Unlike the traditional Nobel Prizes, which will be announced next month, the Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for research that “first makes people laugh, then makes them think.” At the ceremony, real Nobel Prize winners presented 10 Ig Nobel Prizes to researchers around the world.
One of the winners in the Mechanical Engineering category was a team from Rice University (USA). They “revived” dead spiders to use as mechanical grasping tools, creating a spider-like pincer that can grasp irregularly shaped objects.
Jan Zalasiewicz from the University of Leicester won the Chemistry and Geology Prize for explaining why many scientists lick rocks. Modern geologists often use the tongue to wet surfaces and increase visibility rather than to taste.
The Ig Nobel Prize in Nutrition was awarded to researchers from Meiji University and the University of Tokyo who worked on electric chopsticks and straws and discovered that electrical stimulation of the tongue could change the taste of food.
The public health award went to researchers who developed a smart toilet that monitors waste for signs of disease, including an anal fingerprint sensor to identify users.
Other awards included research on topics such as speaking backwards, the feeling of “familiarity” felt when saying the same word over and over, and the mixing of ocean layers due to the nocturnal spawning of anchovies.
Source: Ferra
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