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

The acoustics of crisp

[Chris Pimlott]

Funny coincidence, I just watched the Fish & Chips episode of Heston Blumenthal's BBC series "In Search of Perfection", which discussed just the same thing. Blumenthal is the head chef at The Fat Duck, the restaurant mentioned in the article, and a major figure in the "molecular gastronomy" scene.

He visits a scientist in the UK to test the crispiness of different batter recipes, using an apparatus that analyzes the sound waves generated by poking the food with a probe. It's not the same scientist as mentioned in the Ig Nobel article, though, no idea if it's related to the specific research citing by Ig Nobel.

There's video from the episode online, the relevant segment begins at the 2 minute mark.

Placebo effect

[TheLink]

"He says his work has implications for the way drugs are marketed. People often think generic medicine is inferior. But gussy it up a bit, change the name, make it appear more expensive, and maybe it will work better, he said."

Well I'd rather be convinced that cheaper medicine is better or the same as expensive medicine :).

"In the 18 subjects Miller studied, average earnings were $250 for a five-hour shift. That jumped to $350 to $400 per five-hour shift when the women were their most fertile, he said."

There's research that shows that women tend to actually appear more attractive during their most fertile days (and probably might behave in a more attractive manner too ).

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/52484

BTW there's also:
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080226/full/news.2008.625.html
http://www.newlifeafterdivorce.com/Relationships/Married-fertile-women-prefer-single-men.html

Re:The Next Big Controversy

[AliasMarlowe]

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!

Apparently, Coca Cola in the US is not quite the same as Coca Cola in several other countries. In the US, corn syrup is used as the sweetener. In many other countries, syrup from sugar cane is used. The two syrups' particular sucroses and admixed flavourings (impurities) are not the same. Perhaps the difference is just enough.

Hey, corn syrup as a spermicide! What an idea for a research proposal! Next year, maybe I'll get an Ig!