10 ms·

2020 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

168 points by xingyzt 6y ago

Cactus2018 6y ago
On nearly every morning's dogwalk, I think the 2014 Ig Nobel BIOLOGY PRIZE is bunk. > for carefully documenting that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth’s north-south geomagnetic field lines. And that this study must be flawed, because my dog (n=1) does not align. Maybe the research study area was a city with a strong North-South https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_plan
- gostsamo 6y ago
  Magnetic fields are not uniform at every spot. Plus, the alignment of the dog was conditional on availability if I remember correctly, meaning that if it is on a leash, it is not feeling comfortable to align.
- aaron695 6y ago
  We have no idea if mammals can sense magnetic fields. Maybe bats. And maybe many mammals including dogs and humans. But we don't actually know. Which makes me sad. It should not be hard to do properly. Harder than looking at dog poop, but possible. None of the studies done have been done properly. Many have been disproven.
  - _jahh 6y ago
    However, because of the descriptive nature of this study, alternative explanations (e.g., the sun compass) could not be excluded. In a follow-up study, researchers analyzed body orientations of ruminants in localities where the geomagnetic field is disturbed by high-voltage power lines to determine how local variation in magnetic fields may affect orientation behaviour. This was done by using satellite and aerial images of herds of cattle and field observations of grazing roe deer. Body orientation of both species was random on pastures under or near power lines. Moreover, cattle exposed to various magnetic fields directly beneath or in the vicinity of power lines trending in various magnetic directions exhibited distinct patterns of alignment. The disturbing effect of the power lines on body alignment diminished with the distance from the conductors.[76]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoreception#In_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoreception#In_animals
    - aaron695 6y ago
      Exactly like I said, fake - No alignment of cattle along geomagnetic field lines found https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-011-0628-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-011-0628-7 I'm not sure what to think about Ig Nobel Prize's. They do promote science as fun and lateral thinking. But their science is often a little slim and it's almost poking fun. But that might be a factor of too many scientists not thinking laterally which is why you might need the Ig Nobel Prize.
- sasaf5 6y ago
  Ah~~ so that's why dogs walk many tight circles before defecating? They are finding north? :)
  - dtech 6y ago
    That's to survey the surrounding area for dangers
    - sasaf5 6y ago
      Makes sense, they also do that before sleeping.
- rkagerer 6y ago
  Ticket closed. Dog performs according to spec. Dropped packets indicate geomagnetic flux anomalies in local area network. User advised to replace faulty ley lines.
smitty1110 6y ago
Thanks OP, I needed that. After all the depressing stuff in my life these past few months, it was nice to feel amused enough to genuinely laugh out loud.
amrx101 6y ago
PEACE PRIZE [INDIA, PAKISTAN] The governments of India and Pakistan, for having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door. REFERENCE: Numerous news reports.
- MartianSquirrel 6y ago
  The fun thing is, it probably brings these two countries closer to peace than war, the same way having children play together makes it easier to develop a friendship
  - banana_giraffe 6y ago
    I'm reminded of the Whisky War, where Canada and Denmark's military leave a bottle of alcohol on a disputed island every now and then as they "capture" the island.
    - RugnirViking 6y ago
      They don't actually do that and haven't done that for many years, it's rather less friendly nowadays because oil was discovered nearby.
- Ice_cream_suit 6y ago
  Sadly, that is more constructive than the actions of one of the current nominees for the real Nobel Peace Prize, which has drifted into self parody.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - wodenokoto 6y ago
    Nominations aren’t really to be taken seriously. It’s a pretty wide spectrum of people who can nominate and anyone they nominate is a nominee. Also there are no confirmed nominees. And just say president Trump if that’s what you are referring to. He’s not Voldemort. You can say his name. https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/ https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/
stepanhruda 6y ago
> Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work Now that’s some solid science!
- ekianjo 6y ago
  This one deserves a special prize indeed. Solid science though? Not solid enough to cut with it, apparently.
  - bryanrasmussen 6y ago
    It was solid, but not sharply detailed. on edit: ok it wasn't exactly solid either, but who am I to waste a line.
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  The paper[0] is a helluva read. The supplementary document with photos was pretty interesting. [0]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1...
- lobe 6y ago
  Doesn't cut the mustard
- ralf07 6y ago
  Not very solid though if they don't know what exactly the old man has eaten days and hours prior making such a knife.
dash2 6y ago
I noticed one from 2019 on measuring whether banknotes transmit harmful bacteria. Doesn’t seem so weird in 2020!
- Rebelgecko 6y ago
  2009 also had a prescient one: the bra that can convert into two face masks
  - mkl 6y ago
    Thanks. I missed the "2009" and wondered why Paul Krugman (right) was wearing his mask so incorrectly.
jwilk 6y ago
"Hitman hires hitman who hires hitman who hires hitman who hires hitman who tells police" discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21361849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21361849 (240 comments)
- disown 6y ago
  The wonders of subcontracting. It would have been even better if the 5th hitman hired the 1st hitman to create a loop.
  - nevi-me 6y ago
    Interestingly, that's how the monetary system flows. I give you 1'000, you keep giving it to other people, eventually back to me. if no reserve limit [1] is placed, we could end up with millions from that 1'000. [1] https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/67/money/money-multiplier-and-reserve-ratio-in-us/ https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/67/money/money-multiplier...
malwarebytess 6y ago
