Byter Graham E sent me a lengthy commentary on “farting”: in
popular culture, history, literature and more, in response to my post yesterday
about some aspects of that topic. Thanks
Graham, you are certainly Master of the Fart.
However, to give readers a break from flatulence, I will post that next
week.
My post on the study done of farting and the formula
developed by the experts as to how to assess the funniest of the farts reminded
me that it was time to have a look at this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes. That post appears below.
-----oOo-----
Ig Nobel Prizes 2019
The Ig Nobel Prizes are satiric prizes awarded annually
since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific
research, its stated aim being to "honour 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 the word ignoble. Organised by the
scientific humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), the Ig Nobel
Prizes are presented by Nobel laureates in a ceremony at the Sanders Theatre, Harvard University.
The 29th Ig Nobel award ceremony was held on
September 12 2019.
Marc Abrahams, far right, presides over the 29th annual Ig
Nobel awards ceremony at Harvard University, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019, in
Cambridge, Mass. The spoof prizes for weird and sometimes head-scratching
scientific achievement are bestowed by the Annals of Improbable Research
magazine, and handed out by real Nobel laureates.
Following is a summary of the winners and winning studies. Access the official site for links to the research:
Chemistry:
Shiguru Watanabe of Japan accepts the Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the study "Estimation of the Total Saliva Produced Per Day in Five-Year-Old Children"
This year’s Chemistry Prize went to a team of pediatric
dentists at Hokkaido University for determining how much saliva a 5-year-old
produces. The study of 30 kindergartners showed that each generates about 500
mL of spit each day.
Engineering:
Iman Farahbakhsh, a mechanical engineering professor at
Islamic Azad University, won the Engineering Prize for inventing a machine that
changes babies’ diapers. The combination washer and diaper-changing apparatus
“includes a main chamber, a glass window, a seat, a leg holder, a safety belt,
a diaper removing arm, a sprinkler, and a dryer,” according to the 2018 patent.
Physics:
David Hu speaks as Patricia Yang, right, listens as they
receive the Ig Nobel award in physics for studying how and why wombats make
cubed poo.
The Physics Prize was awarded to a team that studied how and
why wombats make cubed poo. The group reported its findings—that the irregular
elasticity of wombats’ intestines leads to compact, cubed feces—at a meeting of
the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics in 2018. It is the
second Physics Ig Nobel for two members of the team, Patricia Yang and David Hu
of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who shared the 2015 prize for
determining it takes most mammals 21 s (plus or minus 13 s) to empty their
bladders.
Medicine:
Silvano Gallus of Italy accepts the Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine for the study "Does Pizza Protect Against Cancer?"
Silvano Gallus, head of the Laboratory of Lifestyle
Epidemiology at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research,
garnered the Medicine Prize “for collecting evidence that pizza might protect
against illness and death, if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy”
Medical Education:
The Medical Education Prize went to researchers that used
the animal-training technique known as clicker training to teach surgeons to
perform orthopaedic surgery
Biology:
An international team claimed the Biology Prize for a study
that determined there is a distinct difference in the magnetic properties of
live and dead cockroaches
Anatomy:
Two human fertility researchers at the University of
Toulouse earned the Anatomy Prize for “Thermal Asymmetry of the Human Scrotum,”
their study of postal workers and bus drivers. One of the winners, Roger
Mieusset, also invented heated underwear for men, purportedly for contraception.
Economics:
Andreas Voss, left, and his son Timothy Voss, of The
Netherlands, receive the Ig Nobel award in economics for testing which
country's paper money is best at transmitting dangerous bacteria.
The Economics Prize went to three microbiology researchers
“for testing which country’s paper money is best at transmitting dangerous
bacteria.” Answer: the Romanian leu
Peace:
For their study “The Pleasurability of Scratching an Itch: A
Psychophysical and Topographical Assessment,” five dermatologists, a
psychologist, and a biostatistician won the Peace Prize
Psychology:
Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg psychologist Fritz
Strack won the Psychology Prize “for discovering that holding a pen in one’s
mouth makes one smile, which makes one happier—and for then discovering that it
does not”
The following article is from the website Metal Floss at:
5 Hilarious Discoveries from the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
Each September, the Ig Nobel Prizes (a play on the word
ignoble) are given out to scientists who have wowed the world with their
eccentric, imaginative achievements. Though the experiments are usually
scientifically sound and the results are sometimes truly illuminating, that
doesn’t make them any less hilarious. From postal workers’ scrotal temperatures
to cube-shaped poop, here are our top five takeaways from this year’s
award-winning studies.
