Science Friday - 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes. Nov 23, 2018, Part 1

Episode Date: November 23, 2018

When you go to the zoo, maybe you imitate the chimps, copying their faces, their gestures, or their walk. But it turns out the chimps imitate you just about as often—and as well, according to scientists. Other researchers have found that a trained nose can detect the odor of a single fly floating in a glass of wine. And that sometimes, a trip to the amusement park may be an effective treatment to aid in the passage of kidney stones.   These projects are among the 10 selected by the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research to be honored at this year’s 28th first annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies. The prizes, awarded in September at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, salute work that “first makes you laugh, and then, makes you think.” Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

This is Science Friday. I'm Iroflato. We hope you've had a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving, and we're glad you're with us today because here at Science Friday, you know the day after Thanksgiving is our own kind of holiday tradition, highlights from the year's Ig Nobel Award ceremony. Now, the awards are handed out each year by the editors of the Science Humor magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, for work in science that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. It's stuff that might make you say, hmm, I wonder, especially late at night after a few fine beverages. This year's celebration is the 28th first annual awards. This year's ceremonies featured a mini opera about building, breaking, and trying to mend a broken heart.

And prizes handed out by genuine regular Nobel laureates. Just to explain a few things, there are a few traditions at the ceremonies, like a massive throwing of paper airplanes, which are then swept up by genuine Nobel laureates. There's a V-chip monitor, who will sound his alarm if things threatened to get too raunchy. And then there's Miss Sweetie-Poo, a little girl who starts to whine

whenever the speakers go on too long. I'm sure we'll hear some of her. The theme for this year was The Heart. You'll hear the audience cheer whenever that word is mentioned, and special lectures on cardiomy. and other heart-related topics. So if that all makes your heartbeat a little faster, you should grab a comfy chair

and let us take you back to earlier this year at Harvard Sanders Theater, where the dignitaries and dignitaries are taking the stage. Cardiologists, and those who ate a heart-hearty breakfast this morning. Welcome to the 28th first annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. And now, Professor Jean Burk O'Gleason will deliver the traditional Ig Nobel welcome welcome speech. Good evening, my name and gentlemen. What want you morning morning, morning, morning.

I want to go to Berlin with the first tour-reise. But that's not, because I'm awaiting a friend of Chicago and must in Bremen believe, Mr. Dumpfeyn't left. Wrong speech. Welcome. Welcome. And now, ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls, Litterati, glitterati, pseudo-intellectuals, quasi-sudo-intellectuals, pseudo-quasi-intellectuals, and the rest of you, may I introduce our Master of Ceremonies,

the editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, Chief Airhead, Mark Abrams. Welcome. Only one welcome. We are gathered tonight to honor some remarkable individuals and groups. Every winner has done something that makes people laugh and then makes them think. The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony is produced by the Science Humor magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, and proudly co-sponsored by the Harvard Radcliffe Society of Physics students, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association.

The editors of the Annals of Improbable Research have chosen a theme for this year's ceremony, and that theme is The Heart. Tonight, ten prizes will be given. The achievements speak for themselves, all too eloquently. The prizes will be physically presented to the winners by Nobel laureates. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Nobel laureates. A 2007 Nobel laureate in economics. Eric Maskin.

A 2001 Nobel laureate in physics. Wolfgang Ketterla. A 2017 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine. Michael Rosbach. A 2016, Nobel laureate in economics. Oliver Hart. Some of the Ig Nobel Prize winners from previous years like to come back to our stage.

We always encourage them to do that, to take a bow, and to help honor the new winners. We have two of them with us tonight. The 2008 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize was awarded to one research team for showing that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide. That prize was shared with another team who showed that it is not.

