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Zany scientists honored in alternative Nobels

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Published : Sept. 30, 2011 - 12:40

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NEW YORK (AFP) - In the ultimate accolade for the world's mad scientists, spoof Nobel prizes were awarded Thursday for studies into beetle sex, turtles yawning, the desperation of people dying to urinate and other daffy investigations.

The annual Ig Nobel prizes, now in their 21st year, were given at Harvard University in front of 1,200 spectators, with real Nobel Prize winners handing out the honors.

To win, scientists must "first make people laugh, and then make them think," according to the Ig Nobel ethos.

The biology prize -- often a good source of humor at the Igs -- went to Darryl Gwynne of Canada, Australia and the United States, and David Rentz of Australia, for their groundbreaking paper titled: "Beetles on the Bottle: Male Buprestids Mistake Stubbis For Females."

Which to the layman translates as: beetles tragically attempting to mate with an Australian beer bottle.

Several prizes delved into the extremes of human behavior under stress.

Take, for example, the medicine prize, won by a Dutch-Belgian-Australian team with "Inhibitory Spillover," a probe into the age-old challenge of needing to pee at a busy moment.

The team investigated why "people make better decisions about some kinds of things -- but worse decisions about other kinds of things, when they have a strong urge to urinate," the awards citation said.

Research into the psychology and physiology prizes must have been a great deal less stressful.

The former went to a University of Oslo professor who looked at "why, in everyday life, people sigh?"

The second concerned yawning in red-footed tortoises. For those who've been wondering, the British-Dutch-Hungarian-Austrian team has finally established that there is "no evidence of contagious yawning" in the creatures.

More physically demanding subjects bagged the physics and public safety prizes.

A French-Dutch group won the physics prize "for determining why discus throwers become dizzy and why hammer throwers don't."

John Senders of the University of Toronto sounded lucky to be alive to collect his public safety gong for studying the performance of a driver "on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face, blinding him."

At least Senders wasn't asked to test the "wasabi alarm." This invention was the subject of the chemistry prize given to a Japanese team who determined "the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of fire."

The mathematics prize was awarded jointly to six academics who over the years have emphatically predicted the end of the world, and are still around to hear of their mock-honor. The citation thanked them "for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions."

Of course, the last laugh might be on Ig Nobels, because one of those mathematics laureates still believes life will end on October 21 this year.

The peace prize was awarded to the mayor of Vilnius in Lithuania, who became so fed up with a parking violator that he took an armored personnel carrier and simply ran over the offending luxury car.

To those amazed at how scientists can achieve so much, the literature prize at the Harvard ceremony could offer a clue.

John Perry of Stanford University was honored for his "Theory of Structured Procrastination" -- namely the technique of always working on something important, "using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important."

The prizes are tongue-in-cheek and the presentations likewise.

Asked by the master of ceremonies what the laureates receive, an assistant

announced: "an Ig Nobel prize." Asked if there was anything more, she added: "a piece of paper saying they've won an Ig Nobel prize."

But the evening has a serious side, giving eminent researchers a chance to socialize and describe their work -- which is only unintentionally funny -- to a theater packed with other science lovers.

The prize itself is a board with tiny legs and a depiction of chemistry's periodic table. "A periodic table table," as the master of ceremonies deadpanned.

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AFP 300139 GMT SEP 11

 

 

<한글기사>

올해 이그노벨상 '딱정벌레 섹스' 등 수여



미국 하버드대학이 매년 재미있고 기발한 과학연구에 수여 하는 이그(IG) 노벨상과 관련, 올해는 '딱정벌레 섹스'를 연구한 과학자들이 수상자 가 됐다.

올해 21회째인 이 상의 생물학 분야 수상자로 선정된 캐나다 출신의 대릴  그와 인과 호주 출신의 데이비드 렌츠 등은 수컷 딱정벌레가 불쌍하게도 호주산 맥주병을 암컷으로 착각해 짝짓기하는 현상을 획기적으로 연구한 것으로 소개됐다. 

29일(현지시각) 열린 시상식에서 몇몇 상들은 스트레스 상황에 있는 인간의  극 단 행동을 파고든 이들에게 돌아갔다.

일례로 의학상은 '억제해야하는 여파'라는 제목으로, 바쁜 순간에 오줌 누는 것 을 참아야하는 현상이라는 아주 오래된 과제에 천착한 팀에게 주어졌다.

이 팀은 네덜란드-벨기에-호주 연합팀으로, "사람들이 강하게 소변 욕구를 느낄 때 어떤 종류의 일에 대해서는 더 나은 결정을 내리면서 다른 종류에 대해서는 더 나쁜 결정을 내리는지 그 이유를 조사"한 점이 수상 이유로 제시됐다.

심리학상은 '왜 일상에서 사람들은 하품을 하는가'를 연구한 노르웨이 오슬로 대학 교수에게 수여됐다.

또 생리학상은 붉은다리 거북의 하품 사례를 연구한 영국-네덜란드-헝가리-호주 팀이 차지했다. 이들은 생물체에 "하품이 전염된다는 증거는 찾아볼 수 없다"고  결 론 지었다.

프랑스-네덜란드 그룹은 "왜 원반 던지기 선수는 어지럼증을 느끼는데, 해머 던 지기 선수는 그렇지 않은가를 판별한" 공로로 물리학상을 받았다.

캐나다 토론토대의 존 센더스는 "주요 고속도로에서 햇빛가리개가 계속해서  얼 굴 앞으로 펄럭 떨어져 내려 시야를 가린 상태에서도 차를 몰았던 운전자 사례"를 실증 연구한 공로로 공공 안전상을 받았다.

화학상의 경우 "불이 났을 때 잠든 이들을 깨우기 위해 고추냉이(와사비)를  분 사할 경우 어느 정도의 농도가 좋은가"를 연구한 일본팀이 수상했다.

수학상은 지난 수 년동안 열정적으로 세상의 종말을 예언했던 6명의 학자들이 공동으로 받았으며, 수상이유로는 "수학적 추정을 할 때 조심해야만 함을 세상에 깨 우쳐 준 공로"가 꼽혔다.

평화상은, 주차 위반자들에게 본때를 보여주기 위해 장갑차를 동원해 불법 주차 된 고급 외제차를 깔아뭉갠 리투아니아 수도 빌니우스 시장에게 수여됐다.

IG는 '있을 것 같지 않은 진짜'(Improbable Genuine)라는 의미로, 실제 노벨상 수상자들이 시상을 돕는다.