Full-text papers for the curious. ACOUSTICS PRIZE: [PDF](https://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/15/2442.full.pdf https://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/15/2442.full.p...) PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: [PDF](https://sci-hub.tw/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12396 https://sci-hub.tw/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/1...) PHYSICS PRIZE: [HTML](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65295-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65295-4) ECONOMICS PRIZE: [HTML](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7) MANAGEMENT PRIZE: [HTML, CHINESE](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ibIkZBbnZb-menl7Xv4FAQ https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ibIkZBbnZb-menl7Xv4FAQ) [HTML, ENGLISH}(https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmp.weixin.qq.com%2Fs%2FibIkZBbnZb-menl7Xv4FAQ https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...) ENTOMOLOGY PRIZE: [PDF](https://sci-hub.tw/https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/59/3/168/6813 https://sci-hub.tw/https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/59/3/...) MEDICINE PRIZE: [PDF, 1](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054706&type=printable https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/jo...) [PDF, 2](https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032716321681?via%3Dihub https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...) MATERIALS SCIENCE PRIZE: [PDF](https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371?via%3Dihub https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...)
samdung 6y ago
While we are here, do not forget the new Toohey Awards. https://tooheys.org/ https://tooheys.org/
- wodenokoto 6y ago
  > You may consider The Toohey Award something similar to the Ig Nobel Prize. The public may safely disregard any article ever written, present-and-future, by a Toohey Award winner. [1] There is absolutely no discrediting of scientists related to the Ig Nobel prize. Its stated aim being to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." [2] The Tooheys is an attempt at discrediting individual journalist. There is absolutely no spiritual relationship between the two. [1] https://tooheys.org/ https://tooheys.org/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize
  - makomk 6y ago
    I don't think this year's "Medical Education Prize" is achieving anything like that, though - it's pushing a bunch of narratives that everyone's expected to believe despite having an extremely weak foundation in reality, in an area where the very concept of prioritizing scientific evidence over politics has been twisted into a partisan political tool so throughly I'm not sure there's any way back, never mind the evidence itself.
- iwlie 6y ago
  Or, do forget them? This award seems much more mean-spirited. It smells like the sort of thing someone makes when they're complaining about "cancel culture" in bad faith. > Zoe Schiffer has been awarded the Toohey Award for irresponsible journalism for her hit piece. > She wins a 'Yellow Pen' and loses her credibility. "Loses her credibility" is a very strong claim to try to make with any sort of objectivity. Personally, I read the source article that sparked the nomination, and I can't see what the issue is. As a queer person, I'm happy the article exists to raise attention to this sort of company culture.
  - notafraudster 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
> NOTE: This is the second Ig Nobel Prize awarded to Alexander Lukashenko. In the year 2013, the Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Alexander Lukashenko, for making it illegal to applaud in public, AND to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.
spodek 6y ago
> MEDICAL EDUCATION PRIZE ... Bolsonaro, Johnson, Modi, Trump, Putin, et al. for using the Covid-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can. We shouldn't consider this result news nor funny. The pattern has been happening with the environment for decades. I suggest we should use it as motivation for scientists and doctors to learn leadership skills, recognizing that humans don't just respond to facts and figures. Like it or not, we respond to stories, images, community, personality, and so on. We aren't likely going to lead Trump to learn science so if we want science in our leadership, we'll have to take the initiative.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  The pandemic is pretty big news. The environment is not an immediate effect.
  - spodek 6y ago
    > The environment is not an immediate effect. Every Day 10,000 People Die Due To Air Pollution From Fossil Fuels: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerpielke/2020/03/10/every-day-10000-people-die-due-to-air-pollution-from-fossil-fuels/#37962a102b6a https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerpielke/2020/03/10/every-da... WHO reveals 7 million die from pollution each year in latest global air quality figures: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/estimates-7-million-die-pollution-year-reveals-latest-global https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people...
varjag 6y ago
The prize is a bit of pop culture anti-intellectualism bullshit. I've used one of the famous former winners ("Psychoacoustics of a chilling sound") with relation to work. Solid paper studying real phenomenon.
- feoren 6y ago
  What? In what way is the prize anti-intellectual? They're celebrating real science being done in fringe or curious areas. Aren't most/all of their winners "solid papers studying real phenomena"?
- etbebl 6y ago
  Anti-intellectual? I don't think it's meant to be taken seriously as a statement about science. It's just a bit of fun.
mlthoughts2018 6y ago
As a person who suffers badly from misophonia (which is not limited to chewing sounds) it’s pretty fucking grimly depressing to see research on it treated this way.
- stonogo 6y ago
  You have a problem with scientists raising awareness of research into a condition which affects you? Why?
  - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
    As mentioned in the Wikipedia article about the Ig Nobel Prize, > “the Ig Nobel Awards are veiled criticism of trivial research” It’s not raising awareness. It’s making light of the underlying concerns and trivializing them. Misophonia isn’t trivial to me. It’s a significant disorder that makes my life challenging. It’s deeply upsetting that the Ig Nobel committee would view it as within the purview of their award designations.
    - sellyme 6y ago
      As mentioned on Improbable Research's website: > We collect improbable research. Real research, about anything and everything, from everywhere. Research that’s maybe good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. There's typically a few serious research papers included each year.
      - me_me_me 6y ago
        In all fairness there was a prize for research about cows caloric intake based on amount light and temperature or something like that. It sound stupid, but this research was used by farmers to plan amount of food and condition for cows during winter. So just because the research topic sounds funny it doesn't meant that it is useless.
- pacamara619 6y ago
  Guess what. I have the same fucking condition and I'm delighted. It's gotten so bad that I don't eat in cafeterias, don't eat with my roommates and very very rarely in restauranrs. I'm still delighted to see that someone actually notices and that so many people have now been exposed to its existence.
ashleshbiradar 6y ago
Times of India, the most popular english daily in India, removed Narendra Modi's name when mentioning about the Medical Education Category https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/poop-knives-arachnophobic-entomologists-win-ig-nobels/articleshow/78198176.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/poop... both in print and digital.

