The 15th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be held tonight at Saunders Theater, in Harvard University. Ig Nobels are awarded to people whose research “cannot or should not be reproduced”. The ceremony is usually a total mayhem, with people throwing paper airplanes on the stage and newly appointed Nobel Winner R. Glauber sweeping the floor. This year’s theme for the ceremony is Infinity, so expect a lot of infinite jokes.

Previous Ig Nobel winners include:

• Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other. (Peace, 2004)
• Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein, for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings. (Economics, 2004)
• Dr. Jack and Rexella Van Impe of Jack Van Impe Ministries, Rochester Hills, Michigan, for their discovery that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell.(Astrophysics, 2001)
• Troy Hurtubise, of North Bay, Ontario, for developing, and personally testing a suit of armor that is impervious to grizzly bears. (Safety Engineering, 1998)

and… one of my favourite…

• C.W. Moeliker, of Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.
  [REFERENCE: “The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)” C.W. Moeliker, Deinsea, vol. 8, 2001, pp. 243-7. Photographs can be viewed here (Biology, 2003)

Even if you can’t make it to Boston to buy one of the last tickets available, you will be able to follow the whole ceremony via their webcast.

October 6th, 2005 | General Science