Irrelevant Scientific Research Honored 93
More than 1,000 people attended this year's Ig Nobel awards, a light-hearted alternative to the Nobel Prizes. Scientists who unlocked the inner secrets of dog fleas, crisps and tangled string swept the show. Handing out awards was William Lipscomb, the 1976 Nobel laureate for chemistry, also doubling Thursday, at the age of 89, as the hero in the "Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest." The prize itself is a plaque that reads, "This Ig Nobel Prize is awarded in the year 2008 to an Ig Nobel Prize Winner, in recognition of the Ig Nobel Prize Winners' Ig Nobel Prize winning achievement." At last I can submit my paper, "Everything is Really Wet, Even Dry Stuff." for peer review.
I know it's all in fun... (Score:5, Insightful)
I know it's all in fun but seriously, just because research is funny doesn't mean it isn't meaningful. One paper was in knot theory, which is apparently a pretty large and under-researched area of mathmatics. Another was convincing people that their potato chips were fresh by playing crunching noises while they were being eaten, which I imagine provides insights into how what we taste is influenced by our other senses.
Don't forget, the point of the Ig Nobel Awards is to 'Make you laugh, then make you think'.
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Ahh the ice sound - that and of walking in snow of the perfect consistency.
Though with the snow, for me, the feeling and sound and smell at the same time of a nice layer of snow I think contributes to for some reason liking the overall sensation.
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"I'm from Baton Rouge. It's snowed there ONCE and stuck in the last 25 years."
So snowballs DID have a chance in Hell!
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So snowballs DID have a chance in Hell!
(exterior, just inside the gates of Hell)
(wide shot over frozen hellscape)
(voice over: Sir David Attenborough)
In the early days of 2006 Hell started a spontaneous, rapid cooling process, reaching freezing temperature in the early spring, and being completely frozen over by the end of April. Soon, having tried for 45 years with little success, Finland finally won the 2006 Eurovision song contest.
The events remain yet to be explained, but some have drawn connections to a popular saying: "Hell will freeze over
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I am currently sitting about twenty miles from one of the leading contenders for the snowiest spot on the globe. That would be Thompson Pass, near Valdez, Alaska. I will send you some snow if you like--we probably have enough.
I am so thrilled by all of this wonderful snow that we get. So thrilled. On an entirely unrelated subject, I'm looking for good books on how to tie a noose correctly. Have you heard of any?
Re:I know it's all in fun... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well all research ought to be potentially good. You never know when something important may arise from seemingly unimportant research, provided its conducted properly. A seemingly unimportant fact that emerges from this research may prove to be important when applied to someone else's research down the road.
Re:I know it's all in fun... (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely. The summary and linked article get it wrong. The Ig Nobel prizes are not about "irrelevant" research:
A lot of scientific research seems pointless or silly to people who don't know what it's really about or why it was done. Hence the regular "still no cure for cancer" and "I can't believe my tax dollars fund this" comments. The Ig Nobel prizes acknowledge that science can sometimes seem funny on the surface, but they definitely do not concede that it is irrelevant.
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I'm willing to volunteer for this study.
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I think mostly that the wires are just stiffer, so the ease of untangling comes from the difficulty of tangling.
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I've noticed that too. I have a pair of Sony earbuds that were about the same price as Apple charges for a pair like the ones that came with my iPhone. The Sony buds sound better but I'm forever untangling them after pulling them out of my pocket. With the Apple earbuds, all I had to do is shake them a few times and they were ready to go. I think it's the silicon jacket they use in place of the typical PVC.
Now, if only Apple would improve the sound and durability. Mine started distorting on volume peaks (l
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That should have been silicone, not silicon.. But I guess silicon wouldn't tangle either.
Knot theory is "under-researched" ?? (Score:4, Informative)
Knot theory (Score:5, Funny)
I am sure that knot theory would be useful to cosmologists studying string theory.
Discovery Institute should get its act together! (Score:3, Funny)
Too bad the Creationists can't come up with any actual scientific research, they'd win this honour every year!
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The "I'm not buying it" argument against evolution typically comes because humans do not innately have the understanding of the time scales involved, or of the nature of probability.
Humans don't typically pay attention long enough to visibly see evolution taking place. The evidence is there, but it may take effort to put it together, and they're unwilling to do that. (I keep thinking that a month-long process of breeding antibiotic-resistant e. coli and feeding it to them would go a long way toward hel
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(I keep thinking that a month-long process of breeding antibiotic-resistant e. coli and feeding it to them would go a long way toward helping them understand it, but that's just me.)