168 points by xingyzt 6y ago

Cactus2018 6y ago

On nearly every morning's dogwalk, I think the 2014 Ig Nobel BIOLOGY PRIZE is bunk. > for carefully documenting that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth’s north-south geomagnetic field lines. And that this study must be flawed, because my dog (n=1) does not align. Maybe the research study area was a city with a strong North-South https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_plan

gostsamo 6y ago
Magnetic fields are not uniform at every spot. Plus, the alignment of the dog was conditional on availability if I remember correctly, meaning that if it is on a leash, it is not feeling comfortable to align.
aaron695 6y ago
We have no idea if mammals can sense magnetic fields. Maybe bats. And maybe many mammals including dogs and humans. But we don't actually know. Which makes me sad. It should not be hard to do properly. Harder than looking at dog poop, but possible. None of the studies done have been done properly. Many have been disproven.
- _jahh 6y ago
  However, because of the descriptive nature of this study, alternative explanations (e.g., the sun compass) could not be excluded. In a follow-up study, researchers analyzed body orientations of ruminants in localities where the geomagnetic field is disturbed by high-voltage power lines to determine how local variation in magnetic fields may affect orientation behaviour. This was done by using satellite and aerial images of herds of cattle and field observations of grazing roe deer. Body orientation of both species was random on pastures under or near power lines. Moreover, cattle exposed to various magnetic fields directly beneath or in the vicinity of power lines trending in various magnetic directions exhibited distinct patterns of alignment. The disturbing effect of the power lines on body alignment diminished with the distance from the conductors.[76]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoreception#In_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoreception#In_animals
  - aaron695 6y ago
    Exactly like I said, fake - No alignment of cattle along geomagnetic field lines found https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-011-0628-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-011-0628-7 I'm not sure what to think about Ig Nobel Prize's. They do promote science as fun and lateral thinking. But their science is often a little slim and it's almost poking fun. But that might be a factor of too many scientists not thinking laterally which is why you might need the Ig Nobel Prize.
sasaf5 6y ago
Ah~~ so that's why dogs walk many tight circles before defecating? They are finding north? :)
- dtech 6y ago
  That's to survey the surrounding area for dangers
  - sasaf5 6y ago
    Makes sense, they also do that before sleeping.
rkagerer 6y ago
Ticket closed. Dog performs according to spec. Dropped packets indicate geomagnetic flux anomalies in local area network. User advised to replace faulty ley lines.

smitty1110 6y ago

Thanks OP, I needed that. After all the depressing stuff in my life these past few months, it was nice to feel amused enough to genuinely laugh out loud.

amrx101 6y ago

PEACE PRIZE [INDIA, PAKISTAN] The governments of India and Pakistan, for having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door. REFERENCE: Numerous news reports.

