Since 1991 the Ig Nobel prizes, organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (http://improbable.com), are given for “achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think”. For example:
1991 PEACE. The Pepsi-Cola Company of the Phillipines, suppliers of sugary hopes and dreams, for sponsoring a contest to create a millionaire, and then announcing the wrong winning number, thereby inciting and uniting 800,000 riotously expectant winners, and bringing many warring factions together for the first time in their nation’s history.
1996 PHYSICS. Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, for his studies of Murphy’s Law, and especially for demonstrating that toast often falls on the buttered side. [REFERENCE: European Journal of Physics,vol.16, no.4, July 18, 1995, p. 172-6.]
1999 SOCIOLOGY. Steve Penfold, of York University in Toronto, for doing his PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut shops.
2003 PSYCHOLOGY. Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli of the University of Rome, and Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University, for their discerning report “Politicians’ Uniquely Simple Personalities.” [PUBLISHED IN: Nature, vol. 385, February 1997, p. 493.]
2006 ACOUSTICS: D. Lynn Halpern (of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University), Randolph Blake (of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University) and James Hillenbrand (of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University) for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.
2008 ECONOMICS PRIZE. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.
*** And this year, three Mexicans were awarded the Chemistry prize : -) Congratulations!
CHEMISTRY. Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, and Victor M. Castaño of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, for creating diamonds from liquid — specifically from tequila. [REFERENCE: "Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila," arXiv:0806.1485.]
*** More about this year’s Ig Nobels:
