What is Ig Nobel Prize?
In today’s blog, I will be explaining about the Ig Nobel Prize and also list out some interesting facts about it.
The Ig Nobel Prize is a satiric award given to honor ten unique and unusual accomplishments in scientific research. The name of the award is a pun on the Noble Prize, which it satirizes and on the word ignoble. This special prize started being awarded annually since 1991, its sole purpose was to be able to “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” The awards were founded by Marc Abrahams (editor and co-founder of the Annals of Improbable Research, a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Irreproducible Results). The awards were presented at that time for discoveries “that cannot, or should not, be reproduced. Ten prizes are awarded in many categories, including the Nobel Prize categories such as physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, literature, etc. The prizes are often presented by Nobel laureates originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall in MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), but now in the Sanders Theater at Harvard University.
Top 3 Ig Nobels:
3. Clocky Alarm Clock -
This iconic invention is useful for many sleepy-heads who prefer to hit the snooze button rather than get up and start the day. The alarm clock has wheels and basically motors itself away, forcing you to get out of bed, find it and then turn it off.
2. Floating Animals
In 2000, the Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to Andre Geim and Sir. Michael Berry, to suspend a live frog mid-air with the use of magnetic levitation.
1 .That Gunk on Your Car
The last thing, that we are going to see is not a discovery or invention but a book. In 1997, Mark Hostetler won a Ig Nobel for his book “That Gunk on Your Car” which held information for to identify insects that often collide on the windshield of our cars and leave behind a gooey mess.
