Researchers who found being drunk makes people think they are more attractive …

  • The IG Nobel Awards celebrate the weirdest and funniest scientific discoveries
  • Researchers who found being drunk makes people think they are more attractive won the psychology prize
  • Probability prize went to a study that predicted the behaviour of cows
  • Awards were handed out by Nobel laureates at an annual ceremony

By
Victoria Woollaston


PUBLISHED:

10:26 GMT, 13 September 2013


|

UPDATED:

13:45 GMT, 13 September 2013

An experiment that proved people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive and another that showed lost dung beetles can use the Milky Way to find their way home were among the winners at this year's Ig Nobel Awards.

The ceremony was the 23rd annual event for awards that celebrate the weirdest and funniest scientific discoveries in fields including psychology, biology and physics.

The winners come from all over the world and Nobel laureates handed out the prizes during a ceremony at Harvard University on Thursday, sponsored by science magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

The IG Nobel Prize for psychology went to an experiment that found people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive.

The IG Nobel Prize for psychology went to an experiment that found people who are drunk also think they are attractive. Researchers from Ohio found that the higher a person's blood alcohol level, the higher their attractiveness rating. They also found this was the case when people drank alcohol-free placebos

Editor Marc Abrahams said the point is to make people laugh and then think.

'The combination of science that is funny on its own - not because
someone is making a joke, but it is funny - that's an unusual notion in
the United States,' he said. 'It is becoming more acceptable again.'

For the first time, the winners received cash prizes - $10 trillion, but
in Zimbabwe dollars, which means they'll receive around four U.S. dollars each.

The inventor of the trillion dollar note, Gideon Gono, won the Ig Nobel Award in 2008.

Every year, organisers try to make the awards ceremonies more 'silly' than the last and this year's ceremony included a mini-opera and a contest to win a date with a
Nobel laureate. 

The winners are due to give short speeches during another event this weekend at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The psychology prize went to the experiment that found people who think
they are drunk also think they are attractive.

Dung beetles travel in straight lines by taking cues from light released by the sun, during the day, and the moon at night.

Dung beetles travel in straight lines by taking cues from the sun, during the day, and the moon at night. Yet the winners of the Ig Nobel biology and astronomy award found that the beetles also use light from stars on nights when the moon isn't visible

This research was carried out by Laurent Begue,
Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra and Medhi Ourabah of France and Brad
Bushman, a professor at Ohio State University who also teaches in the
Netherlands.

To test their theory, people in a bar were to rate how 'funny, original and attractive' they thought they were.The results found that the higher their blood alcohol level, the higher their attractiveness rating.

Researchers also noticed the same
thing happened when people had been given an alcohol-free placebo but
were told they had been drinking.

A separate group of people were also
asked to rate how attractive they thought each of the participants were,
but the ratings varied wildly compared to how attractive the
individuals thought they were.

The dung beetle experiment won the joint prize in biology and
astronomy, given to Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke
Scholtz and Eric Warrant, who work in Sweden, Australia, South Africa,
the United Kingdom and Germany.

THE IG NOBEL AWARD WINNERS

Psychology: An experiment that found people who think they are drunk
also think they are attractive.

Winners: Laurent Bègue, Oulmann
Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra, Medhi Ourabah and Brad Bushman.

Joint prize in biology and astronomy: An experiment that showed lost
dung beetles can use the Milky Way to find their way home. Winners: Marie Dacke,
Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke Scholtz and Eric Warrant.

Medicine: A study assessing the effect of listening to opera on heart
transplant patients who are mice. Winners: Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan
Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito Hirai, Atsushi Amano, Hisashi Bashuda and
Masanori Niimi.

Safety engineering: An electro-mechanical system to trap an airplane
hijacker by dropping him or her through a trap door, sealing him or her
into a package and then dropping the packaged hijacker (with a
parachute) to the ground where police will be waiting. Winner: Gustano
Pizzo

Physics: The discovery that some people would be physically capable of
running across the surface of a pond - if both they and the pond were
on the moon. Winners: Alberto Minetti, Yuri Ivanenko, Germana
Cappellini, Nadia Dominici, and Francesco Lacquaniti.

The discovery that the biochemical process by which onions make people cry is even more complicated than scientists previously realised.

Chemistry: The discovery that the biochemical process by which onions
make people cry is even more complicated than scientists previously
realised. Winners: Shinsuke Imai, Nobuaki Tsuge, Muneaki Tomotake, Yoshiaki
Nagatome, Toshiyuki Nagata and Hidehiko Kumgai.

Archaeology: Two researchers who parboiled a dead shrew, then
swallowed it without chewing so they could examine their excrement to
see which bones would dissolve in the human digestive system and which
would not. Winners: Brian Crandall and Peter Stahl.

Peace: Belarus and its president, for making it illegal to applaud in
public, and to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man
for applauding.

Probability: Researchers who discovered that the longer a cow has been
lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up, but that once a
cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie
down again. Winners: Bert Tolkamp, Marie Haskell, Fritha Langford,
David Roberts and Colin Morgan.

