The Nobel Prize celebrates the best in science, but didja ever wonder about the research breakthroughs that get left in the dust? Indeed, for every golden calf, there’s always a big pile of cow shit. Fortunately, the fine folks at the Ig Noble academy select the very crappiest research from around the globe each year. Here’s a list of Ig Noble “winning” discoveries from 2001:
MEDICINE
Peter Barss of McGill University, for his impactful medical report “Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts.”
PHYSICS
David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts, for his partial solution to the question of why shower curtains billow inwards.
BIOLOGY
Buck Weimer of Pueblo, Colorado for inventing Under-Ease, airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes flatulent gases before they escape.
PSYCHOLOGY
Lawrence W. Sherman of Miami University, Ohio, for his influential research report “An Ecological Study of Glee in Small Groups of Preschool Children.”
PUBLIC HEALTH
Chittaranjan Andrade and B.S. Srihari of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, for their probing medical discovery that nose picking is a common activity among adolescents.
Source: www.improbable.com
