Synopses & Reviews
A sidesplitting compendium that pays tribute to those individuals whose scientific achievements cannot or should not be reproduced.
Everyone knows about the Nobel Prizes, those prestigious awards that recognize the world's most talented and innovative minds. Unfortunately, not all of the hopeful thinkers and academics around the globe can become Nobel Laureates, but some are lucky enough to win the esteemed Ig Nobel Prize instead. Their unbelievable accomplishments are now documented in glorious detail in The Ig Nobel Prizes: The Annals of Improbable Research.
Drawn from the world's wackiest actual scientific research, The Ig Nobel Prizes demonstrates the extreme measures people will take in the quest for knowledge. Recent Ig Nobel honorees include:
* The professor who won the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for a study proving that toast falls buttered side down more often.
* The Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, which won the Ig Nobel Prize in Mathematics for devising a formula to determine how many Alabamans will go to Hell.
* The Australian man who successfully patented the wheel, and the Australian Patent Office that granted it. For this act, they were jointly awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Technology.
This hilarious book features these endeavors and many more, along with photographs from the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies at Harvard University. An entertaining exhibition of brains and determination, The Ig Nobel Prizes is the ideal gift for anyone who first wants to laugh and then wants to think.
Synopsis
This hilarious book features these endeavors and many more, along with photographs from the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies at Harvard University. An entertaining exhibition of brains and determination, The Ig Nobel Prizes is the ideal gift for anyone who first wants to laugh and then wants to think.
Synopsis
A sidesplitting compendium that pays tribute to those individuals whose scientific achievements cannot or should not be reproduced.
Everyone knows about the Nobel Prizes, those prestigious awards that recognize the world's most talented and innovative minds. Unfortunately, not all of the hopeful thinkers and academics around the globe can become Nobel Laureates, but some are lucky enough to win the esteemed Ig Nobel Prize instead. Their unbelievable accomplishments are now documented in glorious detail in The Ig Nobel Prizes: The Annals of Improbable Research.
Drawn from the world's wackiest actual scientific research, The Ig Nobel Prizes demonstrates the extreme measures people will take in the quest for knowledge. Recent Ig Nobel honorees include:
* The professor who won the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for a study proving that toast falls buttered side down more often.
* The Southern Baptist Church of Alabama, which won the Ig Nobel Prize in Mathematics for devising a formula to determine how many Alabamans will go to Hell.
* The Australian man who successfully patented the wheel, and the Australian Patent Office that granted it. For this act, they were jointly awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Technology.
This hilarious book features these endeavors and many more, along with photographs from the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies at Harvard University. An entertaining exhibition of brains and determination, The Ig Nobel Prizes is the ideal gift for anyone who first wants to laugh and then wants to think.
Synopsis
An entertaining exhibition of brains and determination--along with photographs from the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremonies at Harvard University--this is the ideal gift for anyone who first wants to laugh and then wants to think.
About the Author
Marc Abrahams is the editor and cofounder of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), its online counterpart www.improbable.com, and the monthly e-newsletter mini-AIR. The father and master of ceremonies of the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University, Abrahams has a degree in applied mathematics from Harvard.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction 1
Whatís an Ig? 2
How It Began, Briefly 3
How the Winners Are
Chosen 4
The Ceremony 5
Controversy 9
How to Read This Book 12
MEDICAL
BREAKTHROUGHS 15
Failure of Electric Shock
Treatment for Rattlesnake
Envenomation 16
Nose Picking in
Adolescents 19
Elevator Music Prevents
the Common Cold 23
PSYCHOLOGY
aND INTELLIGENCE 27
A Forbidding Experiment:
Spitting, Chewing Gum, and
Pigeons 28
Ignorance Is Bliss 31
ECONOMICS 35
Squeezing Orange County/
Bringing Down Barings 36
The Good Lloydís Shepherds
Insure Disaster 40
Dying to Save Taxes 43
Enronóand Then Some (and Then None) 46
PEACEóDIPLOMACY
AND PERSUASION 51
The Levitating Crime Fighters 52
Daryl Gates, the Gandhi
of Los Angeles 55
Stalin World 59
PEACEFUL EJACULATIONS
AND EXPLOSIONS 63
Booming Voices of Britain 64
Father of the Bomb 67
Pacific Kaboom 70
LOVE AND/OR REPRODUCTION 73
The Compulsive Biochemistry of Love 74
High-Velocity Birth 78
Taking Fatherhood in Hand 82
Insert Here 86
Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size 90
DISCOVERIESóBASIC SCIENCE 93
The Happiness of Clams 94
Cold Fusion in Chickens 97
Mini-Dinosaurs, Mini-Princesses 101
The Remembrance of Water Passed 106
DISCOVERIESóTHINGS THAT rise OR fall 111
Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts 112
The Fall of Buttered Toast 116
The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow 120
Levitating Frogs 124
TROY and THE GRIZZLY BEAR 127
Troy and the Grizzly Bear 128
INVENTIONS 133
The Most Inventive
Salesman 134
The Kitty and the Keyboard 138
Patenting the Wheel 141
HELLISH TECHNICALITIES 145
Who Is Going to Hell 146
Mikhail Gorbachev Is the
Antichrist 149
SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY 155
The Self-Perfuming Business
Suit 156
Filter-Equipped Underwear 159
FOOD FOR THOUGHT 163
Extremely Instant Barbecue 164
Sogginess at Breakfast 167
The Effects of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches 170
No Need for Food 174
How to Make a Cup of Tea, Officially 178
The Sociology of Canadian Donut Shops 183
The Optimal Way to Dunk a Biscuit 186
EDUCATION 191
Banning the Beaker 192
Deepak Chopra 195
Dan Quayle 199
LITERATURE 201
976 Coauthors in Search of a Title 202
The Father of Junk E-mail 204
APP: ICES 209 Year-by-Year List of Winners 210
How to Nominate Someone 229
The Web Site 231
About the Annals of Improbable Research 232
Acknowledgments 234
Index 237