The 2021 edition of the Ig Nobel prizes is here and it is as comical and entertaining as every year. Awards are given for “achievements that make people laugh first, then think”. They are not to be confused with the more prestigious and lucrative Nobel prizes, to be announced from Stockholm and Oslo next month. These celebrate the most outlandish aspects of science.
The winners of Ig Nobel 2021
Medicine. Is it possible that sex improves nasal function? This says the German, Turkish and British research that won the Ig Nobel in the category of medicine because, according to their authors, sexual orgasms can be as effective as drugs for nasal decongestion.
Peace. Men developed beards to protect themselves from blows to the face. So clear. For Ethan Beseris and his team of researchers, the beard can serve to “protect vital areas such as the throat and jaw from lethal attacks.”
Physical. Have you ever wondered why pedestrians don’t collide with each other? This interesting study by an international team of Europeans, Americans and Taiwanese has won the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for their experiments to learn why pedestrians do not collide with other pedestrians over and over again.
Biology. Here we come across a comparative acoustic analysis of the purr in four cats: Swedish researchers analyzed the variations in purr, song, chatter, trill, romp, murmur, meow, moan, and all possible types of communication between kittens and humans. Fascinating.
Transport. Face-down Rhino Air Travel Award: A team of researchers led by Robin Radcliffe analyzed the effects of air travel on rhinos with the goal of identifying whether it is safer to transport them upside down.
Economy. The obesity of a country’s politicians is an indicator of corruption; this says the study carried out by a team of French, Swiss, Austrian, Australian and Czech scientists, who also received their Ig Nobel in Economics. The experts examined whether body mass is “highly related” to indicators of corruption.
Ecology. The discarded gum bacteriome. In this case, the scientists led by the Spanish biologist Manuel Porcar, won the Ig Nobel in Ecology. Through genetic analysis, they identified the different species of bacteria in discarded gum stuck on sidewalks in different countries.
Kinetics. The Ig Nobel Prize in Kinetics went to mutual anticipation as a contributor to self-organization in human crowds. Researchers led by Hisashi Murakami did studies to understand why pedestrians sometimes collide with other pedestrians (similar to the Ig Nobel in Physics).
Entomology Cockroaches in the submarines? Researchers at the University of Oxford studied new methods to disinsect submarines and thus kill cockroaches. Very useful.
Chemistry. Smell in the cinema as a tool to classify films: A team of scientists from Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Greece, Cyprus and Austria chemically analyzed the air inside cinemas, to check whether it was feasible to identify the genre of the film. movie simply with the smells produced by the viewers. How about?
