World Award for Stupidity. Ig Nobel Prize: the funniest discoveries. For the strangest, funniest and most ridiculous book title
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It is interesting to look at a person who has never heard of the Nobel Prize, or knows nothing about the Oscar film award. However, it is always interesting to know where it all began and how these coveted awards came about. In this rating, the site has collected for you the most prestigious awards in the world, the history of their occurrence and the conditions for receiving them. Who knows, perhaps one of the future laureates is among us.
Nobel Prize
Alfred Nobel was a fairly successful chemical inventor and engineer. In addition, he owned the Bofors metallurgical concern, whose main activity was the mass production of weapons. In addition, Nobel received income from his inventions, the total number of which exceeded 3 hundred. The main invention that made Nobel famous was dynamite. All this allowed the inventor to accumulate impressive capital, which Nobel intended to pass on to his descendants. But one day in the morning newspaper I read an obituary about myself: “The merchant of death has died.” In fact, a terrible mistake crept into the note, since the inventor’s brother died, and not he himself. But Alfred wondered what kind of memory humanity would have when its last hour struck. As a result, he decided to change his will. Nobel bequeathed his entire capital to be placed in a reliable bank, with the aim of subsequently distributing funds in the form of bonuses to those who made the greatest contribution to the development of science during the year. Pundits were to be encouraged in 5 categories: in the field of physiology and medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and restoration of peace on earth. Since 1900, the Nobel Prize has been awarded according to all the rules drawn up by its founder. In addition, in 1968, at the initiative of the Swedish Bank, one innovation was added: in addition to five nominations, an award for merit in the field of economics was added. The laureates receive the Peace Prize in Norway from the hands of the king. Laureates in all other categories are awarded in Sweden. From the hands of the king they receive a gold medal with a portrait of Nobel, and a check. The amount of the award varies from year to year depending on the income of the Nobel Foundation. Today it is somewhere around 1.5 million dollars.
Oscar Film Award
Grammy - music award
Musicians strive to get their Oscar, we are talking about the Grammy Award. This award was first presented in 1958 at the initiative of the US Recording Industry Association. A year earlier, professional musicians gathered in Los Angeles to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the invention of the gramophone. It was at this event that the idea of a music award arose. They also didn’t think long about the name and form of the award. As you know, it has the shape of a small gilded gramophone. For many years, winners were chosen in 30 musical genres in 108 categories. True, in 2011 the number of categories was slightly reduced, now there are 78. Behind the scenes, there are three most prestigious categories, in which it is considered the greatest success to be noted: song of the year, record of the year, album of the year and best new artist. In 2016, Kendrick Ramar, who raps, was nominated in 11 categories. However, these figures cannot be compared with the record of conductor Georg Solti. During the 20 years that he directed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the musician managed to receive 31 Grammy awards, and there were as many as 74 nominations in his career. Among groups, U2 is considered the absolute record holder with 22 statuettes. But the record for the number of awards received in one ceremony is shared between Michael Jackson and Santana. They received 8 statuettes in 1984 and 2000, respectively.
Booker Prize for Literature
The highest literary award was established in 1969, and since then has gained fame as the most prestigious prize in the field of English-language literature. Until 2013, only an author living in a Commonwealth country, Zimbabwe or Ireland could receive the Booker Prize. In addition to this condition, only works created in English were taken into account. Today, the prize can be awarded to any literary work in English, regardless of the author’s nationality. The main sponsor of the award has been the Man Group corporation for almost 15 years. Since then, the name of the award has been The Man Booker Prize. The decision on the winner is made by a special jury, which includes eminent literary critics, public figures and writers. You have to choose from hundreds of applicants. The winner, in addition to an honorary title, will receive a monetary reward, the amount of which is limited to 50 thousand pounds sterling. In the history of the Man Booker Prize, four of its laureates were subsequently also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. And Hilary Mantel, J.M. Coetzee and Peter Carey won the Booker twice. But the absolute record holder in terms of receiving awards was Iris Murdoch, because she received the Booker as many as 6 times.