No, that won't work. They'll say that's just "microevolution", and that it proves nothing about "macroevolution". This is the standard creationist argument any time antibiotic-resistant bacteria are brought up.
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If you breed those e.coli and at the end of the breeding process they have turned into unikonts be sure to let us know.
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I remember a story posted here on /. about a scientist that found a mutation on his bacterias that allowed them to metabolize methane. IIRC, it happened in the range of 20K to 40K generations. The unikonts you mentioned seem to be very hard to happen given our lifespan, but after 10^10 generations it is not that difficult to think happening.
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In our yard the lawn sure has added up to a bunch of inches.
Time to get the mower.
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That won't work becasue they would use the moving goal post fallacy, among others.
We can see perfectly clear evidence of evolution in humans. They just don't want to believe, so they don't. They want others to believe so the make stuff up. The fact that none of what they say about evolution is true.
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We can see perfectly clear evidence of evolution in humans.
Go on ..
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We can see perfectly clear evidence of evolution in humans.
Go on ..
Nobody ever said evolution would produce a "better" animal, just one "more suited" to breed in the environment in which it lives.
Yeah. Think about that.
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Evolution has mountains of scientific evidence supporting it, your "feeling" has none. Who's trolling now?
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Makes sense to me. Maybe you're just not smart enough? Sometimes I have a hard time with quantum mechanics or statistics, but a good night's sleep, some solid study, and a couple of good lectures make a big difference.
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Ok, you're not buying it. What hypothosis do you ahve that fits the enoumous amount of data?
Here is a clue, study it, understand it and stop arguing from Personal Incredulity*
Which part of evolution do you ahve an issue with? Because it is a rock solid theory with mountains of evidence.
"Don't try to defend yourself by saying "but I didn't say anything about evolution" because that is your counter argument to the Creationist..."
Sine he didn't say that, how do you know that? Maybe he believes it was couched u
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Simply looking at their posting, it's likely part of an attempt to spam Google into boosting the page rank for some of those NYT opinion pieces, or maybe to try to relate some of those stories to each other. (I'm not visiting or posting those links out of principle, so it's hard to say for sure.) They could be attacking just the search engine or possibly Google News as well. We can only hope that the Google spiders walking Slashdot ignore all "Score -1" postings.
I'm not sure why they didn't put hrefs
Dog Fleas (Score:1, Informative)
If they find something that will eliminate the need for chemical pesticides or at least find one that isn't potentially carcinogenic, and one not made from petro chemicals, I think the research is quite meaningful. There are a few diseases that are brought by fleas.
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To be a social liberal, one must accept social conservatives' right to hold and express their their ideas, however stupid. The ACLU stands up for the free speech rights of even those on the far far right, neo-Nazis and the KKK.
Being a social liberal does not, however, mean refraining from exercising your own free speech rig
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The Next Big Controversy (Score:5, Funny)
I don't see how any self-respecting scientist can sleep at night until this situation is rectified. I know I can't!
Re:The Next Big Controversy (Score:4, Insightful)
ugh, they don't go into details of how that's used, but assuming it's like typical spermicides and it's vaginally applied that's a TERRIBLE idea. Even if it kills sperm, that'd completely screw up the pH balance and flood it with sugar. Sounds to me like exactly what you don't want to do(unless you like yeast infections and other such STIs)
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As a regular method of birth control? No. As an emergency contraceptive? Risking a yeast infection might well be worth it to reduce the risk of pregnancy after a rape, a condom failure, or a momentary bit of stupidity.
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I'm not from the US, so all I have to go off of is anecdotes and whatnot... But is it really that expensive/difficult to get a dose of Plan B(an emergency contraceptive) down there? Far more effective than a coke and less likely to lead to damage of the delicate fallopian tubes (coke under pressure being squirted up into the vagina in an effort to "make sure we get 'em all"...
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Crazy religious assholes fight against women protecting themselves all the time, so it can be difficult in some areas.
We're talking about who think young ladies shouldn't get vaccinated against cancer.
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"[...] who think young ladies shouldn't get vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease known to have a high statistical correlation with cervical cancer." <-- Fixed for you.
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You know, there are other methods [wikipedia.org] for that.
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completely screw up the pH balance and flood it with sugar.
Dude. You're supposed to use Diet Coke. Duh.
