The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think". Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.
History
The first Ig Nobels were awarded in 1991, at that time for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced". Ten prizes are awarded each year in many categories, including the Nobel Prize categories of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace, but also other categories such as public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research. With the exception of three prizes in the first year (Administratium, Josiah Carberry, and Paul DeFanti), the Ig Nobel Prizes are for genuine achievements. (See List of Ig Nobel Prize winners)
The awards are sometimes veiled criticism, as in the two awards given for homeopathy research, prizes in "science education" to Kansas and Colorado state boards of education for their stance regarding the teaching of evolution, and the prize awarded to Social Text after the Sokal Affair. Most often, however, they draw attention to scientific articles that have some humorous or unexpected aspect. Examples range from the discovery that the presence of humans tends to sexually arouse ostriches, to the statement that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell, to research on the "five-second rule," a tongue-in-cheek belief that food dropped on the floor won't become contaminated if it is picked up within five seconds.
Name
The name is a play on the word ignoble ("characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness") and the name "Nobel" after Alfred Nobel. The official pronunciation used during the ceremony is /ˌɪɡnoʊˈbɛl/ "ig-no-bell". It is not pronounced like the word "ignoble" (/ɪɡˈnoʊbəl/). Over the years, organizers have given many satirical origins for the names of the prize, including an early claim that Ig Nobel was the name of the man who invented soda pop.
Ceremony
The prizes are presented by genuine Nobel laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT but now in Harvard University's Sanders Theater. It contains a number of running jokes, including Miss Sweety Poo, a little girl who repeatedly cries out "Please stop. I'm bored" in a high-pitched voice if speakers go on too long.[1] The awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If you didn't win a prize — and especially if you did — better luck next year!"
The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.
Throwing paper airplanes onto the stage was a long-standing tradition at the Ig Nobels, changed at the 2006 ceremony because of "security concerns." In past years, physics professor Roy Glauber has swept the stage clean of the airplanes as the official "Keeper of the Broom". However, Glauber could not attend the 2005 awards – he was traveling to Stockholm to claim a genuine Nobel Prize in Physics.
The "Parade of Ignitaries" brings various supporting groups into the hall. At the 1997 ceremonies, a team of "cryogenic sex researchers" distributed a pamphlet titled "Safe Sex at Four Kelvin". Delegates from the Museum of Bad Art are often on hand to display some pieces from their collection, showing that bad art and bad science go hand in hand.
Actor Russell Johnson, known for his portrayal of The Professor on the TV series Gilligan's Island, once participated in the award presentation ceremony as "The Professor Emeritus of Gilligan's Island".
Tours and outreach
The ceremony is recorded and broadcast on National Public Radio and is shown live over the Internet. The recording is broadcast every year, on the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving, on the public radio program Science Friday. In recognition of this, the audience will repeatedly chant the first name of the radio show's host, Ira Flatow.
Two books have been published as of 2006[update] with write ups on some of the winners: The Ig Nobel Prize (2002, US paperback ISBN 0-452-28573-9, UK paperback ISBN 0-7528-4261-7) and The Ig Nobel Prize 2 (2005, US hardcover ISBN 0-525-94912-7, UK hardcover ISBN 0-7528-6461-0) which was later retitled The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself (ISBN 0-452-28772-3).
An Ig Nobel Tour has traveled to the United Kingdom and Australia several times. The Tour visited Aarhus University in Denmark in April 2009.
Criticism
In 1995, Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, the chief scientific adviser to the British government, requested that the organizers no longer award Ig Nobel prizes to British scientists, claiming that the awards risked bringing genuine experiments into ridicule. Many British researchers dismissed Lord May's pronouncements, and the British journal Chemistry and Industry in particular printed an article rebutting his arguments.
A September 2009 article in The National, titled "A noble side to Ig Nobels," says that although the Ig Nobel Awards are veiled criticism of trivial research, history shows that trivial research sometimes leads to important breakthroughs.[2]
See also
- Other mock awards
References
- ^ guardian.co.uk - Infinity and so much more
- ^ "A Noble Side to the Ig Nobels," The National, Sept. 26, 2009
External links
