Ig Nobels Awarded

prostoalex writes "The definitive study on bellybutton lint, a dog-to-person translation device and an inquiry into what arouses ostriches were recognized at 2002 Ig Nobel awards. The telecast of the event in RealMedia format is available from Harvard University server, there's also an Associated Press story. Ig Nobel awards typically recognize the most dubious contributions to the world of science and research."

Comments

Link to the actual awards

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.improb.com/ig/2002/ig-winners-2002.html

And the winners are...

[droid_rage]

The list of winners is available in this New Scientist article.

Direct link to winners ...

[Rick_T]

The winners - from the source - are here. I notice one old favorite on there - the periodic table table, which I linked to from my chemistry web site myself. Ahh, literalism ...

Funnier, though, is the pet washing machine. Unfortunately, I can't read the language, but they do have photos ... :)

Re:Direct link to winners ...

[kylus]

The periodic table table was featured here before. Nice to see they were rewarded for all the hard work ;)

Re:Ironic

[glesga_kiss]

Real have a long history of having no respect for users privacy. In the default install of RealPlayer, your privacy is zero. At one point RealDownload was tracking your link clicks on the web. They used to claim that the data was anonymous, but that was proved to be wrong by a guy with a port sniffer. They maintained this until it was proven beyond doubt and the media began to pick up on it. At that point they "fixed" it.

Combined with the constant forced updating of client software for no apparent reason (with expiry dates in the software), producting bloatware that sits in your systray, stealing file associations and so on, many people believe that basically they are not a very nice company.

I think you're being overly sensitive...

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

If you watch or read the awards, or the associated publications, you'll note that the people running and participating in the awards are themselves science-types with senses of humor. They're laughing at scientific research in general, and in a good-natured manner, and not just sneering at a few scientists with unusual specialties...

The awards actually seem to go to a few different types of endeavors:

• Valid but REALLY STRANGE or not-very-useful-outside-of-a-very-narrow-field scientific research, e.g. this years Mathematics prize ("Surface area of an elephant") and Biology prize ("Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain.") or last year's Medicine prize (a study of nose-picking behavior in India - I should point out that the recipient showed up in person for this prize and with appropriate good-humor. "Some people stick their noses into other people's business. I stick my business into other people's noses."...), or the award a few years ago for the invention of blue Jell-O...
• Claims or "facts" presented as "scientific" that are blatantly not. (e.g. Last year's Astrophysics award to the evangelists for 'proving' that Christian Hell may be what Black Holes are...), the "Literature" award in 2000 for the 'Breatharian' who says nobody needs to eat, and the 1998 Chemistry prize to Jacques Benveniste for 'proving' that not only does water remember everything it ever touched, but that you can transmit this 'memory' over the internet...
• The absurd and ironic that can be somehow "cast" as a scientific endeavor even though it really isn't (e.g. this year's Economics prize to Enron, WorldCom, etc. for " adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world.", or last year's Peace prize for the founding of the "Stalinworld" amusement park...

From my perspective, ALL of the awards seem to have gone to endeavors that are fitting subjects for humor, and I see no claims of valid scientific reasoning being INVALID or 'stupid', merely strange or funny. Further, as far as I can see, NONE of the RECIPIENTS are being 'snickered at' at all, only the "research", activity, or claims that earn the award. That is, it's not the PEOPLE being made fun of (ad hominem attacks are not good science), it is what they are doing or claiming.

In short, in my personal opinion, the only people who really have any reason to actually be offended are excessively thin-skinned scientists (e.g. the late Carl Sagan, who feared that the awards would make people "laugh at scientists") and crackpots, who kind of NEED to be made fun of so that they can claim that their Revolutionary Secrets That Shake the Very Foundations of Scientific Knowledge(tm) are being unfairly repressed by The Establishment...

The "Clever Hans" Effect

[Interrobang]

Actually, Clever Hans, the alleged "counting horse," picked up on his trainer's body language to know when to stop tapping his hoof. A lot of people who don't know much about animals don't realize that animals are very good at reading/communicating body and gestural language, which is probably where the confusion comes in.

The TV example from the parent post is yet another example of the "Clever Hans Effect," similar to the /. effect in that it causes something to come to a halt, grinding or not... ;)

Feel better knowing that after 10 years?

Re:"Clever Hans" the mathematics horse

[Dr.Dubious DDQ]

"Clever Hans" (the horse in question) is a classic case...

The trainer really THOUGHT his horse could do mathematics. It took some study to determine what was really going on. What was happening is that after presenting the question, the trainer would unconsciously lean forward in expectation, and as Hans reached the correct number of hoof-taps, would relax slightly. It turned out that Hans was cueing off of the slight changes in posture for when to start and stop tapping. They discovered that Hans couldn't get the correct number if he couldn't see the trainer, and that they could get him to tap out any number they wanted (regardless of the math problem presented) by these slight changes of posture done intentionally.

Other animals (that is, animals other than human beings) may not be as good as we are at abstraction, but they can be pretty darn perceptive...

Link to 2002 award list

[Gerry Gleason]

My first impression was that they didn't have the listing of awards on the site, which was disappointing. I tried a google search and was able to find a page with the list, actually links to the current and previous lists.

2002 Ignobel Prize Winners

[Jhan]

No one seems to have posted an actual list of winners yet, so here you go.

BIOLOGY
"Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches (Struthio camelus) Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain," Norma E. Bubier, Charles G.M. Paxton, P. Bowers, D.C. Deeming, British Poultry Science, vol. 39, no. 4, September 1998, pp. 477-481.

PHYSICS
"Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth," Arnd Leike, European Journal of Physics, vol. 23, January 2002, pp. 21-26.

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Karl Kruszelnicki of The University of Sydney, for performing a comprehensive survey of human belly button lint -- who gets it, when, what color, and how much.

CHEMISTRY
Theo Gray of Wolfram Research, in Champaign, Illinois, for gathering many elements of the periodic table, and assembling them into the form of a four-legged periodic table table.

MATHEMATICS
"Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants (Elephas maximus indicus)," K.P. Sreekumar and G. Nirmalan, Veterinary Research Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 1990, pp. 5-17.

LITERATURE
"The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension." Vicki L. Silvers and David S. Kreiner, Reading Research and Instruction, vol. 36, no. 3, 1997, pp. 217-23.

PEACE
Keita Sato, President of Takara Co., Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, President of Japan Acoustic Lab, and Dr. Norio Kogure, Executive Director, Kogure Veterinary Hospital, for promoting peace and harmony between the species by inventing Bow-Lingual, a computer-based automatic dog-to-human language translation device.

HYGEINE
Eduardo Segura, of Lavakan de Aste, in Tarragona, Spain, for inventing a washing machine for cats and dogs.

ECONOMICS
The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hausbie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are US-based unless otherwise noted.]

MEDICINE
"Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture." Chris McManus, Nature, vol. 259, February 5, 1976, p. 426.

sodium explosion video

[call -151]

The guy (Theodore Gray, I have one of his Mathematica textbooks, I think) who made the wooden periodic table table is hilarious, and also has a page nicely documenting what happens when you drop sodium into water, which includes a nice quicktime video of a drop of sodium into a lake.