2010 Ig Nobel Winners Announced

Velcroman1 writes "Having trouble breathing? Try riding a roller-coaster. Really. A pair of Dutch researchers who discovered that the symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride are among this year's winners of the Ig Nobel awards, the infamous annual tribute to scientific research that seems wacky — but also has real world applications. FoxNews.com has interviews with several award winners, who are all ecstatic to win, despite the fact that they're all gently being poked fun at."

Comments

Last prize really Ig Nobel?

[line-bundle]

And finally, a project at the University of Catania in Italy was awarded the management prize for demonstrating mathematically that organizations can improve efficiency by promoting people randomly.

This research deserves a far better prize than the Ig Nobel. Just look at the management in companies! An algorithm far worse than random is being used to select the worst of the worst to run companies.

I believe most institutions run in spite of management.

And don't mod this funny.

Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel?

[sznupi]

From their site: "The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology." Certainly fits; contrary to what many people think it's not about "stupid" research. After all, the prizes "are physically handed out by genuinely bemused Nobel laureates" - would perceiving the whole thing only as harmless fun be enough to get them so easily aboard?

PS. Also, you jump too quickly to conclusions - the effect might as well be, for example, that when people know the promotions will be random, they don't care too much / there's no infighting / the random ones aren't worse enough (but with other positive effects it pays off) / etc.

Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel?

[ceoyoyo]

Ig Nobels are not really an insult. They CAN be, but they aren't necessarily.

Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel?

[Ethanol-fueled]

You quoted their website, which stated that their solutions are unusual and imaginative. The summary:

Having trouble breathing? Try riding a roller-coaster. Really. A pair of Dutch researchers who discovered that the symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride...

Most asthmatics know that the emergency treatment for severe attacks is a shot of adrenaline. A ride on a rollercoaster is also kinda a shot of adrenaline. I suppose holding a loaded gun to one's head may also alleviate symptoms.

Kinda like that Simpsons episode where Bart has all this stuff super-glued to his face, and Dr. Hibert breaks out a menacing-looking nailgun to remove them. Bart simply sweats them off as Dr. Hibert laughs. Bart asks why Dr. Hibert couldnt've just turned up the thermostat, and Dr. Hibert responds evilly,

No, it had to be terror sweat!

Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel?

[hedwards]

Precisely, the way that many organizations promote people you wind up with incompetent butt kissers and psychopaths being promoted. Whereas if you promote people at random, you get those individuals roughly proportional to their representation at the bottom. The individuals who can't cut it would then tend to drop out leaving you with better managers.

OTOH that's terribly depressing, if a validation of the general observation about management practices.

Re:Last prize really Ig Nobel?

[VJ42]

Here's a link to the actual paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.0455

Asthma is cured while you are on a roller coaster

[Meshach]

That should cover three minutes twice a year.

Re:Asthma is cured while you are on a roller coast

[LostCluster]

I can't wait to see this added to the Six Flags health plan.

Socks

[shermo]

"In research that could boost the sales of socks in New England, a study out of the University of Otago in New Zealand found that wearing socks over shoes results in far fewer slips and falls on icy footpaths. It won the physics prize."

This is common knowledge here amongst yachties and other people who walk on green covered slipways (they're not called that for nothing). Put on some rugby socks and you won't fall over. It's counter-intuitive but it works.

Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire!

[clang_jangle]

Actually yes, pretty much. Using Fox News as a source for a story is like using Encyclopedia Dramatica as a source. It may have amusement value, but as far as finding literal truth you're probably out of luck. Of course, this is also at least partly true of nearly all the mainstream media outlets nowadays, but Fox is by far the worst. It's where people go to have their belief systems affirmed, not where they go for actual news.

Another myth busted

[oldhack]

Plainly, women are no longer underrepresented in science and whatnot. Look up the winners' names.

Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire!

[cavePrisoner]

Since you mention it, they incorrectly state that the economics prize was awarded "for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists." I guess it was a copy and paste error, since that is the same listing they have for the public health award directly above it. If you want to be paranoid (realistic?--I can't even tell anymore) about it, you could say the mistake was made intentionally to avoid publishing how the award poked fun at Wall Street's creative investment schemes.

Slime Molds

[Nyeerrmm]

I'm glad to see the use of slime molds to study transport networks on there.

I honestly thought it was one of the most interesting bits of research I'd seen all year.

Re:Slime Molds

[MichaelSmith]

I'm glad to see the use of slime molds to study transport networks on there.

Sounds like an ideal model for Melbourne drivers.

Re:Woah missread

[arth1]

1: If you haven't heard about the Ig Nobel prize before now, I wonder where you've been. I'm pretty sure that most slashdotters can list more Ig Nobel winning research than Alfred Nobel winning research. On the geek scale, Ig Nobel ranks up there with Darwin awards, knowing Binky's colour and the 20th decimal of pi.

2: Not everyone uses a font where I and l look similar. In fact, programmers, sysadmins and other computer geeks tend to abhor fonts with ambiguity. If you can't tell an Omelet from an 0rneIet, you need to change your font NOW.

Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire!

[arth1]

Indeed -- no group has monopoly on narrow-mindedness; there is just a higher proportion of liberals among progressives than many other groups, but each individual progressive can be as close minded and prejudiced as a trailer park reverend.

Re:Fox News! Burn it! Burn it with fire!

[Ezel]

Yes, there is an error in the Fox News article. Here is a quote from the official site instead:

ECONOMICS PRIZE: The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar for creating and promoting new ways to invest money -- ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof.

http://improbable.com/ig/winners/