Please welcome the leader of one of those teams and the inspiration for this whole series of experiments, Dr. Deborah Anderson. The 2002 Ig Nobel Economics Prize was awarded to the Executive Corporate Directors and Auditors of Enron, Gazprom, Learnout, and Housby, and 25 other corporations for helping to adapt the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. Please welcome a former director of one of those companies, David Karpuk. Now we move on to some sad news about a past winner. If you were here at the Ig Nobel ceremony 20 years ago, you met Troy Hurtabees.

Troy was awarded the 1998 Ig Nobel Prize in Safety Engineering for developing and personally testing a suit of armor that is impervious, or hoped to be impervious, to grizzly bears. Troy died recently in a traffic collision, and we want to honor him. We want to honor Troy tonight. First, we have some bits of video from that ceremony 20 years ago, and also from the National Film Board of Canada's documentary film about Troy and his quest. The film is called Project Grizzly. The Safety Engineering Prize. This year's Safety Engineering Prize goes to

Troy Herdeby's of North Bay, Ontario. Ever since that day, from that day forward, I've never figured out why it happened in that the bear didn't kill me. I've been on his trail ever since. Perseverance and imagination and research. We have a brief personal tribute to Troy from a fellow Canadian who, like Troy, is famous for bold, fearless innovation. Please welcome Harvard physics professor Melissa Franklin.

I was asked to speak about Troy because we shared a certain Canadianness and also a passion for extreme science. Although Troy was trained as a metal worker and my training was more particular, we shared an interest in things on the edge. Like some more than a few Canadians, Troy was an excellent linear combination of performance artists and extreme inventor. Of course, breakthroughs often follow time spent on the cusp of insanity. Troy was no stranger to this.

Alas, circumstances may not have been optimal for Troy's success. It will be up to others to realize his many inventions. We lost him too early. Still, there's the movie. Up to this point, the ceremony has been in one language, English. But this next portion of the ceremony will be simultaneously translated into multiple languages. It will be simultaneously translated into Russian

and simultaneously translated into Konkini and simultaneously translated into German and simultaneously translated into Brazilian Portuguese and simultaneously translated into cheese

Gooda, Havarti, Swiss Mozilla, got that. Thank you, translators. Thank you, translators. Now that this is clear, you may now translate the next portion of the ceremony. The second paper airplane deluge is about to commence. It will be 30 seconds in duration.

Please prepare your paper airplanes. Please aim for the designated target. Safety first, everyone. The countdown begins. T-minus seven seconds. T-minus five, four, three, two, one. Comeance paper airplane, throw it. The awards are presented by the editors of the Science Humor magazine,

Annals of Improbable Research. And you can find out more about them at improbable.com. Here's another paper airplane. We need to take a break. We'll be right back with more from Sanders' theater in just a moment. Stay with us. I'm I Refleto, and you're listening to Science Friday from WNYC Studios. This is Science Friday.

I'm Ira Flato, and if you're just joining us, we're playing highlights from this year's Ig Nobel Award Ceremony, research that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. It was recorded in September of this year at Harvard Sanders Theater. Here's Ig Nobel Master of Ceremony's Mark Abrams. Now let's get it over with, ladies and gentlemen, the awarding of the 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes. We are giving 10 prizes. The winners come from many nations. This year. years winners have truly earned their prizes. Karen, would you tell them what they've won? Each winner will receive an Ig Nobel Prize. This, this is the vaunted Ig Nobel Prize. What else? A piece of paper saying they've won an Ig Nobel Prize. It's signed by several Nobel laureates.

Do they get any money? Ten trillion dollars. Ten trillion dollars? Ten trillion dollars! U.S. dollars? Zimbabwean dollars. A Zimbabwean ten trillion dollar bill. What else?

They get a hearty handshake from Oliver Hart. Please welcome our most special guests, The new Ig Nobel Prize winners. The Medicine Prize. The Ig Nobel Prize. The Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine. The winners are from the United States of America, and the Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine this year

is awarded to Mark Mitchell and David Wartinger for using roller coaster rides to try to hasten the passage of kidney stones. On behalf of Dr. Mitchell and myself, thank you very much. We did, in fact, research riding on a roller coaster to help pass kidney stones. The real credit goes to one of my patients. My patient went on spring break with his family to the Walt Disney World Resort to the Magic Kingdom and rode on a little roller coaster called the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster. Now, he rode the ride, got off, and about two minutes later passed a kidney stone.

