Smart Toilet and Electric Chopsticks: 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Winners Announced
Miscellaneous / / September 15, 2023
The Nobel Prize parody once again pleases with dubious scientific achievements.
IN THE USA passed 33rd Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. It is given to scientists who conduct strange and seemingly useless research that could actually improve our lives in the future. Or not.
Psychology
Laureates: Stanley Milgram, Leonard Beekman and Lawrence Berkowitz (USA).
The authors conducted experiments on city streets to see how many pedestrians would stop and look up when they saw strangers looking up.
Physics
Laureates: Bieito Fernandez Castro, Marian Peña, Enrique Nogueira, Miguel Guilcoto, Esperanza Brullon, Antonio Comesaña, Damien Bouffard, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato and Beatriz Mourinho-Carballido (Spain, Galicia, Switzerland, France, Great Britain).
The prize was awarded to study how the sexual activity of anchovies affects the mixing of ocean water.
Mechanical Engineering
Laureates: Te Fei Yap, Zhen Liu, Anup Rajappan, Trevor Shimokusu and Daniel Preston (India, China, Malaysia, USA).
A group of scientists from different countries were able to “revive” dead spiders to use them as robotic manipulators. Read more about this already told on Lifehacker.
Chemistry and geology
Laureate: Jan Zalasiewicz (Poland, UK).
The scientist explained why many scientists like to lick rocks (because the texture of minerals and fossils is better visible on a wet surface).
Healthcare
Laureate: Park Seung Min (South Korea).
The award went to the creator of the Stanford Toilet, a device that uses a variety of technologies, including a urine test strip, a computer vision system for defecation analysis, an anal print sensor combined with an identification camera and a telecommunications line. This allows you to quickly carry out simple tests: you haven’t even left the toilet yet, and the results are already in your smartphone.
Communications
Laureates: Maria Jose Torres-Prioris, Diana Lopez-Barroso, Estela Camara, Sol Fittipaldi, Lucas Cedeño, Agustin Ibáñez, Marcelo Berthier and Adolfo Garcia (Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Chile, China, USA).
Scientists have achieved outstanding results in studying the mental activity of people who speak beautifully backwards.
Literature
Laureates: Chris Moulin, Nicole Bell, Merita Turunen, Arina Baharin and Akira O'Connor (France, UK, Malaysia, Finland).
They won the award for studying the feelings people get when they repeat the same word over and over and over and over and over and over again. This is the jamevu effect - the opposite of déjà vu, when something familiar suddenly seems unfamiliar and unusual.
Nutritionology
Laureates: Homei Miyashita and Hiromi Nakamura (Japan).
The authors conducted a series of experiments to determine how electrical current in chopsticks and drinking straws changed the taste of food.
Education
Laureates: Katie Tam, Qianea Poon, Victoria Hui, Wijnand van Tilburg, Christy Wong, Vivian Kwong, Gigi Yuen and Christian Chan (China, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Ireland, USA, Japan)
The award was given for a methodical study of boredom among teachers and students.
More dubious science🔬🔭🧪
- 5 Strangest Scientific Experiments Conducted in the USSR
- 5 scientific experiments that are more like jokes
- 6 Strange Researches and Experiments Conducted by Serious Scientists