Irrelevant Scientific Research Honored

More than 1,000 people attended this year's Ig Nobel awards, a light-hearted alternative to the Nobel Prizes. Scientists who unlocked the inner secrets of dog fleas, crisps and tangled string swept the show. Handing out awards was William Lipscomb, the 1976 Nobel laureate for chemistry, also doubling Thursday, at the age of 89, as the hero in the "Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest." The prize itself is a plaque that reads, "This Ig Nobel Prize is awarded in the year 2008 to an Ig Nobel Prize Winner, in recognition of the Ig Nobel Prize Winners' Ig Nobel Prize winning achievement." At last I can submit my paper, "Everything is Really Wet, Even Dry Stuff." for peer review.

Comments

Discovery Institute should get its act together!

[grub]

Too bad the Creationists can't come up with any actual scientific research, they'd win this honour every year!

The Next Big Controversy

[explosivejared]

There was even more agitation over the chemistry prize, awarded jointly to rival teams - one from the United States which determined Coca-Cola to be an effective spermicide and one from Taiwan which proved it is not.

I don't see how any self-respecting scientist can sleep at night until this situation is rectified. I know I can't!

Knot theory

[rossdee]

I am sure that knot theory would be useful to cosmologists studying string theory.