Ig Nobel Prize for Useless Discoveries
Many scientists secretly hope to one day receive a Nobel Prize for their work. However, some are awarded only an ironic Ig Nobel Prize. This idea is nothing more than a parody of a prestigious award in the field of science. True, it is awarded in a very serious place - at Harvard. Moreover, the laureates are very real scientists, whose discoveries and inventions turned out to be absolutely useless for humanity. The main condition for receiving this award is the humorous component of scientific work. After all, as the motto of the Ig Nobel Prize says, it is awarded for inventions that first make you smile, and only then make you think. Thus, among the examples there is a serious scientific work on how the presence of a person affects the libido of ostriches, or a study of the harms and benefits of kissing. The nominees are awarded by real Nobel laureates, with fake noses and fake glasses. However, history knows one Ig Nobel laureate, who was awarded the Nobel Prize a little later. Physicist Andrei Geim became him. Truly, there is only one step from the great to the ridiculous.
Darwin Award for ridiculous deaths
Quite cynical criteria for selecting the winners of the annual Darwin Awards. After all, according to the terms of the prize, those who absurdly ended their own lives without leaving descendants are awarded, i.e. behind . Thus, with the help of black humor, the founders hint at Darwin's theory of natural selection. They say that fools who killed themselves out of their own stupidity thus saved humanity from defective genes. But don’t think that only dead people can be nominated for this award. The Darwin Award has been awarded several times to people who, as a result of stupid carelessness, lost their reproductive function. So, escaping from a police chase, petty swindler Richard Greg Oliver decided to jump over the fence. At that moment, the gun in his pocket went off, instantly ending any hope Oliver had of ever becoming a father. And if things don’t work out with the descendants, then Mr. Oliver already has the Darwin Award. It’s sad, but the award has no shortage of nominees.
Fields Medal in Mathematics
It's no secret that mathematicians have never won a Nobel Prize. This science is simply not on the list specified in the will of the founder himself. They say that it was no coincidence that Alfred Nobel deprived mathematicians of the opportunity to receive bonuses. Nobel's contemporary was the brilliant Swedish mathematician Mittag-Leffler, for whom the founder of the prize had a strong dislike. Whether this was due to the attentions the mathematician showed to Nobel’s wife, or something else, history is silent. But still there are no mathematicians among the Nobel Prize laureates. And the representatives of this science would have remained deprived if not for John Fields. In 1924, while presiding over the International Congress of Mathematicians, he proposed, as part of this event, to recognize young mathematicians for certain achievements. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Fields Prize is awarded only once every 4 years. Only mathematicians under 40 years of age are awarded a gold medal and a relatively small cash prize of 15 thousand Canadian dollars. The age restrictions were proposed by Fields himself, so he hoped to encourage young scientists to new achievements. If you like math, don't miss it.
Turing Award for Computer Science
Professionals working in the field of information technology can count on receiving the Turing Award. The winner is determined by the Association of Computing Machinery, which became the founder of the award. You can only become a Turing Award winner once; it is not awarded to the same person again. One or two nominees are awarded per year. The first winner of the award was Alan Perlis, and this happened in 1966. Until 2014, the award was sponsored by two large corporations: Google and Intel. And at that time the winner received 250 thousand dollars. Now Google is the only sponsor left. And today the laureate can count on $1 million in prize money. By tradition, the winner must give a lecture at which he highlights innovative ideas in the field of information technology.
Pritzker Prize for Architecture
Architects have a chance to become $100,000 rich. Those who receive the Pritzker Prize have this opportunity. This award was established in 1979 by the Pritzker family, who are also the owners of the Hyatt hotel chain in different countries around the world. The winners are those who generate innovative design ideas in the field of architecture. It is curious that each time the award is presented in different places. Thus, the Pritzker Prize has already been awarded within the walls of the National Gallery in Washington, at the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg, on Capitol Hill in Rome and even in the White House. Each time, the awards ceremony itself is preceded by exhibitions of works by all laureates.
Often, when taking on something, a person does not expect to receive any special recognition. He is simply passionate about what he loves, and does his job exceptionally well, because he doesn’t know how to do otherwise. It is all the more pleasant to receive a well-deserved reward for your efforts, unless it is a Darwin Award.