He was so convinced that the ride had caused it that he got back in line and rode it a second time. Two minutes after his second ride, he gave birth the kidney stone number two. He's feeling pretty cocky at this point, so he got back in line. Those of you in the audience, would you please help us recognize these researchers?

If you, if you yourself have ever experienced a kidney stone, we invite you to stand up right now and make whatever sound you feel is appropriate. The Anthropology Prize. The winners are from Sweden, Romania, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Indonesia, and Italy. The Ignobel Prize for Anthropology is awarded to Thomas Pearson, Gabriella Alina Sokuk, and Eleni Madsen for collecting evidence in a zoo that Chimpeymp. Chimpanzees imitate humans about as often and about as well as humans imitate chimpanzees.

Thank you. Thank you. So, as you already heard, the reason we stand here this evening is a study in which you observed spontaneous interactions between chimpanzees and visitors at Furoviksui in Sweden. Our goal was to see if the two ape species ate each other. Well, they did. at about 10% of all produced actions for each species that is at a similar rate.

But most importantly, we noticed that aping had the effect of prolonging cross-species interactions. So we concluded that it served a communicative purpose. And this social form of imitation has been claimed to be exclusive to humans. It can be seen, for example, in how we play with very small children. But when it comes to animals, imitation has almost only been thought of as a way. of learning new skills. Our results, however, suggest that instead of the mechanisms for learning

new actions, perhaps the ability to imitate, evolve more or less a form of communication, having a social function first. We can collect your $10 trillion bill from the laureates over there. The Biology Prize! The winners are from Sweden, Colombia, Germany, France and Switzerland. The Ignobel Prize for Biology is awarded to Paul Becker, Sebastian Libretton, Erica Wallen, Eric Hedonstrom, Felipe Borreiro Escay, Marie Benzsen, Volker Jorga, and Peter Witzkall for demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify by smell the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine. Thank you very much for awarding us. So since thousands of years do humans live together with

Trosophila fruit flies which are attracted to our food and to our wine? We found that females of Trosophila melanogaster, they produce a pheromone that attracts their mates. Humans are extremely sensitive to this compound. We smell it at really small amounts. So if a female fly is attracted to your glass of wine and drops in, that's very sad for the fly because the fly will drown

but it's also sad for you because the pheromone will spoil your wine yet we do not know why our nose has detect us to sense a fly pheromone but we are sure it's not to attract us to flies thank you you can collect your 10 trillion dollars

from the Nobel laureates over there the chemistry prize the winners are from Portrait The Ignabel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Paula Romau, Adelia Alarko, and the late Cesar Viana, for measuring the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces. The winners were not able to attend tonight's ceremony, but they sent this brief video acceptance speech. On behalf of my mentor, Dr. Adidio Lercombe and myself, I would like to attend the IG noble board of governors for considering our work.

And also, I know that it seems quite improbable, but humans alive is indeed an effective cleaning agent for surfaces like paintings, sculptures are gilded. But don't drive to use it in your kitchen counters. Thank you and have a nice evening. Hi. Here with a special tribute to the winners is the research curator of the Harvard Art Museum's Conservation and Technical Studies Program Francesca Beaver.

Good evening. Yes, conservators and restorers have and do use spit routinely for cleaning artworks, and I will demonstrate this shortly. The enzymes in saliva are readily available and free and in... vibrantly friendly. So this study is a wonderful example of scientific research used to validate longstanding traditional practices. And I should say that I've often wondered whether what is in one's meal might affect the

effect of the, for example, if one is having a garlic rich lunch. So maybe that's the next step for research. Congratulations to the winners and thank you. The Medical Education Prize. The winner is from Japan. The Ignobel Prize for Medical Education is awarded to Akira Horiuchi for the medical report, colonoscopy in the sitting position. Lessons learned from self-choloscopy.

