The Press Stories
While the Nobel Prizes distinguish men and women who excel in their fields, the Ig Nobel Prizes, for their part, highlight extraordinary and wacky research every year.
The 2022 edition, held last Thursday, honored the event’s mission to “make people laugh and think later.” 10 prizes were awarded for particularly original studies and research.
Here are some of the winning surveys this year:
Constipation Scorpio
The Ig Nobel Prize in Biology was awarded to scientists from Brazil and Colombia who discovered that a species of scorpion loses its tail to escape from predators and becomes constipated. The loss of the sting was already known, but the researchers established that the scorpion also lost its anus, meaning it was constipated for the rest of its life, a maximum of eight months. However, the animal can continue to reproduce.
Ice cream, medicine?
Don’t tell your kids, but ice cream can reduce the risk of oral mucositis, an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract common in people undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Frozen sweets prevent mouth sores and are more effective than simple ice cubes.
Synchronized heartbeat
European scientists have won the Ig Nobel Prize in Cardiology after demonstrating that two newly attracted partners often see their heart rhythms synchronized. This phenomenon occurs when two people are good together, but a couple argues.
Legal documents that are difficult to understand
The Ig Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to a group of scholars from Canada, the United States, England, and Australia. These ensured that legal documents were unnecessarily complicated to read because they used language that was difficult to understand. The study suggests that unfamiliar jargon and the passive format of documents cause difficulty for the average reader.
World peace because of rumours?
An international team of researchers has won the Nobel Peace Prize for developing an algorithm that helps gossip mongers know when to tell the truth and when to lie. Scientists want to shed light on the important role of rumors in maintaining world peace.
