Harvard hosts spoof Nobel awards for silly science

[Buster's Uncle]

Harvard hosts spoof Nobel awards for silly science
AFP
18 hours ago



Ig Nobel prizes were handed out to scientists researching the physics of stepping on a banana skin and the neuroscience behind spotting Jesus in toast (AFP Photo/Stan Honda)



New York (AFP) - Spoof Nobel prizes that honor the humor in science were handed out at Harvard University, celebrating the physics of stepping on a banana skin and the neuroscience behind spotting Jesus in toast.

The 24th edition of the annual Ig Nobel Prizes were handed out Thursday to winners from across the world by genuine Nobel laureates in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The awards showcase "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think," said the organizers. The ceremony at Harvard's Sanders Theatre was attended by hundreds and broadcast live online.

The winners are serious scientists whose work is generally considered only unintentionally funny.

Japanese researchers won the physics prize for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor when a person steps on the discarded fruit peel.

Scientists in China and Canada won a neuroscience prize for trying to understand what happens in the brains of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.

The authors come from Beijing Jiaotong University's School of Computer and Information Technology, Xidian University, the Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and the University of Toronto.

Australia, Britain and the United States shared the psychology prize for collecting evidence that people who habitually stay up late are, on average, more self-admiring, manipulative and psychopathic than early risers.

The public health prize was shared by the Czech Republic, India, Japan and the United States for investigating whether it is mentally hazardous to own a cat.

The Czech Republic also joined Germany and Zambia in winning the biology prize for documenting that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth's north-south geomagnetic field lines.

Italy took the art prize for measuring the relative pain people suffer while looking at an ugly rather than a pretty painting.

The Italian government's National Institute of Statistics walked away with the economics prize for increasing the official size of its national economy by including revenue from prostitution, illegal drug sales, smuggling, and other unlawful financial transactions between willing participants, organizers said.

India and the United States shared the medicine prize for treating "uncontrollable" nosebleeds with strips of cured pork.

Germany and Norway won the Arctic science award for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears.

And Spanish researchers took home the nutrition prize for a study titled "Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Potential Probiotic Starter Cultures for Fermented Sausages."

The prize-winners, who travel to collect the awards at their own expense, were given 60 seconds for an acceptance speech, a time limit enforced by an eight-year-old girl.

The ceremony also included the premiere of a mini-opera called "What's Eating You", about people who stop eating food in favor of nourishing themselves exclusively with pills.


http://news.yahoo.com/harvard-hosts-spoof-nobel-awards-silly-science-015453488.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ig Nobel winner: Using pork to stop nosebleeds
Associated Press
By MARK PRATT  21 hours ago



Kiyoshi Mabuchi, of Japan, demonstrates measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that's on the floor during his acceptance speech after winning the physics award during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.,Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. The Ig Nobel prize is an award handed out by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine for silly sounding scientific discoveries that often have surprisingly practical applications. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)



BOSTON (AP) — There's some truth to the effectiveness of folk remedies and old wives' tales when it comes to serious medical issues, according to findings by a team from Detroit Medical Center.

Dr. Sonal Saraiya and her colleagues in Michigan found that packing strips of cured pork in the nose of a child who suffers from uncontrollable, life-threatening nosebleeds can stop the hemorrhaging, a discovery that won them a 2014 Ig Nobel prize, the annual award for sometimes inane, yet often surprisingly practical, scientific discoveries.

This year's winners honored Thursday at Harvard University by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine included a team of researchers who wondered if owning a cat was bad for your mental health; Japanese scientists who tested whether banana peels are really as slippery as cartoons would have us believe; and Norwegian biologists who tested whether reindeer on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard were frightened by humans dressed to resemble polar bears.

As has become the custom, real Nobel laureates handed out the prizes and winners were given a maximum of 60 seconds to deliver their acceptance speech,

Sticking pork products up the patient's nose was a treatment of last resort when conventional treatments had failed, Saraiya said, and was only used for a very specific condition known as Glanzmann thrombasthenia, a rare condition in which blood does not properly clot.

"We had to do some out-of-the-box thinking," she said. "So that's where we put our heads together and thought to the olden days and what they used to do."



The 2014 Ig Nobel Prize trophy is hoisted high during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.,Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. The Ig Nobel prize is an award handed out by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine for silly sounding scientific discoveries that often have surprisingly practical applications. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)


The 4-year-old child's nostrils were packed with cured pork twice, and according to their study, "the nasal vaults successfully stopped nasal hemorrhage promptly (and) effectively."

The method worked because "there are some clotting factors in the pork ... and the high level of salt will pull in a lot of fluid from the nose," she said.

Still, Soraiya does not recommend sticking pork up your nose for a routine nosebleed, as it could cause infection.

Kiyoshi Mabuchi, a professor of biomedical engineering at Kitasato University in Japan, studied the slipperiness of banana peels as an extension of his research into human joint lubrication system.

"I have gotten ... evidence that the friction under banana peels is sufficiently low to make us slip," Mabuchi said via email.



Dr. Sonal Saraiya, left, accepts the Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine from Nobel Laureate Carol Greider during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass.,Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. Saraiya and her colleagues in Michigan found that packing strips of cured pork in the nose of a child who suffers from uncontrollable, life-threatening nosebleeds can stop the hemorrhaging. The Ig Nobel prize is an award handed out by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine for silly sounding scientific discoveries that often have surprisingly practical applications. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)


The other good thing about his study is that his colleagues got to eat the bananas.

Several scientists won for studying the mental health of cat owners. The bottom line? Owning a cat may be hazardous to your health.

Dr. David Hanauer, of the department of pediatrics at the University of Michigan and co-author of one of the studies, says there's no reason for cat owners to panic.

"It may simply be that people with depression gets cats because they feel depressed," he said. "I am in no way telling people to get rid of their cats."

Professor Kang Lee at the University of Toronto in Canada was part of a team that won for studying the reactions of people who see human faces in slices of toast. Although the title of the study was called "Seeing Jesus in Toast," no actual images of Jesus were shown. But the study found that in people who merely think they see a face in a slice of toast — or in any other unusual object — the part of the brain involved in facial recognition lights up.

Although his research has legitimate scientific value, he said he's thrilled to win an Ig Nobel.

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Online: 2014 Ig Nobels, http://www.improbable.com/ig/2014


http://news.yahoo.com/ig-nobel-winner-using-pork-stop-nosebleeds-234051532.html