Davey Winder
Saturday, 04 October 2008 15:16
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 3
You can be forgiven for thinking that when it comes to
the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize for medicine it will have to go to some hugely
worthy research. Forgiven, but wrong.
Unless there is some hidden worth that I have
missed in the research project that demonstrated how expensive fake
medicine is more effective than budget-priced fake medicine that is.
Dan Ariely of Duke University invested himself and his time in looking
at the "Commercial Features of Placebo and Therapeutic Efficacy" and
was rewarded with an Ig Nobel, whatever.
Sticking with the pointless, we arrive at the cognitive science prize.
Pointless, perhaps, but at least it does provide a little of that spur
the award organisers were talking about, the make you think factor.
And the winner is research which discovered that slime molds can solve puzzles.
A slime mold could probably do as good a job as most economists in
solving the puzzle of the current financial meltdown that the world is
experiencing. But who won the 2008 Ig Nobel prize for economics and for
revealing what great secret?
Ah, yes, that would be Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan
of the University of New Mexico, for discovering that the ovulatory
cycle of a lap dancer will impact upon her tip earning capability.
Want more 2008 Ig Nobel Prize winning nonsense? Good, you can find the
big prizes for literature, chemistry, physics and peace on page 3...
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