Reanimating dead spiders to use them as robot claws, licking stones, talking backwards and a toilet that scans "anal footprints" are some of the most curious scientific research that makes up this year's list of Ig Nobel prizes, an initiative that since For 33 years he has dedicated himself to reviewing studies that 'first make you laugh and then' think, as highlighted by the society promoting the event and editor of the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
The award ceremony at the 33rd edition of the Ig Nobel, held on September 14, was delivered last week in an event in webcast format (with contributions via telematics from various countries) in which all the award-winning teams and a dozen Nobel Prize winners (the real ones, not the Ig Nobels).
Annals of Improbable Research has released several videos with images of the awards ceremony and contributions from some of the winners and their work. The website of this entity includes a summary (also in English) of the reason and scope of the award-winning "unlikely and curious" investigations.
rock lickers
The Ig Nobel for chemistry and geology went to Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, "for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks."
Zalasiewicz told AFP that he wrote his article "Eating Fossils" after discovering that "some 18th-century geologists used the taste of rocks to help identify them." It is "a skill that we have practically lost," he lamented.
The geologist, usually known for more serious work on defining the Anthropocene era, said it was an honor to receive the Ig Nobel Prize because the prizes "have become one of the great traditions of science."
Repeat a meaningless word
The Ig Nobel for literature was awarded to an international team of researchers "for studying the sensations that people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times."
The team examined how the repetition of a word can create a feeling of unfamiliarity with something familiar, a feeling called "jamais vu," the opposite of deja vu.
To accept the award, the researchers repeated the word "the" dozens and dozens of times, until it seemed to lose all meaning.
spider claw machine
The mechanical engineering award went to American researchers who reanimated dead wolf spiders to use as mechanical grappling tools, similar to the claw machine game seen in arcades.
Through an extremely creepy video of spiders spreading their legs and grabbing things, researchers at Rice University in Texas explained the field of "necrobotics," in which animal parts are used as robot parts.
Toilet that scans 'anal prints'
Seung-min Park of Stanford University in the US received the public health award for inventing a toilet that can quickly analyze human waste.
Their "Stanford toilet" even has an "anal fingerprint" sensor, which is similar to fingerprint identification on cell phones, except in the anus.
"Don't waste your waste," Park said when accepting the award.
backwards talkers
The communication prize was awarded to the study of people who know how to speak backwards very well.
Of course, the winners accepted their prize speaking backwards.
Corpse nose hair
The medicine prize went to researchers who used cadavers to explore whether there are the same number of hairs in both nostrils.
The result? It's different for each person, but on average, cadavers had about 120 hairs in the left nostril and 112 in the right.
electric flavor
The nutrition award went to Japanese Hiromi Nakamura and Homei Miyashita for developing electrified chopsticks and straws that can make food and drink taste saltier.
"Have you ever tried to lick a battery?" Miyashita asked the ceremony.
Being bored is contagious
The education award went to a team of researchers for studying how teachers who appear bored can in turn bore their students.
"We found that if students thought teachers were bored while teaching, they also became more bored," said award winner Christian Chan boredly.
Seeking out
The psychology prize went to American researchers for their experiments that looked at how many people on a city street would stop and look up if they saw strangers craning their necks upward.
The more people looked up, the more passersby joined in, the researchers found.
fish sex
The physics prize went to researchers who measured the extent to which "the sexual activity of anchovies influences the mixing of ocean water."
"I think there is a consensus that it doesn't matter, but I don't think so," said Bieito Fernández Castro, one of the award winners.
