Says the video’s maker: “What if I told you that a physicist earned a major award for magnetically levitating a frog, what would you think? It really happened and this story can only refer us to a central question in today’s scientific debate: is there scientific research that is useless? Today we are talking about […]
Category: Ig Nobel
News about the Ig Nobel Prizes — honoring achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.
Podcast Episode #1087: “Modes of Cat-Human Communication”
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. We released these lectures one at a time. In Podcast Episode #1087, Marc Abrahams presents the 2021 Ig Nobel Prize for […]
“The Third Element” Celebrates the Ig Nobel Prizes
The Croatian TV program “Treći Element” [The Third Element], with its 250th jubilee episode, celebrates the Ig Nobel Prizes: The program describes itself [this is a translation into English]: The 250th jubilee show of the Third Element has a slightly different edition. We gathered all four presenters to tell us about the Ig Nobel Prize […]
Podcast Episode #1086: “Beards and Face-Punching”
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. We released these lectures one at a time. In Podcast Episode #1086, Marc Abrahams presents the 2020 Ig Nobel Peace Prize […]
Inspired by Ig Nobel Prize Winner, China Builds a Rising Moon
The South China Morning Post reports, on January 12, 2022, that “China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth“. The report begins: China has built a research facility that simulates the low-gravity environment on the moon – and it was inspired by experiments using magnets to levitate a frog. Further details: […]
“The Strange World of Breatharianism” documentary
“Breatharianism is a type of belief system started by Jasmuheen… that hypothesizes and claims to prove that humans can live without consuming solid foods…. She even received the Ig Nobel prize, a satirical parody of the true Nobel Prize, which means she joined the likes of L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology and the […]
What Does Slime Know?
“What Slime Knows” is an essay by Lacy M. Johnson, in Orion magazine: Here in this little patch of mulch in my yard is a creature that begins life as a microscopic amoeba and ends it as a vibrant splotch that produces spores, and for all the time in between, it is a single cell […]
Limericks about Stinky Feet and Community Dad
“Ig Nobel Limericks: Stinky Feet, Community Dad” is a featured article of sorts in the special Ig Nobel Prizes issue (volume 27, number 6) of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Read this article, free, on the web. Then, if research about improbable reality inspires you, subscribe to the magazine, or buy individual back issues.
Ig Nobel Winners Leap from Magnetized Cockroaches to Entangled Tardigrades
Ig Nobel Prize-winning research comparing magnetized and unmagnetized cockroaches has now led to an experiment involving quantum entanglement and a tardigrade. Details about the tardigrade and entanglement are in this study: “Entanglement Between Superconducting Qubits and a Tardigrade,” K. S. Lee, Y. P. Tan, L. H. Nguyen, R. P. Budoyo, K. H. Park, C. Hufnagel, […]
Inside this year’s Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
“The 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony,” a detailed look at the ceremony, is a featured article in the special Ig Nobel Prizes issue (volume 27, number 6) of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Read this article, free, on the web. Then, if research about improbable reality inspires you, subscribe to the magazine, or […]