Have you ever wondered why so many people don’t read the instruction manuals or how many calories the human body has? Or if stabbing a voodoo doll representing your boss with pins could help reduce tension in the workplace? Don’t worry, the Ig Nobel Prize winners have done the work for us. These and other unusual subjects have been honored this year with the award for the most absurd investigations of 2018.
Established in 1991,the Ig Nobel are a parody of the Nobel Prize winners,that honor “achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think.” The awards have always been seen as a celebration of scientific nonsense, unpretentious awards. Experts must publicly present their work twice: once in 24 seconds and the second in just seven words. Acceptance speeches are limited to 60 seconds, strictly enforced by an eight-year-old girl named “Miss Sweetie-Poo,” who will interrupt those who exceed the time limit by repeating:“Please stop. I’m bored.”Until they stop.
Everything is done for fun, but make no mistake. These awards also have a serious side. The award-winning research may seem ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn’t mean it is without scientific merit.
Founder Marc Abrahams admits that when he first created the Ig Nobel Prizes and associated magazineJournal of Irreproducible Results,He struggled to create a concise tagline that captured the full intent of the company. He decided on science “that it cannot or should not reproduce”, but in his mind it always told only half the story. It wasn’t until he chatted with a journalist many years later that he came across the current catchphrase. And is that“The awards are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and stimulate everyone’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.”
Even when there is no immediate profit, there is still a compelling argument for these awards: sheer curiosity. Scientists have naturally curious minds, and the occasional random line of inquiry is well encouraged.