MartianSquirrel 6y ago
The fun thing is, it probably brings these two countries closer to peace than war, the same way having children play together makes it easier to develop a friendship
- banana_giraffe 6y ago
  I'm reminded of the Whisky War, where Canada and Denmark's military leave a bottle of alcohol on a disputed island every now and then as they "capture" the island.
  - RugnirViking 6y ago
    They don't actually do that and haven't done that for many years, it's rather less friendly nowadays because oil was discovered nearby.
Ice_cream_suit 6y ago
Sadly, that is more constructive than the actions of one of the current nominees for the real Nobel Peace Prize, which has drifted into self parody.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- wodenokoto 6y ago
  Nominations aren’t really to be taken seriously. It’s a pretty wide spectrum of people who can nominate and anyone they nominate is a nominee. Also there are no confirmed nominees. And just say president Trump if that’s what you are referring to. He’s not Voldemort. You can say his name. https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/ https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/

stepanhruda 6y ago

> Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work Now that’s some solid science!

ekianjo 6y ago
This one deserves a special prize indeed. Solid science though? Not solid enough to cut with it, apparently.
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  It was solid, but not sharply detailed. on edit: ok it wasn't exactly solid either, but who am I to waste a line.
Rebelgecko 6y ago
The paper[0] is a helluva read. The supplementary document with photos was pretty interesting. [0]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1...
lobe 6y ago
Doesn't cut the mustard
ralf07 6y ago
Not very solid though if they don't know what exactly the old man has eaten days and hours prior making such a knife.

dash2 6y ago

I noticed one from 2019 on measuring whether banknotes transmit harmful bacteria. Doesn’t seem so weird in 2020!

Rebelgecko 6y ago
2009 also had a prescient one: the bra that can convert into two face masks
- mkl 6y ago
  Thanks. I missed the "2009" and wondered why Paul Krugman (right) was wearing his mask so incorrectly.

jwilk 6y ago

"Hitman hires hitman who hires hitman who hires hitman who hires hitman who tells police" discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21361849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21361849 (240 comments)

disown 6y ago
The wonders of subcontracting. It would have been even better if the 5th hitman hired the 1st hitman to create a loop.
- nevi-me 6y ago
  Interestingly, that's how the monetary system flows. I give you 1'000, you keep giving it to other people, eventually back to me. if no reserve limit [1] is placed, we could end up with millions from that 1'000. [1] https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/67/money/money-multiplier-and-reserve-ratio-in-us/ https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/67/money/money-multiplier...

malwarebytess 6y ago

Full-text papers for the curious. ACOUSTICS PRIZE: [PDF](https://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/15/2442.full.pdf https://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/15/2442.full.p...) PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: [PDF](https://sci-hub.tw/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12396 https://sci-hub.tw/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/1...) PHYSICS PRIZE: [HTML](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65295-4 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65295-4) ECONOMICS PRIZE: [HTML](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7) MANAGEMENT PRIZE: [HTML, CHINESE](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ibIkZBbnZb-menl7Xv4FAQ https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ibIkZBbnZb-menl7Xv4FAQ) [HTML, ENGLISH}(https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmp.weixin.qq.com%2Fs%2FibIkZBbnZb-menl7Xv4FAQ https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...) ENTOMOLOGY PRIZE: [PDF](https://sci-hub.tw/https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/59/3/168/6813 https://sci-hub.tw/https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/59/3/...) MEDICINE PRIZE: [PDF, 1](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0054706&type=printable https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/jo...) [PDF, 2](https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032716321681?via%3Dihub https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...) MATERIALS SCIENCE PRIZE: [PDF](https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X19305371?via%3Dihub https://sci-hub.tw/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...)

