Zany science projects awarded Ig Nobels

22 Sep 2012, 4:01 pm   -   Source: AAP
Harvard University Clowes Professor of Science Robert Kirshner (l) along with Nobel laureates Dudley Herschbach fire paper airplanes back at the audience at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. (AAP)

Harvard University Clowes Professor of Science Robert Kirshner (l) along with Nobel laureates Dudley Herschbach fire paper airplanes back at the audience at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. (AAP)

Dozens of unusual scientific studies have been honoured with the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel awards in the US.

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Scientists behind studies on brain activity in dead fish and photos of chimpanzee butts are among dozens honoured with the tongue-in-cheek Ig Nobel awards.

The 22nd annual edition of the Nobel prize spoof, held at Boston's uber-prestigious Harvard University, also distinguished the researchers behind a study proving that "leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller".

The prize, created to reward "research that makes people laugh and then think," according to the organisers' website, invites real Nobel laureates to confer honours on serious scientists for work that is generally only unintentionally funny.

This year's Neuroscience prize, for example, went to a US team "for demonstrating that brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere - even in a dead salmon".

Other prizes of note: the Fluid Dynamics prize, to a US-Russian-Canadian team "for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee;" and the Anatomy prize to a Dutch-US team "for discovering that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends".

Some of the prizes went to studies offering helpful information, like this year's Medicine prize, to a French team who advised doctors "how to minimise the chance that their patients will explode" during colonoscopies.

And the Chemistry prize went to a Swedish scientist who solved "the puzzle of why, in certain houses" in a certain Swedish town, "people's hair turned green".

Companies and governments are also eligible for the prize, and this year's Peace Prize was awarded to a Russian company "for converting old Russian ammunition into new diamonds".

The US government, at least its General Accountability Office, was also honoured, with the Literature prize "for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports".

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