Mammals can breathe through anuses? IG Nobel Prizes celebrate the unusual
The IG Nobel Prize ceremony, held on Thursday, celebrated the unusual and imaginative in science, medicine, and technology. The awards recognised research teams that have provided answers to some of the world’s most peculiar questions, sparking both laughter and thought.
Among the notable discoveries honoured were the ability of mammals to breathe through their anuses, the unequal probability of a coin landing on heads or tails, the mimicry of fake plastic plants by real plants, the effectiveness of fake medicine with painful side-effects compared to those without, and the questionable record-keeping in places known for long-lived individuals.
The two-hour ceremony was filled with quirky elements, including accordion music, a humorous safety briefing, and two “paper airplane deluges” where audience members aimed their creations at a staging target. Prize winners included a Japanese team led by Ryo Okabe and Takanori Takebe for their research on anal breathing in mammals, which could potentially offer an alternative oxygen delivery method for critically ill patients during ventilator and artificial lung shortages.
Other notable winners included B.F Skinner (posthumously) for his work on pigeon-guided missiles, a European-wide research team for demonstrating the tendency of a coin to land on the same side it started when flipped, and a French-Chilean team for studying hair swirl direction on the heads of people in the northern and southern hemispheres.
Live demonstrations accompanied some of the prize-giving, such as the exploding of a paper bag next to a cat standing on a cow’s back to explore the reasons for milk spewing, and the use of chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms.
Winners received a now obsolete Zimbabwean ten trillion-dollar bill and a “transparent box” containing items related to “Murphy’s Law,” the ceremony’s theme, with some items missing and the box being nearly impossible to open.
Among the notable discoveries honoured were the ability of mammals to breathe through their anuses, the unequal probability of a coin landing on heads or tails, the mimicry of fake plastic plants by real plants, the effectiveness of fake medicine with painful side-effects compared to those without, and the questionable record-keeping in places known for long-lived individuals.
The two-hour ceremony was filled with quirky elements, including accordion music, a humorous safety briefing, and two “paper airplane deluges” where audience members aimed their creations at a staging target. Prize winners included a Japanese team led by Ryo Okabe and Takanori Takebe for their research on anal breathing in mammals, which could potentially offer an alternative oxygen delivery method for critically ill patients during ventilator and artificial lung shortages.
Other notable winners included B.F Skinner (posthumously) for his work on pigeon-guided missiles, a European-wide research team for demonstrating the tendency of a coin to land on the same side it started when flipped, and a French-Chilean team for studying hair swirl direction on the heads of people in the northern and southern hemispheres.
Live demonstrations accompanied some of the prize-giving, such as the exploding of a paper bag next to a cat standing on a cow’s back to explore the reasons for milk spewing, and the use of chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms.
Winners received a now obsolete Zimbabwean ten trillion-dollar bill and a “transparent box” containing items related to “Murphy’s Law,” the ceremony’s theme, with some items missing and the box being nearly impossible to open.
