People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne
A study exploring the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and another examining the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.
The 34th annual Ig Nobel Prize Awards ceremony, hosted by the Annals of Improbable Research website, was held less than a month before the Nobel Prizes were announced at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It got people laughing and thinking. The laureates were presented with a transparent box containing historical artifacts related to Murphy’s Law, the theme of the evening, as well as a nearly worthless $10 trillion Zimbabwean bill. The laureates presented their prizes to the laureates.
“While some politicians were trying to pass off sensible things as crazy, scientists were discovering things that seemed crazy but made a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, the magazine’s emcee and editor-in-chief, said in an email interview.
The ceremony began with safety briefings by Kees Moliker, winner of the 2003 Ig Noble Prize in Biology. His award was given for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallards.
“That’s the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “That’s the dead duck.”
After that, someone came on stage with a yellow target on his chest and a plastic mask on his face. Soon, they were swarmed by people from the audience who threw paper airplanes at them.
A team of researchers demonstrates during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Physiology during the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne
The awards ceremony then began, with several boring introductions interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling, “Please stop. I’m bored.” The awards ceremony was also interspersed with an international song contest inspired by Murphy’s Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the justice system.
The winners were recognized in 10 categories, including peace and anatomy. Among them, scientists showed that a vine from Chile mimics the shapes of nearby artificial plants, and another study examined whether the hair of people in the northern hemisphere swirls in the same direction as that of people in the southern hemisphere.
Other winners included a group of scientists who showed that fake drugs that cause side effects can be more effective than fake drugs that don’t, and another who showed that some mammals can breathe through their anuses. These winners took to the stage wearing fish-inspired hats.
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Professor James Liao shows a stuffed fish as he accepts a physics award for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne
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Students walk past the “Great Dome” atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 3, 2017. Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File
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Professor Sander Woutersen, right, shows an oversized stuffed worm while accepting a shared Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry for working with a team of researchers using chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms, during a performance, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne
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An artist places a stuffed cat on an inflatable cow, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, to demonstrate the explosion of a paper bag next to a cat standing on the back of a cow, to explore how and when cows vomit their milk, during the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne
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Eric Maskin, 2007 Nobel laureate in economics, right, presents an Ig Nobel Prize to members of a team of researchers who used chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms, during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Steven Senne
Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of her late father, B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon missile study. Skinner Vargas also heads the B.F. Skinner Foundation.
“I want to thank you for finally recognizing his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for setting the record straight.”
James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, received the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
“I found that a live fish moves more than a dead fish, but not much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also beats its tail in time with the current like a live fish surfing eddies, gathering energy from its environment. A dead fish does things like a live fish.”
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