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I learned recently that one winner of an Ig Nobel prize went on to win a Nobel prize in physics. The former for levitating a frog, and the latter for discoverin

I learned recently that one winner of an Ig Nobel prize went on to win a Nobel prize in physics. The former for levitating a frog, and the latter for discovering that you can make graphene using Scotch tape. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Geim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Geim There are roughly 300 Ig Nobel laureates, putting the Nobel prize winner percentage at 0.3% which is ahead of most universities I suspect. Edit: actually I guess there were roughly 300 prizes awarded but many went to multiple people, making the percentage lower. But still probably better than most universities.

H8crilA 5y ago
Willing to put a confidence interval on that binomial parameter estimate? :)
gizmo686 5y ago
The guy who used to sweep away the paper airplanes (Roy Glauber) went on to win the Nobel prize in physics for his work in quantom optics. Based on his wikipedia page [0], you would think that Keeper of the Broom is a more prestigous title than Nobel laureate. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_J._Glauber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_J._Glauber
drcongo 5y ago
I may have this wrong, but I seem to remember Andre Geim being one of the very few people to turn up to accept his Ig Nobel. He's an extremely likeable character.
- burning_hamster 5y ago
  Pretty sure the vast majority of people turn up to collect their price (outside of pandemics).
FridayoLeary 5y ago
>I learned recently that one winner of an Ig Nobel prize went on to win a Nobel prize in physics. The former for levitating a frog, and the latter for discovering that you can make graphene using Scotch tape. Ironically, it is not immediately obvious which piece of research led to which prize. Scotch tape is hardly on the cutting edge of science is it?
- rsfern 5y ago
  Scotch tape exfoliation is wonderfully low tech and whimsical as a material synthesis method, if that’s what you mean, but the Nobel was for graphene itself. I guess I agree that the levitating frog business could one day lead to very impactful scientific advances, but suppressing graphene at this point is a high bar.

H8crilA 5y ago

Willing to put a confidence interval on that binomial parameter estimate? :)

gizmo686 5y ago

The guy who used to sweep away the paper airplanes (Roy Glauber) went on to win the Nobel prize in physics for his work in quantom optics. Based on his wikipedia page [0], you would think that Keeper of the Broom is a more prestigous title than Nobel laureate. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_J._Glauber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_J._Glauber

drcongo 5y ago

I may have this wrong, but I seem to remember Andre Geim being one of the very few people to turn up to accept his Ig Nobel. He's an extremely likeable character.

burning_hamster 5y ago
Pretty sure the vast majority of people turn up to collect their price (outside of pandemics).

FridayoLeary 5y ago

>I learned recently that one winner of an Ig Nobel prize went on to win a Nobel prize in physics. The former for levitating a frog, and the latter for discovering that you can make graphene using Scotch tape. Ironically, it is not immediately obvious which piece of research led to which prize. Scotch tape is hardly on the cutting edge of science is it?

rsfern 5y ago
Scotch tape exfoliation is wonderfully low tech and whimsical as a material synthesis method, if that’s what you mean, but the Nobel was for graphene itself. I guess I agree that the levitating frog business could one day lead to very impactful scientific advances, but suppressing graphene at this point is a high bar.