Upside-down Rhinos, and other Cornellian Ig Nobel Prize winners

Cornellians, the alumni magazine of Cornell University, celebrates some of the alumni who have been awarded Ig Nobel Prizes. The 2021 Ig Nobel Transportation Prize winners are just the latest: “When you see a rhino hanging upside down, it’s a little bit comical,” he admits. “But it makes you wonder, and then you start to […]

20 questions answered by the man who looked at the world upside-down

Atsuki Higashiyama, winner of the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize for perception, answers 20 questions, in the Japan Times. It begins: Ig Nobel perception prize winner Atsuki Higashiyama: ‘Psychology teaches us to be scientific and skeptical’ BY J.J. O’DONOGHUE SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES Name: Atsuki Higashiyama Age: 65 Nationality: Japanese Occupation: Professor of psychology, Ritsumeikan University […]

Overturned rhinoceros beetles – how do they get back on their feet? (study)

No matter how careful a beetle might be, there’s a fair chance that, sooner or later, it’ll find itself on its back. Raising the question, how does it right itself, i.e. get onto its feet again? For current beetle-righting research turn to volume 28, Issue 2, 2016, of the journal Ecological Psychology where researchers professor […]

Upside-down male/female swimwear/underwear picture recognition differences

Are there differences in the rapid-recognition (viz. 250 ms) of photos of men and women in swimsuits (or underwear) when they are presented upside-down? A 2011 paper in the prestige journal Psychological Science suggests the answer maybe yes. Inspired (in part) by a 1969 study from Dr. Robert K. Yin, which was entitled ‘Looking at […]

Experiments show we quickly adjust to seeing everything upside-down

In the middle of the 20th century, an Austrian professor turned a man’s eyesight exactly upside-down. After a short time, the man took this completely in his stride. Professor Theodor Erismann, of the University of Innsbruck, devised the experiment, performing it upon his assistant and student, Ivo Kohler. Kohler later wrote about it. The two of […]