A semana passada festejou-se em Sydney a semana da ciência. Entre várias actividades, quase todas dedicadas às crianças, fui a uma informal conferência num pub sobre os prémios Ig Nobel. Estes prémios são dedicados a improváveis descobertas nos mais diversos tópicos.
The Ig Nobel Prizes honour achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. A conversa foi presidida pelo fundador dos prémios Ig Nobel e com cientistas australianos que já ganharam o prémio como convidados. Foram duas horas de muita risota e muita informação, com fotos, explicações e exemplos das mais caricatas descobertas. É importante referir que todos os projectos vencedores são estudos publicados em revistas cientificas e afins. Estes prémios são entregues anualmente na Universidade de Harvard, por vencedores dos verdadeiros prémios Nobel. Fantástico!
Deixo-vos aqui alguns exemplos que retirei do site.
ORNITHOLOGY: Ivan R. Schwab, for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.
PEACE: Howard Stapleton, for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellent -- a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but probably not to their teachers.
ACOUSTICS: D. Lynn Halpern, for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.
MATHEMATICS: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.
LITERATURE: Daniel Oppenheimer, for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."
BIOLOGY: Bart Knols, for showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.
MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage".
ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.
CHEMISTRY: Edward Cussler, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?
MEDICINE: Steven Stack, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH: Stefano Ghirlanda, for the inevitable report "Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans." (Published in Human Nature)
CHEMISTRY: Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
SOCIOLOGY: Steve Penfold, for doing his PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut shops.
CHEMISTRY: Jacques Benveniste, for his homeopathic discovery that not only does water have memory, but that the information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the Internet.
STATISTICS: Jerald Bain, for their carefully measured report, "The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size."
PHYSICS: Louis Kervran, ardent admirer of alchemy, for his conclusion that the calcium in chickens' eggshells is created by a process of cold fusion.
MEDICINE: Francis M. Fesmire, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage".
ECONOMICS: Gauri Nanda, for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.
CHEMISTRY: Edward Cussler, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?
MEDICINE: Steven Stack, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH: Stefano Ghirlanda, for the inevitable report "Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans." (Published in Human Nature)
CHEMISTRY: Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra, for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
SOCIOLOGY: Steve Penfold, for doing his PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut shops.
CHEMISTRY: Jacques Benveniste, for his homeopathic discovery that not only does water have memory, but that the information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the Internet.
STATISTICS: Jerald Bain, for their carefully measured report, "The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size."
PHYSICS: Louis Kervran, ardent admirer of alchemy, for his conclusion that the calcium in chickens' eggshells is created by a process of cold fusion.