Thank you very much. I am very honored to receive this prize. So first of all, I would like to. appreciate endoscope and Japanese endoscope company. May I show you my procedure? Okay. So I just did self-coronoscopy at a sitting position using a small caliber chronoscope.

So using a left hand and manipulate and right hand put into a colon, okay? I think this trial may be funny, but I learned many things. Anyway, please people have a screening photoscopy. So, thank you very much. I'm I reflato, and you're listening to Science Friday

from WNYC Studios. Now, get set for something special, the 24-7 lectures. We've invited several of the world's top thinkers to tell us very briefly what they're thinking about. Each 24-7 lecturer will explain her or his subject twice. First, a complete technical description in 24 seconds. And then, after a brief pause, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. The 24-second time limit will be enforced by our referee, Mr. John Barrett. Mr. Barrett, do you have any advice

for our 24-7 lecturers? Okay, thank you, Mr. Barrett. The first group of 24-7 lecturers is in position. The first 24-7 lecture will be delivered by the Brazilian neuroscientists who figured out how to figure out how many cells are in a brain. Susanna Herculano, Huzel, her topic, the brain.

First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go. The sustained activity of excitable cerebral cells requires post-discharge repolarization against the membrane electrochemical gradient and demands energy influx that absent photosynthesis must be supplied by alimentation

at a rate of 6 kilocalories per billion neurons day, which exceeds the provisional capacity of unadulterated fodder in Natura and curtails the evolutionary expansion of the encephalon unless counteracted by technologies for preliminary extra corporeal digestion. Now, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go. Brains are expensive.

Cooking allows more neurons. The next 24-7 lecture will be delivered by a Harvard graduate student in evolutionary biology who discovered a previously unrecognized form of the color black in certain animals. Dakota McCoy. Her topic, super black in animals. First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark? Get set. Go. Most colors in nature are produced by chemical pigments, whereby photons of particular energy excite electrons within the pigment, causing a change in the color of reflected or transmitted light. But some animals evolved mechanisms in their entangument that multiply scatter light between the three-dimensional microstructures, leading to near-complete incremental absorption, broadband featureless black. This is mechanistically analogous to man-made materials such as silicons structured by femtile laser blasting. And now a clear summary that anyone can

understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go. Some animals are very, very, very, very black. We need to take a break. Here's a taste of this year's Ignobell mini opera, the Broken Heart Opera. I'm I Refleto, and you're listening to Science Friday from WNYC Studios. This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato, and now we return to Harvard Sanders Theater for more highlights from this year's Ig Nobel Awards. Here's Master of Ceremonies, Mark Abrams, with more of the awards. The Literature Prize. The winners are from Australia, El Salvador, and the UK.

The Ig Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to... Thea Blackler, Raphael Gomez, Vezna Popovich, and M. Helen Thompson for documenting that most people who use complicated products do not read the instruction manual. We did survey studies, four of them, and two longitudinal studies, and found that most people do not read manuals most of the time.

And most people do not use all the features on many of their products. Also, extraneous features have a negative effect on their experience with the product, and reading manuals or accessing online help was sometimes such a bad experience that people would avoid doing it, even when they knew they were using the product wrongly

and reading a manual would probably help. So life is too short to RTFN. You might say that's not unexpected, and it makes you laugh, and we all knew that, but manufacturers and designers don't appear to know that. They've been adding more and more features to everything, from phones and ovens, the software, to toys. And continuing to show.

