Chris Simmas in Nature:
The Ig Nobels were founded in 1991 by Marc Abrahams, editor of satirical magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Previous winners have included the discovery that orgasm can be an effective nasal decongestant3, the levitation of live frogs using magnets4 and research on necrophilia in ducks5. In the prize’s early days, receiving one was deemed silly or even insulting by some people. Abrahams says that Robert May, the chief scientific adviser to the UK Government from 1995 to 2000, once wrote him an angry letter demanding that they stopped giving Ig Nobel prizes to British scientists.
But many have come to see the Ig Nobels as career-changing in their own right.
“When we first got the phone call about winning an Ig Nobel, we honestly thought it was a prank. Once we realized it was real, we were thrilled and genuinely honored,” says Fritz Renner, a psychologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany and a winner of this year’s peace prize for work showing that drinking alcohol can improve your ability to speak in a foreign language6.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.