Whilst we are on the subject of prizes yesterday saw the awarding of the 2006 IgNobel Prizes at Harvard University. The IgNobel Prizes are awarded for research and discoveries that would otherwise be overlooked by professional awards givers. This years winners:
- For nutrition: Wasmia Al-Houty (Kuwait University) and Faten Al-Mussalam (Kuwait Environment Public Authority). Research in the feeding habits of the not-just-any-old-dung-beetle. Turns out they're picky. Who would have thought it?
- For peace: Howard Stapleton (Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK). For his invention, the Mosquito, a sonic device which emits annoying sounds that teenagers, but not adults, can hear and which repels them.
- For acoustics: D. Lynn Halpern (Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates Brandeis University and Northwestern University), Randolph Blake (Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University) and James Hillenbrand (Western Michigan University and Northwestern University). Their research into the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard broke new ground but perhaps did not go far enough. "Still unanswered...is the question of why this and related sounds are so grating to the ear." I think they should have had an answer to that before being awarded anything!
- For medicine: Francis M. Fesmire (University of Tennessee College of Medicine) for his article Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage share the prize with Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven (Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel) for their subsequent article also titled Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.
- For physics: Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris). They were responsible for cutting edge research into why dry spaghetti doesn't break in two.
There's plenty more. I think that if some enterprising gets to work on why I get wetter in rain than other people the meteorology IgNobel prize will be yours!
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