Photo “The most prestigious awards”
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The ceremony brought together authors who seriously studied issues that were more like a joke. The real prizes were given - a statuette and 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. It's actually not as much as it seems.
Not too scrupulous housewives already knew, and now science has confirmed: human saliva removes dirt better than a cleaner. Chemists from Portugal tried to clean paintings and gilded sculptures with various reagents from ammonia to toluene. But the old “spit and wipe” method gave the best results.
For 28 years, Harvard University has been flying paper airplanes, fooling around, handing out awards for the most ridiculous scientific achievements, and silencing winners if their acceptance speech lasts more than a minute.
David Wortinger from the University of Michigan made a discovery that, as required by the rules of the Ig Nobel Committee, first made me laugh and then made me think. A trip to Luna Park will help remove kidney stones. One of his patients got rid of three stones at once when he rode a roller coaster.
“Big, powerful rides are not good. What people think. The higher the slide, the faster you fly along it, the better. Nothing like this. We found out that to influence the stones you need to drive slowly, no more than 50 kilometers per hour, but with sharp turns, and so that it shakes a lot. You need to get into the last carriage. Then the stones are crushed well,” said Ig Nobel Prize winner in medicine David Wortinger.
The experience of the Ig Nobel Prize laureates in biology was repeated by the Nobel Prize laureates and honorary guests of the ceremony. And now it has been proven twice: the fruit fly Drosophila can change the taste of wine by getting into it for just a few seconds.
The Nobel in Economics was awarded to a team from Canada, the USA, China and Singapore. Researchers asked disgruntled employees to take it out on a bad boss by transferring their emotions to a voodoo doll.
“People who took revenge on the boss-like doll felt relieved. For them, justice was restored,” explained Ig Nobel Prize laureate in economics Douglas Brown.
“Where is the economy?” - the journalist asked for clarification.
“We don’t even know ourselves. We thought they would give us the Peace Prize!” - answered the scientist.
James Cole from Great Britain proved that ancient people did not engage in cannibalism because of hunger. The calorie content of human meat is only 125 kilocalories, which is several times less than the calorie content of, for example, a mammoth. For his discovery, like all laureates, Cole received 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars.
“Well, since I’m a trillionaire now, I’ll probably retire. In general, Zimbabwe, in my opinion, has already switched to dollars. And it's about 30 cents in total. You can’t even buy a hamburger,” said James Cole.
Japanese Akira Horiuchi received an Ignobel for his study “Colonoscopy in a sitting position.” He was convinced from personal experience that performing this procedure while sitting is no less effective than traditionally lying down. And now, like every Ig Nobel laureate, he will be given the opportunity to give a lecture about it at one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Already in early October, Nobel Prize laureates will be announced. And in history, by the way, there have been cases when Ig Nobel laureates also received a Nobel a few years later. Therefore, the ceremony in Cambridge traditionally ends with the words: if you are an Ig Nobel laureate, and especially if you are not, we wish you good luck next year!
Alas, not all people are capable of any outstanding deeds or at least accomplishments worthy. However, some people do something so ridiculous, bad and funny that it cannot escape the attention of the public.
World Stupidity Award
Awarded for the most outstanding achievements in the field of ignorance and stupidity. The wording is vague, and considering that this award is sponsored by a comedy festival, it is unlikely that they are choosing something really stupid. But it's funny, for sure.
Anti-prize "Paragraph"
This prize is awarded to publishing houses that have published the most failed books. There are several categories - proofreading, editing, translation and everything in general. Nominees are selected from anonymous and not-so-reader opinions sent to the committee.
Chicken Chicken Award
Awarded for exaggeratedly inadequate forecasts regarding the inevitable destruction of the environment. That is, those studies in which the author shouts loudest that “We are all going to die!” and tries to give some other supposedly reasonable arguments.
"Glass Bolt"
It is awarded to officials who make absolutely unsuccessful decisions regarding urban planning and city development. Initially, the award was exclusively Moscow, but very soon it became clear that candidates for it could be found in any city.
