Annually awarded parody of the Nobel Prize
The 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to
Andre Geim
,
Radboud University Nijmegen
, and
Michael Berry
,
University of Bristol
, UK, for the
magnetic levitation
of a live frog. Geim was awarded an actual Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.
[1]
The
Ig Nobel Prize
(
) is a
satiric prize
awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "
honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.
" The name of the award is a pun on the
Nobel Prize
, which it parodies, and on the word
ignoble
.
Organized by the scientific humor magazine
Annals of Improbable Research
(AIR), the Ig Nobel Prizes are presented by
Nobel laureates
in a ceremony at the
Sanders Theater
at
Harvard University
, and are followed by the winners' public lectures at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
The Ig Nobels were created in 1991 by
Marc Abrahams
, editor and co-founder of the
Annals of Improbable Research
, a former editor-in-chief of the
Journal of Irreproducible Results
, who has been the master of ceremonies at all awards ceremonies. Awards were presented at that time for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced". Ten prizes are awarded each year in many categories, including the Nobel Prize categories of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, economics, and peace, but also other categories such as public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research. The Ig Nobel Prizes recognize genuine achievements, with the exception of three prizes awarded in the first year to fictitious scientists
Josiah S. Carberry
, Paul DeFanti,
[3]
and
Thomas Kyle
.
[4]
The awards are sometimes criticism via satire, as in the two awards given for
homeopathy
research, prizes in "science education" to the
Kansas State Department of Education
and
Colorado State Board of Education
for their
stance
regarding the
teaching of evolution
, and the prize awarded to
Social Text
after the
Sokal affair
. Most often, however, they draw attention to
scientific articles
that have some humorous or unexpected aspect. Examples range from the discovery that the presence of humans tends to sexually arouse
ostriches
, to the statement that
black holes
fulfill all the technical requirements for being the location of Hell, to research on the "
five-second rule
", a tongue-in-cheek belief that food dropped on the floor will not become contaminated if it is picked up within five seconds.
[5]
Sir
Andre Geim
, who had been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000 for levitating a frog by magnetism, was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 2010 for his work with the electromagnetic properties of
graphene
. He is the only individual, as of 2023, to have received both a Nobel and an Ig Nobel.
[6]
Ceremony
[
edit
]
The prizes are mostly presented by
Nobel laureates
, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at
MIT
but since 1994 in the
Sanders Theater
at
Harvard University
.
[7]
Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
, the 2020 and 2021 event was held fully online.
[8]
[9]
[10]
The event contains a number of running jokes, including Miss Sweetie Poo, a little girl who repeatedly cries out, "Please stop: I'm bored", in a high-pitched voice if speakers go on too long.
[7]
The awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If you didn't win a prize?and especially if you did?better luck next year!"
[11]
The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the
Harvard?Radcliffe Science Fiction Association
and the Harvard?Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.
[12]
Throwing
paper planes
onto the stage is a long-standing tradition. For many years Professor
Roy J. Glauber
swept the stage clean of the airplanes as the official "Keeper of the Broom". Glauber could not attend the 2005 awards because he was traveling to Stockholm to claim a genuine
Nobel Prize in Physics
.
[13]
The "Parade of Ignitaries" into the hall includes supporting groups. At the 1997 ceremonies, a team of "cryogenic sex researchers" distributed a pamphlet titled "Safe Sex at
Four Kelvin
."
[14]
Delegates from the
Museum of Bad Art
are often on hand to display some pieces from their collection.
[
citation needed
]
Outreach
[
edit
]
The ceremony is recorded and broadcast on
National Public Radio
in the US and is shown live over the Internet. The recording is broadcast each year, on the Friday after US
Thanksgiving
, on the public radio program
Science Friday
. In recognition of this, the audience chants the name of the radio show's host,
Ira Flatow
.
[
citation needed
]
Two books have been published with write-ups on some winners:
The Ig Nobel Prize
[15]
and
The Ig Nobel Prize 2
,
[16]
the latter of which was later retitled
The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself
.
[17]
An Ig Nobel Tour has been an annual part of National Science week in the United Kingdom since 2003.
[18]
The tour has also traveled to Australia several times,
Aarhus University
in Denmark in April 2009, Italy and the Netherlands.
[
citation needed
]
Reception
[
edit
]
A September 2009 article in
The National
titled "A noble side to Ig Nobels" says that, although the Ig Nobel Awards are veiled criticism of trivial research, history shows that trivial research sometimes leads to important breakthroughs.
[19]
For instance, in 2006, a study showing that one of the malaria
mosquitoes
(
Anopheles gambiae
) is attracted equally to the smell of
Limburger cheese
and the smell of human feet
[20]
earned the Ig Nobel Prize in the area of biology. As a direct result of these findings, traps baited with this cheese have been placed in strategic locations in some parts of Africa to combat the epidemic of malaria.
