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Posts Tagged Ig Nobel Prize

Just Add Air

Nov 9

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Technology | No Comments

Not content with their first Ig Nobel prize, researchers at CSIRO have determined that adding air to your shower can cut water use by a third. Last time I checked, my shower is filled with air before I even turn the water on, so I add water to my air to take a shower.

The scientists have developed a simple “air shower” device which, when fitted into existing showerheads, fills the water droplets with a tiny bubble of air. The result is the shower feels just as wet and just as strong as before, but now uses much less water. … Small-scale experiments using the aeration device found that people detected no difference in water pressure, sensation, or overall perception of showering. … He expects the nozzle would cost less than $20 and could be installed by householders.

All kidding aside, I hope this device works better than the “low flow” showerheads that have done so much to ruin on of the last enjoyments of life – a long hot shower. No word on whether or not they investigated the actually cleaning done by the shower.

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The New Phonebooks are Here!

Oct 6

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Fun, Science | No Comments

The Nobel prize winners have been in the news lately, and so here is a complete listing:

  • NUTRITION: Wasmia Al-Houty of Kuwait University and Faten Al-Mussalam of the Kuwait Environment Public Authority, for showing that dung beetles are finicky eaters.
  • PEACE: Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellant — a device that makes annoying noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but not to their teachers.
  • ACOUSTICS: D. Lynn Halpern (of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University), Randolph Blake (of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University) and James Hillenbrand (of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University) for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.
  • MATHEMATICS: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed
  • LITERATURE: Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report “Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly.”
  • MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, for his medical case report “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage”; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, for their subsequent medical case report also titled “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.”
  • PHYSICS: Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, for their insights into why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces.
  • CHEMISTRY: Antonio Mulet, Jose Javier Benedito and Jose Bon of the University of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rossello of the University of Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for their study “Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature.”

That would be the Ig Nobel prizes, that is. They are awarded to those who first make people laugh, then make them think. Something we strive mightily for here at funMurphys, but without the coveted award.

Some winners got into the spirit, as this press release shows.

BIOLOGY: Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy) for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.

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The Better Awards

Oct 13

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Fun | No Comments

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the Nobel and the Ig Nobel prizes, what with Mohamed ElBaradei winning the nobel peace prize with his winning slogan, peace through ignorance. But don’t miss out on the real thing – the Ig Nobel awards were held a week ago and the winners announced to much rejoicing (amongst the losers, that is).

Of the winners, my favorite is the story of a local (Missouri) boy making good – Gregg A. Miller who won in Medicine for inventing neuticals, which are replacement testicles for animals who have been neutered. I don’t know which is more surprising – that Mr. Miller wrote a book entitled Going Going NUTS! about them, or the fact that over 100,000 (thats over 200,000 neuticles for those keeping score at home) animals have been neuticled since 1995. And they say the age of miracles and wonders is over.

And while I have enjoyed the odd Pinter play made into a movie, I think again the Ig Nobels picked the better Literati by with their selection for Literature:

“The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters — General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others — each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.”

As someone who has received many such one act plays via email, I can only say “Bravo” to their selection.

And finally, I have no idea what it was about, but James Watson (umm, no not THE James Watson, but some JW in New Zealand), the winner in Agricultural History should have won (and probably did) for the title of his paper alone: “The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers.” Now that’s a scientific paper that I want to read.

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