Thread: The 2021 Ig Nobel Awards

Yes, it's that time of year for major scientific breakthroughs.... or not.

Biology Prize

Citation: Susanne Schötz, "for analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat–human communication."


Ecology Prize

Citation: Leila Satari, Alba Guillén, Àngela Vidal-Verdú, and Manuel Porcar, "for using genetic analysis to identify the different species of bacteria that reside in wads of discarded chewing gum stuck on pavements in various countries."


Chemistry Prize

Citation: Jörg Wicker, Nicolas Krauter, Bettina Derstroff, Christof Stönner, Efstratios Bourtsoukidis, Achim Edtbauer, Jochen Wulf, Thomas Klüpfel, Stefan Kramer, and Jonathan Williams, "for chemically analyzing the air inside movie theaters, to test whether the odors produced by an audience reliably indicate the levels of violence, sex, antisocial behavior, drug use, and bad language in the movie the audience is watching."


Transportation Prize

Citation: Robin Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen Parry, and Robin Gleed, "for determining by experiment whether it is safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down."


Economics Prize

Citation: Pavlo Blavatskyy, "for discovering that the obesity of a country's politicians may be a good indicator of that country's corruption."


Medicine Prize

Citation: Olcay Cem Bulut, Dare Oladokun, Burkard Lippert, and Ralph Hohenberger, "for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing."


Peace Prize

Citation: Ethan Beseris, Steven Naleway, and David Carrier, "for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face."


Physics Prize

Citation: Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi, and Federico Toschi, "for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do not constantly collide with other pedestrians."


Kinetics Prize

Citation: Hisashi Murakami, Claudio Feliciani, Yuta Nishiyama, and Katsuhiro Nishinari, "for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do sometimes collide with other pedestrians."


Entomology Prize

Citation: John Mulrennan Jr., Roger Grothaus, Charles Hammond, and Jay Lamdin, "for their research study 'A New Method of Cockroach Control on Submarines.'"

Sex can relieve nasal congestion, and other work honored by 2021 Ig Nobels | Ars Technica

...555...the very bleeding edge of the frontiers of knowledge!...