This year's winners of the Ig Nobel prizes are a bumper crop of wild and crazy SCIENCE!, featuring sword-swallowing, knuckle-cracking, benefits of cow-naming, pregnant women NOT tipping over, a household use for giant panda poop (take that, Packham), diamonds made from tequila, a brassiere that can be used as TWO gas masks, "Ireland's Worst Driver", Icelandic banks, Zimbabwean currency, and a 'Peace Prize' earned by hitting people over the heads with beer bottles (and comparing the effects of empty vs. full bottles) (related inquiry)
posted by wendell on Oct 2, 2009 - 23 comments

And the winner is.... The 2002 IgNobel prizes were awarded in Boston last night. Who says scientists are just a bunch of navel-gazers? Or that a washing machine for dogs was simply impossible? To all nay-sayers, I say........nay! All hail the great and glorious progress science has made possible!
posted by amberglow on Oct 4, 2002 - 16 comments

Amorous ostriches scoop Ig Nobel prize. 'An investigation into why amorous UK ostriches were failing to breed is just one of the winners of the 2002 Ig Nobel Prizes. The annual awards for achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced" were presented at Harvard University on 3 October. '
'Work on scrotal asymmetry in men and sculpture, the surface area of Indian elephants and a Japanese dog bark translator were among the other recipients of Ig Nobels, awarded annually by the humour magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research.'
The Ig Nobel homepage.
posted by plep on Oct 4, 2002 - 2 comments

2001 Ig Nobel Results: What is most suprising about this is that 9 out of the 10 winners actually wrote acceptance speeches. Awards went to the creator of "Stalin World," a study of teens who pick their noses, a study of injuries due to falling coconuts, and the invention of fart-proof underwear.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Oct 7, 2001 - 8 comments