2001 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize winner Dr. Chittaranjan Andrade [pictured here at the Ig Nobel ceremony] wrote an essay called “Laugh and Then Think” in the Deccan Herald. He says (among other things) that:
Our research had scientific merit, but persons from other walks of life could be forgiven for feeling amused at the study of how often adolescents pick their nose, what implements they use, and what they do with the nasal debris afterwards. This must have been why our study was honoured with an Ig Nobel award at Harvard University in Boston in 2001 for scientific research that made people smile and then think.