately lengthed by employing an 8-year-old girl, uses a human spotlight, and begins with a sword swallowing demonstration?
Not everything about the Igs is all fun and games, however. The qualifications for nominations are that a nominees research be first, humorous, but secondly, thought provoking. So, while certain awards lean more toward the laughable end of the spectrum, there are yet others that provoke a more ponderance than laughter.
Past nominees have included Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris who won the Psychology Prize in 2004 for demonstrating one way in which selective attention influences memory using a gorilla suit and a video. See if you can count the passes that players in white shirts make or figure out how this card trick is done. Simons's and Chabris's research, in addition to winning them an Ig, is now featured in many psychology text books.
Check out the ceremony, or parts of it, on youtube:
Other notable winners this year:
Arturas Zuokas - Peace Prize for preventing illegal parking with tanks.
Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz - Biology Prize for "discovering that a certain kind of beetle mates with a certain kind of Australian beer bottle."
Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami - Chemistry Prize "for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm."
check out the full list of winners.
I'm so sick of hearing about people who predict the end of the world. They're all just a bunch of attention whores!
ReplyDeleteI could read a list of Ig winners and why four hours thanks for bringing this to my attention.
ReplyDeletehaha wrong for
ReplyDeleteDon't just read about the prizes. Most prize descriptions also offer up some great links and video. The youtube video for the this year's peace prize winner is one of my favorites and in my opinion demonstrates the qualifications of an Ig winner very well. See the link near the end of the post if you'd like to check it out.
ReplyDeleteHow do you check your readership? That's neat that Russians enjoy your blog like we do!
ReplyDeleteWasabi alarm!! Brillant! Great post and love the science.
ReplyDeleteI've seen demonstrations on the internet where they have a memory game, except topless women appear on the screen at particularly important points of the game to distract you. Did they deserve a prize for that? Also-- I love that tank video
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