Ig Nobel, prize for the most curious investigations

At the same time when the Nobel Prizes are announced, other prizes related to them are distributed. The Ig Nobelas are two essential requirements to be worthy of the prize: on the one hand, they have to be able to make you laugh and, on the other, they have to make you think. Most of the investigations fulfill the second condition, so the bleeding is in the first. In any case, one more year, the organization of the contest, the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, has gathered a good cast.

 

“Can they be cats as liquid as solid?” is the title of the first award-winning research at the 2017 Ig Nobel. He has been awarded in the category of Physics and, in particular, is a reological work. This field of physics studies the deformation and fluidity of materials, and researchers have seen that cats are so flexible that, from a reological point of view, they resemble liquids.

 

The award-winning research in the economy category also includes liquids and animals. In fact, they measured the influence of a salt-water crocodile on the arms, on what and on the money played on a coin machine. As they concluded, after taking the crocodile in arms, people become more prudent and play less money than before. However, researchers do not recommend providing crocodiles to the ludopaths to treat their dependence.

 

The protagonists of biology are also animals, some insects of the genus Neotrogla that live in the caves of Brazil. Well, the researchers have shown that females are of penis and males of vagina.

 

The research that everyone can do at home has also been awarded. On the one hand, in the category of Peace, they have shown that playing the digeridoo instrument serves to stop snoring. In the category of anatomy, it has been shown that as it gets older, the ears are lengthened. On the other hand, in the category of Fluid Dynamics, it has been proven that if you move backwards with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee in your hands, you pour less fluids than if you move forward. And, finally, in the category of Obstetrics, a group of Catalan researchers has been rewarded for demonstrating that 16-week human fetuses respond more if they come to music through the vagina than on the other side of the belly.

 

Other award-winning categories have been Medicine, Nutrition and Cognitive Sciences, which, as usual, have been awarded by authentic Nobel Prizes. Zorionak to all!