products with manuals or expecting us to access help online. So how can we fix it? You can read my book and that will teach you how to fix it. Thank you to everybody. Please follow the instructions for collecting your $10 trillion bill from the Nobel laureates. The Nutrition Prize. The winner is from the United Kingdom. The Ig Nobel Prize for Nutrition is awarded to James Cole for Calutrition. that the caloric intake from a human cannibalism diet

is significantly lower than the caloric intake from most other traditional meat diets. I have to find my speech now. Why don't you chew on something while I find us some food for thought? And to continue the puns, I really like research I can get my teeth into. As with most science research, there's always a kind of bigger picture behind what we're trying to. to understand. And for me, I'm really trying to think about the behavioral complexities of our human ancestors like the Neanderthals. So we know that in modern humans, there's a whole range

of motivations for cannibalism, from survival to warfare. But, you know, perhaps in others, there's perhaps more than just meat for meat's sake. It turns out calorifically, we're not that nutritious compared to a horse or a bison or a mammoth, which we know that we're successfully hunted in the past. And we know that Neanderthals are increasing. more complex. They produce art. They have symbolism, jewelry, language and complex societies. So, final food for thought, is that perhaps we should consider that our ancestors had a greater complex attitude to cannibalism in the way that we do. Because if we can gain greater understanding into them, we can gain greater understanding into ourselves. And isn't that what science is

about and why we're all here? So thanks very much. I can collect your $10 trillion bill. In honor of this prize, we have a special nutritional treat for the Nobel laureates. The not safe for work indicator has called off this nutritional treat. Time now for the second and final round of the 24-7 lectures. The next 24-7 lecture will be delivered by an economist who won a Nobel Prize for developing a practically complete theoretical understanding of incomplete, incomplete, Oliver Hart.

First, a complete technical description in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go. Look at many contracts and they will have gaps and ambiguities. Take my agreement with Mark Abraham's to give this lecture. The agreement doesn't say what should happen if there is a hurricane, quite topical, or Sanders' theatre burns down. Heaven forbid. Lawyers and economists call such agreements,

incomplete. Incompleteness can explain why firms are sometimes superior to markets. And now a complete, clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go. Good contracts are remarkably difficult to write. The next 24-7 lecture will be delivered by a cardiologist, a heart specialist. Based at Brigham and a Brighamon Women's Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Natalia Berry, her topic, cardiology. Where'd that come from?

First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go. Cardiology is the domain of medicine pertaining to the heart and blood vessels. Cardiologists treat coronary disease, heart failure, vascular pathologies, vascular diseases, cardiac arrhythmias, congenital heart defects, and cardiomyopathies. Cardiologists listen to their patient's stories as well as their heart sounds, and use EKG's echocardiogram, stress test, cardiac catheterization, advanced imaging,

electrophysiological studies, as well as a vast array of powerful drugs and other innovative interventions to save and prolong life. And now a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go. The heart. Engine of life and love. Final 24-7 lecture will be delivered by a Harvard professor of organismic and evolutionary biology and of immunology and infectious diseases, a pioneer in computational biology. Partis Sabati, her topic, viral evolution.

First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set. Go. The 2013-16 West African Ebola outbreak led to over 28,000 confirmed cases, starting from a single-on-eastern to the human population. Over numerous rounds of human-to-human transmission, Ebola's genome replication generated thousands of mutations, including an alanine-availing non-sanonymous change in Ebola's glycoprotein. Based on multiple in vitro studies, this mutation increases infectivity of Ebola and a variety of human and non-human primate cell types.

Now a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set. Viruses can change really fast. I didn't say go. On your mark, get set. Go. Viruses can change very fast. They're scary. The Peace Prize. The winners are from Spain and Colombia. The Ig Nobel Prize for Peace is awarded to Francisco Alonso, Christina Esteban, Andrea Sergei, Maria Luisa Ballista, Hamey San Martin, Constanza Kalateud, and Beatriz Alamar for measuring the frequency, motivation and effects of shouting and cursing while driving an automobile. Thank you very much. According to the World Health Organization, 1.23 million people worldwide die

each year because of a traffic accident. Let us consider that shooting and insulting, in addition to causing accidents, can constitute the first stage of a war, which may lead to physical aggression that could in some occasions have terrible consequences. Let's also remember that people use cards to make love as well, which is clear better than eventually using them to get a skillet. And it happens with this prize, we need to support lauthers, because they are not compatible with certain negative emotional states. And for sure, they will lead us to peace.