Public health: For medical techniques described in their report, 'Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam.' They
recommend the techniques, except in cases where an amputated penis had
been partially eaten by a duck. Winners: Kasian Bhanganada, Tu
Chayavatana, Chumporn Pongnumkul, Anunt Tonmukayakul, Piyasakol
Sakolsatayadorn, Krit Komaratal, and Henry Wilde.

Dung beetles travel in straight lines by taking cues from light released by the sun, during the day, and the moon at night.

They do this to make sure they can push any dung piles to safety quickly, using the most direct course, to avoid going over old ground and running into predators or rival beetles. 

Yet the insects' ability to stay on course overnight when the moon wasn't visible led the researchers to discover the beetles can also use the location and light from stars in the Milky Way as a guide.

Masanori Niimi, from Teikyo University in Tokyo, won the medicine prize for his work into mice with heart transplants.

He discovered that a mice with a heart transplant will survive longer if they listen to particular music.

For example, a control group of mice survived an average of seven days after a transplant, although those that listened to Verdi's opera La Traviata survived for an average of 27 days.

Bert Tolkamp and his team from research centres in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada discovered that that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up.

Bert Tolkamp and his team from research centres in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada discovered that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up. Yet once a cow stands up, you cannot easily predict how soon that cow will lie down again. They won the probability award

Another animal study involved predicting the probability of when a cow is likely to stand up or sit down.

Bert Tolkamp and his team from research centres in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada discovered that that the longer a cow has been
lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up.

Opera Singer Penelope Randall-Davis as Violetta in La Traviata.

Opera Singer Penelope Randall-Davis as Violetta in La Traviata. Researchers discovered that mice with heart transplants lived longer after listening to Verdi's opera

Yet once a
cow stands up, it is now easy to predict how soon that cow will lie
down again.

Although Tolkamp's study was branded 'silly' by the judges, it also has a serious side because the research can be used to determine health problems in the animals.

Gusto Pizzo's patent won the engineering prize for his 'anti-hijacking device' which involved an electro-mechanical system that could trap an airplane
hijacker by dropping him or her through a trap door.

He or she would then be sealed
into a package before being dropped from the plane, attached to a parachute, to the ground where police will be waiting.

The patent read: 'A partition or barrier located immediately aft of the pilots cabin is adapted to be raised dividing the aft section longitudinally into port and starboard areas, the floors of which are dropped on command to lower the hijacker into a capsule in the belly of the plane.

'The capsule is releasable through opened bomb bay doors having attached thereto a parachute for safely returning the hijacker within the capsule to earth.'

Other winners included Brian Crandall of the U.S. and Peter Stahl of
Canada, who parboiled a dead shrew, then swallowed it
without chewing so they could examine their excrement to see which bones
would dissolve in the human digestive system and which wouldn't.

VIDEO:
The weird and wonderful IG Nobel Awards 

The comments below have not been moderated.



  • Newest


  • Oldest


  • Best rated


  • Worst rated

The beer study won the psychology prize for proving people find themselves more attractive when drunk!!
You could not make this crap up.

Wolfie
,

Birtley, United Kingdom,
13/9/2013 16:41

Report abuse

what is the prize amount?

mab05
,

Baltimore, United States,
13/9/2013 16:17

Report abuse

I'd like scientist to research and then give a definitive answer to the colour of Uranus, as I sometimes get into a lot of trouble when I pose the question of its colour to strangers.

RM
,

Paris, France,
13/9/2013 16:15

Report abuse

I thought 'beer goggles' meant you found other people attractive, even if they weren't.

Robert
,

Altrincham, United Kingdom,
13/9/2013 15:34

Report abuse

Star gazing dung beetles, nobody told me about these, where do I get one?

fub
,

The mists of time, United Kingdom,
13/9/2013 15:26

Report abuse

The Peace prize should be given to any kid who goes to sleep when you want to watch telly.

Or to the woman who only has two pairs of shoes and one dress. Or whoever decides to ban mirrors from lasies' loos!

ken mist
,

paris,
13/9/2013 15:23

Report abuse

I wonde if any of those who took the placebo ended up crying in it?

Hell! If they can transplant he hearts of mice they can operate on me! What did they play them "die Fledermaus?" The Nutcracker Squeak? Die Moustersingers von Neuremburg? "La Trappiata?".
Cheeses! Christ! Superstar!?

ken mist
,

paris,
13/9/2013 15:18

Report abuse

the thing about thinking you're more attractive when you're drunk is defo me - as I smile laugh more when I've had a few... therefore I get more people returning my smile so it makes me feel more confident attractive.

kittykat87
,

Bristol UK,
13/9/2013 15:08

Report abuse

I would have thought that the longer a cow has been lying down, the greater the likelihood that it had died.

flatdog
,

Stockton-on-Tees,
13/9/2013 15:06

Report abuse

Refreshing to find people with a sense of humour. Is there an award for Spencer I. Mather, Bradwell-Great Yarmouth who has commented without reading or understanding the article?

Agent Smith
,

S.Yorks, United Kingdom,
13/9/2013 14:50

Report abuse

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Leave a Reply