Because it scares you!
Ahh.. once again the Ig Nobel prizes have been announced. These are serious research projects that have been published in legitimate journals – but are all on topics that are a bit more niche.
The winners for this year were:
- Peace:The invention of a device that emits a noise inaudible to adults but annoying to teenagers
- Maths: How many photos must be taken to almost ensure no-one in a group shot has their eyes closed, by Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes
- Ornithology:Why woodpeckers do not get headaches, by Ivan Schwab and the late Philip RA May
- Nutrition: Why dung beetles are fussy eaters, by Wasmia al-Houty and Faten al-Mussalam
- Acoustics: Why the sound of fingernails scraping on blackboards is so annoying, by D Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hillenbrand
- Medicine: The Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage, by Francis Fesmire, Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan and Arie Oliven.
Eh, okay. The medicine award scares me – and I’m sure that’s why it works. Scaring somebody cures the hiccups – having that finger would scare me. Therefore.. hiccups gone. Truthfully, I think it’s an excuse by somebody that got caught where the ‘sun don’t shine’ – I can hear it now…
No really honey.. I had the hiccups!!
Here’s a link to the Ig Nobel website:
Research that makes you laugh, then think