We need to be at peace with ourselves in order not to be at work with everyone else. Okay, okay, okay. The Reproductive Medicine Prize. The winners represent. Present the USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, and Bangladesh. The Ig Nobel Prize for Reproductive Medicine is awarded to John Barry, Bruce Blank, and Michelle Boilo

for using postage stamps to test whether the male sexual organ is functioning properly, as described in their study, nocturnal penile tumens monitoring with stamps. We sought to answer Bugs Bunny's recurrent question. What's up, Doc? When physically normal men sleep and dream, they have complete erections, one to five times a night. Physically impotent men don't.

In hospital, mercury strain gauge penile plethysmography was the standard method to measure nocturnal penile tomescence in 1978. We developed an inexpensive stamp test to demonstrate the absence of sleep erections. And here we are. Forty years later, on the campus of Harvard University, telling you all about it. By the way, the answer to Bugs Bunny's question is... And what was the question? What's up, Doc?

Our time. I'm Ira Flato and you're listening to Science Friday from WNYC Studios. If you have any comments, please don't make them. And now the final prize, the Economics Prize. The winners are from Canada, China, Singapore, and the USA. The Ig Nobel Prize for Economics is awarded to Lindy, Hanu, Leon, Douglas Brown, Huehwen, Lien, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris, and Lisa Keeping for investigating whether it is effective for employees to use voodoo dolls to retaliate against abusive bosses. Thank you. It's a great honor to be here receiving this prestigious award, especially after our paper has been characterized by the press,

as bizarre and absurd. So in our work, we wanted to understand why people keep retaliating against their abusive bosses, and we presented them with the voodoo doll and to see whether stabbing of voodoo da make them feel they've retaliated. And people actually feel a lot better. They feel their sense of justice being restored. So I really want to take this opportunity to thank my former boss for teaching me everything about how to deal with abusive bosses. And I really want to acknowledge my cats,

caramel and Kit Kat for providing me with the emotional support. Please stop. Don't forget to collect your $10 trillion from over there. from over there. With the person who left their Ig Nobel Prize here, wouldn't you really like to have this? Just come on over or wave your hand. We'll have someone bring it to you. No? No, anyone out there? Forget. And now, Professor Jean Burk Ogleeson will deliver the traditional Ig Nobel goodbye, goodbye speech. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Would everyone on stage, would everyone on stage please gather up at the front of the stage for a pointless photo opportunity? Just move right on up to the front of the stage. And please everybody whack your hands together and shower them with self-esteem. On behalf of the Harvard Radcliffe Society of Physics Students and the Harvard Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, and especially from all of us at the animals of the improbable research. Now, now, kids. Now, now kids.

Now, now kids. Okay, kids. All right, kids. Okay, hold it down, kid. Just, everybody, you can calm? Okay. Please remember this final thought. If you did not win an Ig Nobel Prize this year,

and especially if you did, better luck next year. Thank you. Good night. That about wraps it up for us. Thanks to Mark Abrams and everyone at the Annals of Improbable Research, to audio engineers Miles Smith and Frank Cunningham for their help in recording the ceremonies. Also to Sarah Fishman, Kevin Wolfe, and Rich Kim for their technical assistance. And if you missed any part of the program or if you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to our podcast, audio and video. Point you tab or to your smartphone to our website at Science Friday.com. We're going to leave you with a selection

from this year's Ig Nobel Mini Opera, the Broken Heart Opera. Have a pace, quicker slow. What rhythm, what rhythm? Control, control, control, control, control, control, control. Don't go too slow. Have a great holiday weekend. In New York, I'm Iroflato.