Wasabi, yawning, and needing to pee: the winners of the 2011 Ig Nobel prizes

05/10/11 906 Views 2 Comments

IT’S NOBEL PRIZE WEEK – with the world’s scientific communities coming together to honour those who have made landmark contributions to their respective noble fields.

Alongside those prizes, however, come a much more fun category – the Ig Nobel Prizes – which honour those who contribute to the sciences in ways that make us laugh, as well as ways that make us think.

Here’s a selection of the ten winners from this year’s prizes – and the reasons for their widely-hailed success. Among them: the perfect consistency of wasabi in order to use it as an ‘alarm’, and how needing to pee changes the way you think.

Wasabi, yawning, and needing to pee: the winners of the 2011 Ig Nobel prizes

Previous 1 / 10Next

Peace Prize
You might remember Arturas Zuokas, because he's been here before - we featured him when he published a video of him driving over a double-parked Mercedes in an armoured car (http://jrnl.ie/191474). His practical demonstration of how to overcome illegal parking won him the Ig Nobel peace prize.
Physics Prize
Why do discus throwers become dizzy when they're in action, while hammer throwers - who spin just as much - don't? That was the problem examined by Philippe Perrin and Herman Kingma, who determined that it was down to a form of motion sickness. (Photo: PA)
Mathematics Prize
The Maths prize was shared between six people, including Harold Camping, for their not-very-accurate predictions about the end of the world. The organisers said their work showed that people needed to be careful when making mathematical assumptions. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta)
Literature Prize
John Perry of Stanford University has come up with a "Theory of Structured Procrastination". It runs as follows: if you're procrastinating about something important, arrange something even MORE important. You'll always procrastinate about the most important thing, so you'll get to work on your original task. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superfantastic/2846551282
Psychology Prize
"Is a sigh just a sigh?" That was the work of Karl Halvor Teigen, who examined whether there was a psychological or physical reason why people sighed when frustrated. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meemal/2837963842/
Chemistry Prize
You may be familiar with wasabi: the spicy Japanese horseradish dish. Seven Japanese researchers determined the 'ideal density of airborne wasabi' which could be blown into the air to wake people while they were asleep - a way of ensuring that heavy sleepers did not sleep through emergency alarms. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malias/366257379/
Public Safety Prize
Motorcycling can be dangerous - especially if riders have difficulty with their visors. But how would similar visors make it dangerous to drive in a full-blown car - with the visor repeatedly dropping down over your face? Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44309024@N03/4998298692/
Physiology Prize
An international team noticed that a group of red-footed tortoises all had the propensity to yawn at similar times. They wondered: is yawning contagious in red-footed tortoises? (The answer was no.) It was this inquisitive question that won them the Physiology gong. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcapaldi/6019401001/
Biology Prize
Two Australian researchers noticed that a particular breed of beetle, the male buprestid, had a habit for mistaking beer bottles for females. Not only that, but it only happened with one particular type of 380ml 'stubbie' bottle. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/garysoup/3447374338/
Medicine Prize
You may suspect that the panic of needing to urinate makes people make flawed decisions - making gut decisions based on the urgent need to pee. Teams in the Netherlands and Australia managed to simultaneously prove that needing to pee DOES make your decision-making poorer - but improves decisions in other regards.

More details on the Ig Nobel winners, and links to their published research, can be found at the Ig Nobel website.

Get our free app for
the iPhone & iPad

Also available in
the Android Market

Short URL

Comments (2 Comments)

Add New Comment

Log in to comment:

Share This Comment on Facebook or Twitter

Most Popular Today

1	Appeal for missing teenager from Kildare 8,787 27

2	As it happened: The Frontline Fiscal Compact referendum debate 8,744 225

3	Man survives plunge into Niagara Falls 8,724 22

1	Facebook’s worst nightmare: how the other dominoes could fall 11,599 26

2	Facebook shares nosedive in early trading on NASDAQ 7,651 36

3	Explainer: What are Eurobonds and why do they matter? 4,400 24

1	The spoof site that tricked people into thinking that Man United signed Eden Hazard 4,864 6

2	Olympic heartbreak as McCambridge misses out on marathon place 4,023 2

3	Murph’s Sideline Cut: We’re back, baby! 2,929 1

1	VIDEO: By the beard of Zeus… it’s Anchorman 2 4,404 17

2	In pictures: The Chelsea Flower Show 4,011 2

3	VIDEO: The official trailer for latest Bond film 3,539 9

Trending Tags

EDZERBAIJOHN

Poll: Will you watch the Eurovision Song Contest?

Jedward face 1:30am performance in order to make Eurovision final

VIDEO: Jedward dress up as tubs of popcorn (literally) at the Eurovision

WEATHER

Now 2012! That’s What They Call Summer

VIDEO: Scary Plane Landing of the Day

VIDEO: Fishing trawler braves a stormy Irish Sea

FACEBOOK

One heck of a ride: Irish adventurers trekking 16,000 km from Istanbul to Shanghai

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg weds on day after IPO

Facebook, lightning and Euro 2020: the week in statistics

Man survives plunge into Niagara Falls

Teachers Dancing Behind Students Video of the Day

Man bitten by rattlesnake in Wal-Mart

FUN

Your guide to the strangest summer festivals in Ireland

Unexpected Ministerial Balloon Photoshoot of the Day

9 out of 10 classic celebrities prefer dogs…

USA

Sitdown Sunday: 7 deadly reads

Sophia and Jacob are top US baby names

Stevie Wonder’s nephew and woman charged with attempted extortion

About Us

Corrections

Report Content

Policies

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

News images provided by Press Association and Photocall Ireland unless otherwise stated. Irish sport images provided by Inpho Photography unless otherwise stated. Wire service provided by Associated Press.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Switch to Mobile Site

Tags

Tags