"Silver Galosh"
Dubious achievements in the field of show business. What is typical is that the nominees regularly even come to the awards. Still, black PR in show business is still PR. If they talk about you, it means they at least noticed you.
golden raspberry
In fact, it’s the antipode of the Oscars. It is also held the day before, with both the announcement of the nominees and the announcement of the winners. And the nominations are not much different from the Oscars - direction, film, song, acting, and so on. The prize is a plastic raspberry covered in “golden” red.
Stella Award
It was named after the lady who was able to sue the McDonald's chain for several million dollars in compensation for spilling coffee in their establishment. This award is given for similar ridiculous and absurd court decisions. And in the USA there are plenty of them.
Darwin Award
Awarded for the most absurd and ridiculous deaths, provided there are no direct descendants. They say that the nominee removes his genes of idiocy from the human population, and therefore is worthy of the award. To be clear, we are not talking about accidents or outright suicides. All the nominees are firmly convinced of what they did and did not intend to end their lives. But alas.
Ig Nobel Prize
Not all scientific research is created equal. Some scientists seriously study complete nonsense. It is to them that this prize is awarded. On the other hand, some of the nominees for this award do do significant work that allows us to understand our world a little better. Still, not everyone can invent cures for cancer - someone can study the quack of ducks and the gait of goats.
The site team and journalist Artyom Kostin brings to your attention, or rather, a selection of the best outfits of celebrities who attended the Emmy Award ceremony.
What is the Ig Nobel Prize awarded for? For the funniest inventions and research of scientists, which are sometimes brought to the point of complete absurdity. This award is the opposite of the Nobel Prize. Let's look at the most interesting cases of the latest awards, as well as original moments from past ceremonies.
What do you get for an Ig Nobel Prize?
The 27th ceremony took place at Harvard University. As you know, the award is awarded for achievements that are dubious and fake from a scientific point of view. The winner receives 10 trillion Zimbambwean dollars, which, due to crazy inflation, have long been withdrawn from circulation. It is worth noting that in 2009 in Zimbabwe, a loaf of bread cost 50 trillion. In addition, each participant receives one minute for public speaking. This time the winners were interrupted by a little girl, who said that they were boring and uninteresting.
Physics
In this category, Marc Antoine Fardine won, stating that cats can exist not only in their usual state, but also take on solid, liquid and gaseous configurations. According to the scientist, the ability to fill vessels with cats refers to the parameters of a liquid, and the complete coverage of the volume is included among the criteria of a gas.
Peace Prize category
In this part, viewers were treated to a statement no less interesting than a treatise on the rheology of cats. The “award” went to a team of scientists who announced the discovery of a new method of treating snoring. This know-how became an original musical instrument - the didgeridoo. According to months of research by a group of enthusiasts, playing this device can provide restful sleep for snorers after four months of using the product. The didgeridoo itself is a hollow trunk of a eucalyptus tree, used by Australian Aborigines as a kind of wind instrument.
Biology and hydrodynamics
Here the palm went to Charles Foster and Thomas Thwaites. The Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to these scientists for their attempt to transform into an Alpine goat. For three days, Thomas grazed in the meadows, using special prosthetics to bring the conditions as close as possible to the life of an artiodactyl animal. It is worth noting that Foster also transformed into animals. He, as a fox, rummaged through garbage cans and slept in gardens. The purpose of the research is to get rid of the stress created by modern civilization and to better understand the life of animals.
Among the funniest Ig Nobel prizes is the award that was received by scientists from Korea and the United States. Their research consisted of studying the most convenient way to transport coffee. It turned out that it is best to carry the drink, so as not to spill it, in a wine glass (while walking quickly). Slow movement involves using a standard cup, and the most effective method is to cover the mug with your palm, while walking backwards.
Medicine and obstetrics
In the Ig Nobel Prize, the funniest victories were in medicine and obstetrics. For example, neuroscientists from France presented evidence that there is an area in the human brain that is responsible for the love of cheese. According to their theory, in people who categorically do not perceive cheese, this part of the brain looks like a pallidum and a substantia nigra.
A Spanish group of scientists conducted an equally interesting study. According to its results, a child in the mother's womb perceives musical works much better if they are played in the vagina. Moreover, a device for such manipulation has already been patented.
