Science gets a bad rap as a stodgy, dry field that has little to offer to the realm of comedy. However, anybody who has been fortunate enough to go to the zoo and witness the amorous spectacle of penguin procreation (my roommate for one) will tell you otherwise. The folks at the Annals of Improbable Research know that science can be funny, and help to cut through the subject's sometimes-stuffy fa??ade at their yearly Ig Nobel prize ceremony.
The Ig Nobel honors those who pursue research that, in the Annal's own words, \first make people laugh, then make people think.""
The ceremony is a raucous affair, with paper airplanes constantly thrown onstage by the audience, impromptu ""moment of science"" demonstrations, and Sweetie-poo, an eight-year-old girl who, when speeches run long, wanders over to the podium and whines to the speaker: ""Please stop. I'm bored.""
Previous winners have provided the world with a diverse array of hilarious findings and inventions. This included a study that showed demonstrative, chemical proof that apples and oranges are actually quite similar. The 2004 Ig Nobel Peace prize went to Daisuke Inoue, inventor of Karaoke, which, according to the Annals website, provided ""an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.""
This year's awards weren't any less unhinged. There were ten categories that received honors-improbable research in agricultural history, physics, medicine, literature, peace, economics, chemistry, biology, nutrition and fluid dynamics.
For those of us who have a hard time waking up to make it to morning classes, ""Clocky"" might be for you. Invented by Massachusetts Institute of Technology alum Gauri Nanda, recipient of this year's Ig Nobel Economics prize, Clocky is a charmingly homely alarm clock that runs away from its delerious user after they hit the snooze button, rolling to a new location each morning.
The Ig Nobel medicine prize went to Gregg A. Miller, inventor of ""Neuticles,"" artificial replacement testicles for neutered dogs and other mammals. According to the Neuticles website, the fake testes ""aid in the trauma associated with neutering"" and come in a variety of sizes and firmness levels.
In his acceptance speech, Miller commented on the development of his product: ""It took nearly two years to get the balls rolling.""
UW-Madison's Brian Gettelfinger and University of Minnesota's Edward Cussler provided an answer to the burning question: does one swim faster in syrup or water? Apparently, you can swim just as fast in either.
One notable absence in this year's ceremony was Harvard physicist Roy Glauber, who typically swept the stage clean of airplane-related detritus. In a scenario reminiscent of Good Will Hunting, the janitor-genius could not attend the event because of a schedule conflict-he won the Nobel Prize in Physics just two days prior.
Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, ended the ceremony on an appropriately wry note: ""If you didn't win an Ig Nobel prize this year, and especially if you did ... better luck next year.""
Adam Dylewski is a junior majoring in Genetics and regularly wears his well insulated beer costume to class when it gets chilly. Letters? Send them to adylewski@wisc.edu.