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Maybe they want to make vaginal bread~
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It sounds like you're going to be the research topic for next years awards.
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Sperm from the USA is different from sperm from Taiwan?
"Anderson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University's School of Medicine, and her colleagues found that not only was Coca-Cola a spermicide, but Diet Coke for some reason worked best. "
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Coca Cola from the USA is significantly different from Coca Cola from Taiwan?
It's quite possible they use different sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup vs. cane sugar) or other substitute ingredients due to relative expense per region.
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Coca Cola from the USA is significantly different from Coca Cola from Taiwan?
One comes with less styrene.
Re:The Next Big Controversy (Score:4, Interesting)
There was even more agitation over the chemistry prize, awarded jointly to rival teams - one from the United States which determined Coca-Cola to be an effective spermicide and one from Taiwan which proved it is not.
I don't see how any self-respecting scientist can sleep at night until this situation is rectified. I know I can't!
Apparently, Coca Cola in the US is not quite the same as Coca Cola in several other countries. In the US, corn syrup is used as the sweetener. In many other countries, syrup from sugar cane is used. The two syrups' particular sucroses and admixed flavourings (impurities) are not the same. Perhaps the difference is just enough.
Hey, corn syrup as a spermicide! What an idea for a research proposal! Next year, maybe I'll get an Ig!
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You might also want to check into the water.
Quality and filtration processes may be different enough to be another factor.
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That's true. I live right on the U.S./Mexico border and a lot of stores here sell both American-made and Mexican-make Coke. I've tried them both and there is a noticeable difference. The American-made version is not quite as sweet and has a bit more of an acidic bite to it.
BTW, I once had a neighbor who worked in the Coca-Cola lab in Los Angeles. He said that Coke varied the formula depending on the type of contain
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I think that depends on who they are sleeping with...
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> I don't see how any self-respecting scientist can sleep at night until this situation is rectified.
Maybe that was the problem with one of the projects...they used the wrong orifice :-)
The acoustics of crisp (Score:4, Interesting)
Funny coincidence, I just watched the Fish & Chips episode of Heston Blumenthal's BBC series "In Search of Perfection", which discussed just the same thing. Blumenthal is the head chef at The Fat Duck, the restaurant mentioned in the article, and a major figure in the "molecular gastronomy" scene.
He visits a scientist in the UK to test the crispiness of different batter recipes, using an apparatus that analyzes the sound waves generated by poking the food with a probe. It's not the same scientist as mentioned in the Ig Nobel article, though, no idea if it's related to the specific research citing by Ig Nobel.
There's video from the episode online [youtube.com], the relevant segment begins at the 2 minute mark.
improbable.com (Score:2, Informative)
The official ig website with video, background and list of winners [improbable.com]
Placebo effect (Score:5, Interesting)
"He says his work has implications for the way drugs are marketed. People often think generic medicine is inferior. But gussy it up a bit, change the name, make it appear more expensive, and maybe it will work better, he said."
Well I'd rather be convinced that cheaper medicine is better or the same as expensive medicine :).
"In the 18 subjects Miller studied, average earnings were $250 for a five-hour shift. That jumped to $350 to $400 per five-hour shift when the women were their most fertile, he said."
There's research that shows that women tend to actually appear more attractive during their most fertile days (and probably might behave in a more attractive manner too ).
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/52484 [radio.cz]
BTW there's also:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080226/full/news.2008.625.html [nature.com]
http://www.newlifeafterdivorce.com/Relationships/Married-fertile-women-prefer-single-men.html [newlifeafterdivorce.com]
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"He says his work has implications for the way drugs are marketed. People often think generic medicine is inferior. But gussy it up a bit, change the name, make it appear more expensive, and maybe it will work better, he said."
So that means that us knowledgeable people will achieve better results with the standard medicine, or worse results with the more expensive one?
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The problem is that convincing "you" - your conscious mind, the voice in your head - isn't enough. You have to convince the deeper layers of the nervous system.
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Irreverant, not Irrelevant (Score:2)
Much of the winning research this year and previously was serious work on topics many find silly. This is what AIR is about (makes you laugh, then think). Most of the recipients take the award with good humor and, as a sign that science is actually making progress as a human social activity, they are not chastised by their colleagues. The title sucks. It came from the Telegraph, but it got passed along without being made less ridiculous.
Funny but relevant (Score:1)
Awww, c'mon!!!! (Score:2)