Improbable Research

YouTube shows a fun look at the world around us, including the Ig Nobel awards. It is even more entertaining if you watch it on your TV.  LINK

Ig Nobel Awards

On September 18, 2014 the 24th annual Ig Nobel, pronounced 'ig no bell' Prize ceremony was held at Harvard. Each winner has done something that makes people laugh then think. Winners traveled to the ceremony from around the world at their own expense to receive their prize from a group of amused Nobel Laureates. On lucky person won a date with a Nobel laureate. Real Nobel Laureates hand out prizes.

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!"

The "Stinker" is the official mascot of the Ig Nobel Awards.

The Physics prize went to a team that measured the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin and then a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that is on the floor.

The Neuroscience prize went to a team that attempted to dissect the inner workings of the brains of people who see Jesus in their toast.

The Economics prize went to the Italian government's National Institute of Statistics, for taking the lead in fulfilling the European Union mandate for each country to increase the official size of its national economy by including revenues from prostitution, illegal drug sales, smuggling, and all other unlawful financial transactions between willing participants.

The Biology prize went to a team that discovered when dogs poop and pee, they tend to align their body axis with Earth's north-south geomagnetic field lines.

The Public Health prize went to a team that investigated whether it is mentally hazardous for a human being to own a cat.

The Arctic Science prize went to a team that observed how reindeer behave upon seeing humans disguised as polar bears.

The Medicine prize went to a team that was able to treat "uncontrollable" nosebleeds using strips of cured pork. A team at the Detroit, Michigan Medical Center decided to try the folk remedy as a last resort after failed attempts to stop an uncontrollable nosebleed in a 4-year-old who suffers from Glanzmann thrombasthenia, a rare condition in which blood does not properly clot. They stuffed strips of cured pork into the child’s nostrils twice, and the hemorrhaging ceased. They reported the clotting factors in pork and the high level of salt pulls in a lot of fluid from the nose. Ah, they may never stop finding new uses for bacon.