'Why Banana Skins Are Slippery' Wins IgNobel

gbjbaanb writes: This year's Ig Nobel prize was won by Japanese researchers investigating why banana skins produced a frictionless surface compared to apple and orange peels. (Apparently, "The polysaccharide follicular gels that give banana skins their slippery properties are also found in the membranes where our bones meet," so its not all fun and jollity). Other prizes were awarded for noting that dogs only defecate when aligned with north-south magnetic fields, and that "night owl" people are more likely to be psychopaths than early risers. Yes, that probably includes you.

Comments

Dogs as compass

[Tukz]

"Other prizes were awarded for noting that dogs only defecate when aligned with north-south magnetic fields"

So when you're lost in a forest, watch which way your dog is pointing when it poops.
I'm sure I can market "Compass Dogs" as a new thing.

Re:Dogs as compass

[JonWan]

I wonder what would happen if you don't allow a dog to align north-south.

You will cause a rip in the space time continuum and destroy the universe.

Re:Dogs as compass

[Dr. Evil]

Spoken like a C programmer.

Re:Dogs as compass

[idontgno]

The poop comes out aligned north-south anyway, but the dog really doesn't like it. Hurts like hell when it comes out sideways.

Re:Dogs as compass

[ArhcAngel]

You have no idea how many times the Doctor has had to repair the timeline due to spurious usage of malloc!

Re:Dogs as compass

[roc97007]

On our walk last night, my dog defecated while facing west. Clearly he's broken.

Re:Dogs as compass

[Zynder]

Same reason people drink cat shit coffee I'd guess.

Bananas vs Grapes

[GoJays]

When I was in school I worked at a grocery store for 7 years. I never once saw somebody slip on a banana in the produce department. I did however see many people nearly break their necks slipping on grapes. Those things are slippery when stepped on. But then again, it was rare there was just a peel of a banana on the ground verses a whole banana. Grapes are very slippy, that's why you often see carpets on the ground around them in grocery stores.

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[ZombieBraintrust]

Did that test with a Gros Michel? Gros Michel was the primary banana in the US prior to the 1950s when a desease killed off most of the Gros Michel trees. It is larger than Chiquita Banana.

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[bjorniac]

The reason that this became a widespread thing is that it was typically used in physical comedy in the early cinema era. Banana skins actually were substituted for horse dung, which is slippery to step in, and this was a much more common occurrence back before cars became ubiquitous. It was considered unseemly to show someone slipping in horse droppings, and would be stopped by the overzealous censors (not to mention offend the sensibilities of the time). The discarded banana skin took on the role as an inoffensive placeholder.

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[bjorniac]

Well, it was the fashion of the time. Now gimme five bees for a quarter.

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[DocSavage64109]

You must be very proud. I like how you still think it's funny to steal someone's grapes and try to cause bodily harm to complete strangers. You must be a night owl :D

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[operagost]

Why, I haven't had five bees in my pocket since nineteen-diggety-two, when the Kaiser stole the twenty. You could get 40 rods to the hogshead back then.

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[jpellino]

The reason it became a widespread thing was that it was actually a widespread thing. In the late 1800s bananas became so popular that coupled with the practice of the day to leave garbage out on urban streets, rotting banana peels were in fact a noted hazard.

Re:Bananas vs Grapes

[painandgreed]

The reason it became a widespread thing was that it was actually a widespread thing. In the late 1800s bananas became so popular that coupled with the practice of the day to leave garbage out on urban streets, rotting banana peels were in fact a noted hazard.

In other discussions on bananas, usually on the demise of the Gros Michael banana, I've heard it stated that such incidents were the major driving force behind public trash cans in cities.

Night owls

[camperdave]

"night owl" people are more likely to be psychopaths than early risers.

If you stop waking us up at ungodly hours of the morning, maybe we wouldn't be so stressed out. Did you ever think of that Mr Be-at-work-at-Nine-or-you're-fired?

Vindicated!

[Jay Maynard]

Chuck Jones, call your office.

Re:It's the early morning people who are nuts

[Snotnose]

When I was young I was a night owl, even working the night shift for 4 years. Got a day job that kinda killed that, then in my mid-30s I decided I wanted sunlight when I got off work so I turned into a morning person. I'm up 5-6 AM every day with no alarm.

Re:This is asinine in the extreme.

[neoritter]

Can't tell if trolling...

None the less...
"The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The awards are sometimes veiled criticism (or gentle satire), but are also used to point out that even the most absurd-sounding avenues of research can yield useful knowledge."

Re:Doo-proofing

[ZombieBraintrust]

You don't get it. Dogs pooing north south creates the magnetic field. Your experiment would cause the magnetic poles to shift.

Hmmph. Keep asking 'why'.

[wytten]

To paraphrase Feynman, all accurate science is good science because despite how meaningless you may think your findings are, someone in the future may come along and do something wonderful with them. Keep asking 'why'.

Magnetic poo

[handy_vandal]

Dogs only poop magnetic fields if you feed the dogs magnetized shavings. Which I do.

Re:It's the early morning people who are nuts

[bluefoxlucid]

I've noticed about five people have responded, and some of them have user IDs in the millions. That's a pretty small cross-section; and I've had up to 50 responses to posts on Slashdot in under an hour, when I've really pissed the crowd off with some uncomfortable fact. I'm not taking much stock in the overwhelming rise of the majority rule of morning people here.

There is some evidence that 80% of the population awakens far too early, to detrimental effect on health. The idea has gained some traction slowly over the past decade or two; in the next 30-40 years, I expect we'll link circadian disruption by bastardized early-riser sleep culture to the high incidence of stupidity, depression, and psychosis leading to school shootings.

Re:This is asinine in the extreme.

[amicusNYCL]

These prizes should go to people who contribute to the scientific community in such a way as to better humanity. no one gives 2 shits about why banana peels are slippery.

Somewhere right now, someone is posting an outraged message on Facebook about how scientists got a Nobel Peace Prize for research on banana peels, and suggesting that we cut all science funding.

Re:Hmmph. Keep asking 'why'.

[sexconker]

To paraphrase Feynman, all accurate science is good science because despite how meaningless you may think your findings are, someone in the future may come along and do something wonderful with them. Keep asking 'why'.

To quote Whitman: That you are here–that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you have to watch this fucking obnoxious iPhone commercial again. That the powerful play goes on and you have to watch this fucking obnoxious iPhone commercial again.

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