IGNOBEL PRIZES GIVEN AT HARVARD CEREMONY

The Fifth First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony was held at Harvard University October 6, 1995, mounted by The Annals of Improbable Research and co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society and by Tangents (the Harvard-Radcliffe mathematical bulletin). Ten prizes were awarded to individuals whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." Two of the winners (nutrition and chemistry) were present, and received their Prizes from (genuine) Nobel Laureates Sheldon Glashow (Physics '79), Dudley Herschbach (Chemistry '86), William Lipscomb (Chemistry '76), Joseph Murray (Physiology or Medicine '90) and Richard Roberts (Physiology or Medicine '93). Three other winners (physics, literature and dentistry) graciously sent taped acceptance speeches.

NUTRITION

John Martinez of J. Martinez & Company in Atlanta, for Luak Coffee, the world's most expensive coffee, which is made from coffee beans ingested and excreted by the luak (aka, the palm civet), a bobcat-like animal native to Indonesia.

PHYSICS

D.M.R. Georget, R. Parker, and A.C. Smith, of the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, England, for their rigorous analysis of soggy breakfast cereal, published in the report entitled 'A Study of the Effects of Water Content on the Compaction Behaviour of Breakfast Cereal Flakes." [Published in the research journal "Powder Technology," November, 1994, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 189-96.]

ECONOMICS

Awarded jointly to Nick Leeson and his superiors at Barings Bank and to Robert Citron of Orange County, California, for using the calculus of derivatives to demonstrate that every financial institution has its limits.

MEDICINE

Marcia E. Buebel, David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, and Michael R. Boyle, for their invigorating study entitled "The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition." [Published in "International Journal of Neuroscience," vol. 57, 1991, pp. 239-249.]

LITERATURE

David B. Busch and James R. Starling, of Madison Wisconsin, for their deeply penetrating research report, "Rectal foreign bodies: Case Reports and a Comprehensive Review of the World's Literature." The citations include reports of, among other items: seven light bulbs; a knife sharpener; two flashlights; a wire spring; a snuff box; an oil can with potato stopper; eleven different forms of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs; a jeweler's saw; a frozen pig's tail; a tin cup; a beer glass; and one patient's remarkable ensemble collection consisting of spectacles, a suitcase key, a tobacco pouch and a magazine. [Published in the medical journal "Surgery," September 1986, pp. 512-519.]

PEACE

The Taiwan National Parliament, for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations.

PSYCHOLOGY

Shigeru Watanabe, Junko Sakamoto, and Masumi Wakita, of Keio University, for their success in training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet. [Their report, entitled "Pigeons' Discrimination of Paintings by Monet and Picasso," was published in "Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior," vol. 63, 1995, pp. 165-174.]

PUBLIC HEALTH

Martha Kold Bakkevig of Sintef Unimed in Trondheim, Norway, and Ruth Nielson of the Technical University of Denmark, for their exhaustive study, "Impact of Wet Underwear on Thermoregulatory Responses and Thermal Comfort in the Cold." [Published in "Ergonomics," vol 37, no. 8, Aug. 1994 , pp. 1375- 89.]

DENTISTRY

Robert H. Beaumont, of Shore View, Minnesota, for his incisive study "Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss." [Published in the research journal "Journal of Periodontology," vol. 61, no. 2, Feb. 1990, pp. 123-5.

CHEMISTRY

Bijan Pakzad of Beverly Hills, for creating DNA Cologne and DNA Perfume, neither of which contain deoxyribonucleic acid, and both of which come in a triple helix bottle.

Return to ScienceWriters table of contents.