The annual Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced!

Full details at Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize.

Here's a summary from there.


NUTRITION: for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is.

PEACE: for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

ARCHAEOLOGY: for measuring how the course of history, or at least the contents of an archaeological dig site, can be scrambled by the actions of a live armadillo.

BIOLOGY: for discovering that the fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than the fleas that live on a cat.

MEDICINE: for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.

COGNITIVE SCIENCE: for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.

ECONOMICS: for discovering that a professional lap dancer's ovulatory cycle affects her tip earnings.

PHYSICS: for proving mathematically that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots.

CHEMISTRY: for [one group] discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide; for [another group] discovering that it is not.

LITERATURE: for [a] lovingly written study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."