samdung 6y ago

While we are here, do not forget the new Toohey Awards. https://tooheys.org/ https://tooheys.org/

wodenokoto 6y ago
> You may consider The Toohey Award something similar to the Ig Nobel Prize. The public may safely disregard any article ever written, present-and-future, by a Toohey Award winner. [1] There is absolutely no discrediting of scientists related to the Ig Nobel prize. Its stated aim being to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." [2] The Tooheys is an attempt at discrediting individual journalist. There is absolutely no spiritual relationship between the two. [1] https://tooheys.org/ https://tooheys.org/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize
- makomk 6y ago
  I don't think this year's "Medical Education Prize" is achieving anything like that, though - it's pushing a bunch of narratives that everyone's expected to believe despite having an extremely weak foundation in reality, in an area where the very concept of prioritizing scientific evidence over politics has been twisted into a partisan political tool so throughly I'm not sure there's any way back, never mind the evidence itself.
iwlie 6y ago
Or, do forget them? This award seems much more mean-spirited. It smells like the sort of thing someone makes when they're complaining about "cancel culture" in bad faith. > Zoe Schiffer has been awarded the Toohey Award for irresponsible journalism for her hit piece. > She wins a 'Yellow Pen' and loses her credibility. "Loses her credibility" is a very strong claim to try to make with any sort of objectivity. Personally, I read the source article that sparked the nomination, and I can't see what the issue is. As a queer person, I'm happy the article exists to raise attention to this sort of company culture.
- notafraudster 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago

> NOTE: This is the second Ig Nobel Prize awarded to Alexander Lukashenko. In the year 2013, the Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Alexander Lukashenko, for making it illegal to applaud in public, AND to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.

spodek 6y ago

> MEDICAL EDUCATION PRIZE ... Bolsonaro, Johnson, Modi, Trump, Putin, et al. for using the Covid-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can. We shouldn't consider this result news nor funny. The pattern has been happening with the environment for decades. I suggest we should use it as motivation for scientists and doctors to learn leadership skills, recognizing that humans don't just respond to facts and figures. Like it or not, we respond to stories, images, community, personality, and so on. We aren't likely going to lead Trump to learn science so if we want science in our leadership, we'll have to take the initiative.

srtjstjsj 6y ago
The pandemic is pretty big news. The environment is not an immediate effect.
- spodek 6y ago
  > The environment is not an immediate effect. Every Day 10,000 People Die Due To Air Pollution From Fossil Fuels: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerpielke/2020/03/10/every-day-10000-people-die-due-to-air-pollution-from-fossil-fuels/#37962a102b6a https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerpielke/2020/03/10/every-da... WHO reveals 7 million die from pollution each year in latest global air quality figures: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/estimates-7-million-die-pollution-year-reveals-latest-global https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people...

varjag 6y ago

The prize is a bit of pop culture anti-intellectualism bullshit. I've used one of the famous former winners ("Psychoacoustics of a chilling sound") with relation to work. Solid paper studying real phenomenon.

feoren 6y ago
What? In what way is the prize anti-intellectual? They're celebrating real science being done in fringe or curious areas. Aren't most/all of their winners "solid papers studying real phenomena"?
etbebl 6y ago
Anti-intellectual? I don't think it's meant to be taken seriously as a statement about science. It's just a bit of fun.

mlthoughts2018 6y ago

As a person who suffers badly from misophonia (which is not limited to chewing sounds) it’s pretty fucking grimly depressing to see research on it treated this way.

stonogo 6y ago
You have a problem with scientists raising awareness of research into a condition which affects you? Why?
- mlthoughts2018 6y ago
  As mentioned in the Wikipedia article about the Ig Nobel Prize, > “the Ig Nobel Awards are veiled criticism of trivial research” It’s not raising awareness. It’s making light of the underlying concerns and trivializing them. Misophonia isn’t trivial to me. It’s a significant disorder that makes my life challenging. It’s deeply upsetting that the Ig Nobel committee would view it as within the purview of their award designations.
  - sellyme 6y ago
    As mentioned on Improbable Research's website: > We collect improbable research. Real research, about anything and everything, from everywhere. Research that’s maybe good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. There's typically a few serious research papers included each year.
    - me_me_me 6y ago
      In all fairness there was a prize for research about cows caloric intake based on amount light and temperature or something like that. It sound stupid, but this research was used by farmers to plan amount of food and condition for cows during winter. So just because the research topic sounds funny it doesn't meant that it is useless.
pacamara619 6y ago
Guess what. I have the same fucking condition and I'm delighted. It's gotten so bad that I don't eat in cafeterias, don't eat with my roommates and very very rarely in restauranrs. I'm still delighted to see that someone actually notices and that so many people have now been exposed to its existence.

ashleshbiradar 6y ago

Times of India, the most popular english daily in India, removed Narendra Modi's name when mentioning about the Medical Education Category https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/poop-knives-arachnophobic-entomologists-win-ig-nobels/articleshow/78198176.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/poop... both in print and digital.