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Tongue-in-cheek Nobels honor nutritional analysis of cannibalism, roller-
coaster kidney stones treatment
NEW YORK, Sept 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A nutritional analysis of cannibalism
and treating kidney stones on roller-coasters were research projects honored
by tongue-in-cheek awards at Harvard University Thursday, designed to make
you laugh first, and think later.
The prize? A fake, ten-trillion-dollar bill from Zimbabwe and the
opportunity to give a 60-second acceptance speech before being timed out by
an eight-year-old girl saying, “Please stop. I’m bored.”
The Ig Nobel Prizes, or so-called “anti-Nobels,” are organized by the
satirical scientific journal “Annals of Improbable Research” and honor the
same 10 categories as the real Nobels, the most prestigious awards in the
world.
This year, the Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine went to two American
researchers for a study published in October 2016 on the effects of using
roller coaster rides to try and hasten the passage of kidney stones,
according to the organizers’ press release.
The nutrition prize went to researchers in Britain, Tanzania and Zimbabwe
for calculating that the calorie intake from a human cannibalism diet was
significantly lower than from “most other traditional meat diets.”
A paper on chimpanzees imitating humans about as often, and about as well
as vice versa conducted by researchers from seven European countries and
Indonesia won the prize for anthropology at the 28th annual ceremony.
The prize for biology went to those who demonstrated that wine experts can
identify, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine — a
joint effort by academics in Colombia, Germany, France, Sweden and
Switzerland.
The peace prize was won by those who measured the frequency, motivation
and effects of shouting and cursing while driving an automobile.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1030 hrs