Ig Nobels awarded

The Annals of Improbable Research handed out ten awards this Thursday for research or activities that “cannot or should not be reproduced.” University of Ottawa’s Ramesh Balasubramaniam was a co-recipient of the Physics prize for his work on the dynamics of hula hooping. Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University also represented Canada at the ceremony, receiving the award in Biology (as part of an international team) for demonstrating that fish communicate with flatulence. An Alabama sociologist received the Medicine Ig Nobel for showing a correlation between listening to country music in the early 1990s and commiting suicide. Jillian Clarke, who made science headlines last year when she was still in high school, received the award in Public Health for disproving the “five second rule.” Karaoke inventor Daisuke Inoue received the Peace prize for creating “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.” The only recipients not present were the Chemistry winner, the Coca-Cola Co., “for purifying Thames River water in such a way that the resulting water contained twice the legal limit of the carcinogen bromate,” and the Vatican, which won the Economics prize “for outsourcing prayers to India.”

-Zoe Cormier
Source: Science

Mount St. Helens may erupt

Mount St. Helens may erupt in the coming weeks. A series of small earthquakes, beginning September 23, prompted scientists to place the volcano at level two of a three-level alert system. Washington state’s Department of Natural Resources has banned public access to all of its land within 12 miles of St. Helen. Geologists believe however that if a blast occurs, it will not be as severe as the one in 1980 that killed 57 people, created the largest landslide in recorded history, and spread ash as far away as Montana, two states away. The movement of steam and gases underground most likely caused the earthquakes. So far however no gas has been released from the dome, which would mean that magma is rising and an eruption is eminent.

-Z.C.
Source: Nature