[21]
[22]
Andre Geim
, before sharing the 2010
Nobel Prize in Physics
for his research on
graphene
, shared the Physics Ig Nobel in
2000
with
Michael Berry
for the magnetic levitation of a frog, which by 2022 was reportedly part of the inspiration for China's
lunar gravity research
facility.
[23]
[24]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Geim becomes first Nobel & Ig Nobel winner"
. Improbable.com. October 5, 2010
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
Abrahams, Marc
(September 12, 2012).
"The Greatest Hits of Weird Science: What the Oscars could learn from the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony"
.
Slate.com
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
"Ig Nobel prizes display wit, fun, drunks"
,
The Tech
, vol. 111, issue 41
- ^
"Ig Nobel Prizes Go to Those Likely to Be Overlooked : Lampoon: MIT researchers create the new series of awards, named after the 'inventor of soda pop.' Among the first winners are Vice President Dan Quayle and imprisoned junk-bond king Michael Milken"
.
Los Angeles Times
. October 5, 1991
. Retrieved
December 2,
2022
.
- ^
"Improbable.com Ig Nobel Past Winners"
. Archived from
the original
on September 6, 2019
. Retrieved
July 10,
2019
.
- ^
Overbye, Dennis
(October 5, 2010).
"Physics Nobel Honors Work on Ultra-Thin Carbon"
.
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on September 24, 2014
. Retrieved
March 30,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Moeliker, Kees
(October 11, 2005).
"Infinity and so much more"
. London: Education.guardian.co.uk
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
"2020 Ceremony"
.
Improbable Research
. May 19, 2020
. Retrieved
December 27,
2020
.
- ^
"What is the Ig Nobel Prize and who won it this year?"
.
Metro
. September 18, 2020
. Retrieved
December 27,
2020
.
- ^
"The Ig Nobel Awards Go Virtual"
.
Science Friday
. Retrieved
December 27,
2020
.
- ^
Jacobs, Phie (September 14, 2023).
Ig Nobel Prizes honor zombie spiders, rock-licking scientists, and a clever commode
(Report).
doi
:
10.1126/science.adk8631
.
- ^
"Improbable.com: "About the Ig Nobel prize"
"
. Archived from
the original
on June 4, 2019
. Retrieved
July 8,
2019
.
- ^
"Roy Glauber, paper airplane sweeper, is gone"
.
Improbable.com
. December 27, 2018.
- ^
Kirsner, Scott.
"A Gala Night for Weird Science"
.
Wired
.
- ^
2002, US paperback
ISBN
0-452-28573-9
, UK paperback
ISBN
0-7528-4261-7
- ^
2005, US hardcover
ISBN
0-525-94912-7
, UK hardcover
ISBN
0-7528-6461-0
- ^
Abrahams, Marc (2006).
The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself
. Plume.
ISBN
9780452287723
.
- ^
"The Ig Nobel Tour of the UK"
(PDF)
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
Matthews, Robert (September 27, 2009).
"A Noble Side to Ig Nobels"
.
The National
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
Knols, Bart (November 9, 1996).
"On human odour, malaria mosquitoes, and Limburger cheese"
(PDF)
.
Lancet
.
348
(9037): 1322.
doi
:
10.1016/S0140-6736(05)65812-6
.
PMID
8909415
.
S2CID
12571262
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
"The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize Winners"
. Improbable.com
. Retrieved
November 17,
2018
.
- ^
Knols, Bart; De Jong, Ruurd (April 1996). "Limburger cheese as an attractant for the malaria mosquito
Anopheles gambiae s.s.
".
Parasitology Today
.
12
(4): 159?161.
doi
:
10.1016/0169-4758(96)10002-8
.
PMID
15275226
.
- ^
"China building "Artificial Moon" that simulates low gravity with magnets"
.
Futurism.com
. Recurrent Ventures
. Retrieved
January 17,
2022
.
Interestingly, the facility was partly inspired by previous research conducted by Russian physicist Andrew Geim in which he floated a frog with a magnet. The experiment earned Geim the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics, a satirical award given to unusual scientific research. It's cool that a quirky experiment involving floating a frog could lead to something approaching an honest-to-God antigravity chamber.
- ^
Stephen Chen (January 12, 2022).
"China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth"
.
South China Morning Post
. Retrieved
January 17,
2022
.
It is said to be the first of its kind and could play a key role in the country's future lunar missions. Landscape is supported by a magnetic field and was inspired by experiments to levitate a frog.
External links
[
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]