Anatomy and economics
After “liquid” cats, the Ig Nobel Prize in the field of anatomy went to British scientists. This time the object of study was large ears in older people. It turned out that after thirty years this organ begins to grow again. Moreover, this happens more actively in men than in women, which is explained by several objective reasons.
As for economics, two scientists from Australia have proven that the interaction between a crocodile and a person (direct contact) increases the degree of gambling of a person. As an experiment, those who wished were allowed to hold the reptile in their hands, after which the player’s style of play changed, unless, of course, he experienced discomfort and fear during contact with the alligator.
Food sector
Marc Antoine Fardine presented the theory of liquid cats, and scientists from Latin America studied bats. It turns out that these animals have human DNA. We are talking about a specific type of flying rodent, the so-called “vampires”. The presence of human cells is associated with disruption of animal habitats as a result of urbanization. In connection with these, the “flyers” are forced to feed on “human flesh”.
Ig Nobel Prize: the funniest facts about famous people
In 2013, the award in question went to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. He was awarded the prize due to the fact that, in order to avoid violations of public order and undermine the authority of the country, he passed a law prohibiting loud applause in public places. The authorities took these measures in response to protests and discontent among the population of the republic. The punishment was a fine or 15 days of arrest. One of the worst offenders of this law was a one-armed disabled man who had to pay a fine of $200.
Back in 1993, the Ig Nobel Prize winner was Robert Feid, who, using mathematical calculations, determined the likelihood of how Gorbachev could be the Devil himself. The probability was 1 in 710,609,175,188,282,000.
In addition to the theory about the rheology of cats, scientists received the Ig Nobel Prize for equally absurd projects. Among them:
- The award in question was awarded posthumously to Egyptian scientist Ahmed Shafik. The researcher put panties made of different materials on rats and came to the conclusion that the sexual activity of rodents decreases if they wear underwear with the addition of synthetics.
- Professor Mark Avis from New Zealand received the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics. He got it for his work, in which he argued that stones have a distinct personality. This presentation came into the economics field due to criticism of the popular marketing theory of Jennifer Aaker, the main idea of which was that the user perceives a brand as a celebrity, correlating the brand's fame with his personality. As a result, Aaker's theory was completely destroyed.
- Christoph Helmen and his colleagues received the Ig Nobel Award in the field of medicine. Scientists have found that if a person has something itchy on the right side, he needs to go to the mirror and scratch a similar place on the left.
- The winner in the Psychology category was the Belgian Evelyn Daby, who studied the influence of age on the ability to lie. The subjects deliberately told lies, after which the speed with which they did so was assessed. It turned out that over the years, lying is not so easy, and the most skillful liars are teenagers.
- A pair of paleontologists from North America (B. Krendel and P. Stahl) examined the remains of Paleozoic inhabitants. In the process, they decided to pour boiling water over an ancient petrified shrew, after which they swallowed it without chewing it. The purpose of the experiment is to study excrement in order to understand which parts of the chitinous shell and bones of the animal are not subject to the digestion process.
- The president of the Japanese Security and Investigation Agency, Takeshi Makino, developed a special gel. It made it possible to determine whether a husband was cheating on his wife. To do this, it was enough to spray the spray on the man’s underwear. After contact with seminal fluid, the aerosol turned bright green, confirming the fact of treason.
- One received the Schnobel Prize for providing evidence of why some people experience terrible discomfort when chalk or a fingernail squeaks on a blackboard. It turned out that the increased volume of this sound resembles the cries of chimpanzees, warning of danger.
- The work of Michael Smith is no less entertaining. He decided to find out which parts of the body react most painfully to a bee sting. To do this, he placed insects on his organs. It turned out that the most vulnerable was the genital organ, as well as the nostrils and upper lip.
In conclusion
One of the strangest competitions in the world is the Ig Nobel Prize. Liquid cats is one of the sections that is considered the most extraordinary and funny achievement of 2017. If you study all the nominations for different years, then among the laureates of this award, almost all scientists have some oddities that are incomprehensible to ordinary people and more serious colleagues.