To be remembered

Scientists are not shy about receiving awards for the most useless discoveries

The Ignobel Prize, conceived as the antithesis of the prestigious scientific awards of the Royal Swedish Academy, confirmed its democratic status. The presentation of prizes for the most useless scientific research and discoveries, which took place at the end of last week at Harvard University, showed that, unlike the Nobel Committee, which decided this year to emphasize the priority of American science in literally all fields of knowledge, the organizing committee of the Ig Noble prize does not recognize borders. Among the laureates were Americans, Europeans, Asians, and even Australians. Moreover, almost all the winners did not hesitate to come to Massachusetts to claim their prize. This is despite the fact that the journal “Chronicle of Incredible Research”, which established the prize in 1991, does not offer any material reward to scientists. The laureates are awarded only a medallion, handmade from foil, and a special certificate for the opening. Moreover, they are also forced to give free lectures.

However, the popularity of this award is constantly growing, given that for many scientists it gives a chance to introduce themselves to the world at least as a jester and communicate with Nobel laureates, who, as it turns out, are also not averse to fooling around sometimes. This year, for example, the 1993 Nobel Prize in Medicine winner Rick Roberts and last year's physicist laureate Roy Glauber graced the awards ceremony with their presence. Unlike the same prize of the Royal Swedish Academy, the Ignobel competition has more nominations, the number of which depends on the number of extraordinary works discovered by the organizing committee in quite serious scientific journals.

This year there were ten nominations. The winners among physicists were employees of the University of Paris Pierre and Marie Curie. Basil Odoli and Sebastien Nekirsch received the prize for their scientific work explaining why dry spaghetti often breaks into more than two pieces. Spaniards Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon from the University of Valencia were awarded a chemistry award for their study of ultrasonic waves in cheddar cheese exposed to temperature. The prize in the field of medicine went to an international American-Israeli team that proposed to fight hiccups through rectal massage. The theoretical basis for this technique was developed by Francis Fismeier from the University of Tennessee, and his Israeli colleagues Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan and Ari Oliven applied the theory to clinical practice.

In the “non-Nobel” nominations with a biological bias, the works of Californians Ivan Schwab and Philip May were noted, who finally explained in a popular manner why woodpeckers do not have headaches. For many years of studying the structure of the skull of this bird, they were awarded a prize in the narrow category of ornithology. The winners of the broad biological category were Dutch entomologists Bart Knolls and Ruud de Jong, who proved that the female of the most dangerous species of malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is equally attracted to the smell of foot sweat and the smell of Limburg cheese. For their close study of the life of insects, or rather scarab beetles, scientists from Kuwait, Wasmiya al Houti and Faten al Mussalam, were awarded an award in the “nutrition” category, who proved that beetles like the dung heaps left by horses and dogs more than the waste products of camels or fox.

Biology also includes a prize in the acoustics category, which was awarded to the Americans Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hilenbrand for a series of experiments 20 years ago, during which they found out why people cannot tolerate the squeaking of nails on a blackboard. Moreover, Vanderbilt University psychology professor Blake claims that these experiments were part of a large, serious study. In contrast, the Australians Nick Swenson and Piers Burns, who became laureates in the mathematics category, do not pretend to be serious. Although their work, in principle, can be of help to all photographers. After all, they developed a mathematical formula that allows the photographer to calculate how many takes of a group photo need to be taken so that not a single person blinks in the picture.

Ignobel Peace Prize laureate Howard Stapleton from Wales, who designed an “electromechanical repellent to scare away teenagers,” also claims an applied discovery. His device allegedly produces high-frequency sounds that are heard by people no older than 20 years old, who experience obvious discomfort. According to Stapleton himself, he has already sold hundreds of such devices in the UK, and immediately after receiving the award he intends to begin actively conquering the American market.

And finally, the winner of the literary category was Daniel Oppenheimer from Princeton University, who published something like a recipe for those who want to receive the Ignobel Prize. In his study of the use of long words and technical terms in speeches and texts, he proved that authors rarely succeed in demonstrating their erudition in this way. More often, on the contrary, they show their superficiality and frivolity.

Fedor SEREBRYANSKY