Ig Nobel Prizes : The Annals of Improbable Research

by Marc Abrahams (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.25

  For 10 years the august scientists of Harvard University have scoured the world's research establishments for the most bizarre and weird real-life scientific research. WHAT: The Ig Nobel Prize honours individuals whose achievements in science cannot or should not be reproduced. 10 prizes are given to people who have done remarkably bizarre things in science over the previous year. The Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony is held in October. Prizes are awarded by genuine Nobel laureates. WHY: The 'Igs' are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative and shine a grubby spotlight onto the weird corners of laboratories around the world. PAST WINNERS: Peter Fong's experiment in which he fed Prozac to clams (Ig Nobel Biology Prize, 1998) on the basis that if they chilled out more they'd taste better. Harold Hillman's report on 'The Possible Pain Experienced during Execution by Different Methods' (Ig Nobel Peace Prize, 1997) Jerald Bain and Kerry Siminoski's examination of The Relationship among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size (Ig Nobel Statistics Prize, 1998). Masumi Wakita (Ig Nobel Psychology Prize, 1995) and their achievement in training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet Richard Seed (Ig Nobel Economics Prize, 1997) and his plan to clone himself and other human beings. Ida Sabelis (Ig Nobel Biology 2000) for Magnetic resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal The book will look behind the scenes of these landmark researchers and feature the weirdest research from a hundred years of science.

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $4.05

  The Ig Nobel Prizes make people laugh, and then make them think. Included in this new edition are: the Dutch scientist who investigated homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks, the Swedish team that looked into chickens' preferences in humans, and the man who made it possible for someone to rent the entire country of Liechtenstein for corporate events. Sometimes, as in the latter case, Ig Nobel Prizes could not be awarded without the entire nation getting behind the researchers. As before, there is an irresistible blend of serious science and complete incredulity at the way the human quest for knowledge takes us into ever more obscure areas of research.