1. LEFT AND RIGHT SCROTA OFTEN DIFFER IN TEMPERATURE,
WHETHER YOU’RE NAKED OR NOT.
Roger Mieusset and Bourras Bengoudifa were awarded the
anatomy prize for testing the scrotum temperatures in clothed and naked men in
various positions. They found that in some postal workers, bus drivers, and
other clothed civilians, the left scrotum is warmer than the right, while in
some naked civilians, the opposite is true. They suggest that this discrepancy
may contribute to asymmetry in the shape and size of male external genitalia.
2. 5-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN PRODUCE ABOUT HALF A LITER OF SALIVA
PER DAY.
Shigeru Watanabe and his team nabbed the chemistry prize for
tracking the eating and sleeping habits of 15 boys and 15 girls to discover
that, regardless of gender, they each produce about 500 milliliters of spit per
day. Children have lower salivary flow rates than adults, and they also sleep
longer (we produce virtually no saliva when we sleep), so it seems like they
may generate much less saliva than adults. However, since children also spend more
time eating than adults (when the most saliva is produced), the average daily
levels are about even—at least, according to one of Watanabe’s previous studies
on adult saliva.
3. SCRATCHING AN ANKLE ITCH FEELS EVEN BETTER THAN
SCRATCHING OTHER ITCHES.
Ghada A. bin Saif, A.D.P. Papoiu, and their colleagues used
cowhage (a plant known to make people itchy) to induce itches on the forearms,
ankles, and backs of 18 participants, whom they then asked to rate both the
intensity of the itch and the pleasure derived from scratching it. Subjects
felt ankle and back itches more intensely than those on their forearms, and
they also rated ankle and back scratches higher on the pleasure scale. While
pleasure levels dropped off for back and forearm itches as they were scratched,
the same wasn’t true for ankle itches—participants still rated pleasurability
higher even while the itchy feeling subsided. Perhaps because there’s no peace
quite like that of scratching a good itch, the scientists won the Ig Nobel
peace prize for their work.
4. ELASTIC INTESTINES HELP WOMBATS CREATE THEIR FAMOUS CUBED
POOP.
In the final 8 percent of a wombat’s intestine, feces
transform from a liquid-like state into a series of small, solid cubes.
Patricia Yang, David Hu, and their team inflated the intestines of two dead
wombats with long balloons to discover that this formation is caused by the
elastic quality of the intestinal wall, which stretches at certain angles to
form cubes. For solving the mystery, Yang and Hu took home the physics award
for the second time—they also won in 2015 for testing the theory that all
mammals can empty their bladders in about 21 seconds.
5. ROMANIAN MONEY GROWS BACTERIA BETTER THAN OTHER MONEY.
Habip Gedik and father-and-son pair Timothy and Andreas Voss
earned the economics prize by growing drug-resistant bacteria on the euro, U.S.
dollar, Canadian dollar, Croatian luna, Romanian leu, Moroccan dirham, and
Indian rupee. The Romanian leu was the only one to yield all three types of
bacteria tested—Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and
Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci. The Croatian luna produced none, and the
other banknotes each produced one. The results suggest that the Romanian leu
was most susceptible to bacteria growth because it was the only banknote in the
experiment made from polymers rather than textile-based fibers.
By the way:
Winners received $10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, which is
virtually worthless, and each was given one minute to deliver an acceptance
speech enforced by an 8-year-old girl whining "Please stop. I'm
bored."
Audience members toss paper airplanes at the 29th annual Ig
Nobel awards ceremony at Harvard University. Tossing paper planes is an established part of the ceremonies (Carol: please note).
Final thought:
Perhaps the farting study may be part of the 2020 awards.
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