Costumes.
Sing-alongs. The Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate contest. The truth is
that the annual Ig Nobel prizes are probably the best scientific awards
ceremony around. Every year in Cambridge, Massachusetts, distinguished
members of the scientific community (including a handful of real Nobel
Laureates) gather to celebrate some of the weirdest research around.
What must one do to earn such a prestigious honor? The Ig Nobel Prize
has two simple requirements: the project in question must make people
laugh. But then, it must make them think.
Momentous History
The Ig Nobel prize was founded in 1991 as a spin-off of the Annals of Improbable Research. This scientific journal (and today, blog) published by Harvard, collects examples of the strangest, most useless, and poorly thought-out research on the planet. But faced with a surplus of such work, they needed a way to honor the best of the best (or perhaps the worst of the worst?). As such, the Ig Nobel Prize was born.
So just what kind of research makes one laugh, then think? Well, the laughter is simple, but the thinking falls into two categories. Sometimes, prize-winners’ research will cause deep existential thoughts. For example, the 1995 Ig Nobel for Psychology went to Watanabe and colleagues for teaching pigeons to differentiate between paintings by Picasso and Monet [1]. However, other thoughts are of the “how-on-earth-did-they-get-funding-for-that?” nature. 2013’s physics prize went to a group who determined that humans are capable of running on the surface of a pond... if the pond and the people are on the moon [2].
Thankfully, the Ig Nobel does not discriminate between disciplines, and members of all walks of life are equally “honored”. To avoid undue embarrassment, winners are contacted privately and offered the chance to decline their Ig Nobel. The number of refusals is a tightly-guarded secret, but all published winners seem to accept the reward with good grace. For some, however, it’s just bad press: the prestigious Ig Nobel for Peace was awarded to president Viktor Lukashenko of Belarus for outlawing applause in public, and to the Belarusian State Police for arresting a one-armed man for breaking the new law. Sadly, you can’t make this stuff up [3].
“Innovation” in Brain-Based Disciplines
But enough background. This newsletter is a space for the brain! 2014 was a marvelous year for many reasons. It was also the year in which an exciting Ig Nobel for Neuroscience was awarded, spurred by ground-breaking work on what happens in people’s brains when they see the face of Jesus in their toast [4]. However, there have been many, many prizes in closely related fields. For example, the Cognitive Science prize was awarded to a certain Dr. Nakagaki, for demonstrating that a species of mold can solve puzzles. It should be noted that the award-winning paper was published in Nature [5]. In 2005, the Peace prize was given to a team who monitored neural activity in a locust while it watched Star Wars [6].
A common theme among neuro-related Ig Nobels is pain, specifically the kind where study participants probably need to be generously compensated. Are you concerned about traumatic brain injuries? Never fear! Bolliger and colleagues won a Peace Ig Nobel for studying whether it is better to be smashed over the head by an empty or a full beer bottle [7]. What about the burgeoning field of neuro-aesthetics? Well, de Tommaso and colleagues combined art contemplation with zapping subjects with a powerful (and presumably painful) laser to showcase modulation of the nociceptive response [8]. Of course, the Ig Nobels are not simple violence-mongers. In 2010, a group from the UK was awarded the Peace Ig Nobel for scientifically proving that swearing helps relieve pain [9].
Eternal Questions
The Ig Nobels have occasionally waded into real scientific controversy. For example, in 2012, a winning team led by Craig Bennett used a very fancy MRI machine and very simple statistics to find amazing activity-related correlations… in a dead salmon [10]. The study was meant as a tongue-in-cheek criticism of poor statistical practices in functional neuroimaging, but instead, infuriated many members of the community. Other studies, which seem rather silly at first glance, have actually been incredibly important. Eleanor Maguire and colleagues got an Ig in 2000 for showing that the hippocampi of London cab drivers are more developed than those of other professionals [11]. This work was one of the first hints that brains could substantially develop and rewire themselves in adulthood. No laughing matter at all for the neuroscience community…
[1] Watanabe et al, J Exp Anal Behav, 1995
[2] Minetti et al, PLoS One, 2012
[3] Barry, New York Times, 2011
[4] Liu et al, Cortex, 2013
[5] Nakagaki et al, Nature, 2000
[6] Rind and Simmons, J Neurophysiol, 1992
[7] Bolliger et al, J Forensic Leg Med, 2009
[8] de Tommaso et al, Conscious Cogn, 2008
[9] Stevens et al, Neuroreport, 2009
[10] Bennett et al, 2010, JSUR
[11] Maguire et al, PNAS, 2000
[12] Tuk et al, Psych Sci, 2011
Constance Holman, PhD student AG Schmitz
This article originally appeared 2015 in CNS Volume 8, Issue 1, Humor
The Ig Nobel prize was founded in 1991 as a spin-off of the Annals of Improbable Research. This scientific journal (and today, blog) published by Harvard, collects examples of the strangest, most useless, and poorly thought-out research on the planet. But faced with a surplus of such work, they needed a way to honor the best of the best (or perhaps the worst of the worst?). As such, the Ig Nobel Prize was born.
So just what kind of research makes one laugh, then think? Well, the laughter is simple, but the thinking falls into two categories. Sometimes, prize-winners’ research will cause deep existential thoughts. For example, the 1995 Ig Nobel for Psychology went to Watanabe and colleagues for teaching pigeons to differentiate between paintings by Picasso and Monet [1]. However, other thoughts are of the “how-on-earth-did-they-get-funding-for-that?” nature. 2013’s physics prize went to a group who determined that humans are capable of running on the surface of a pond... if the pond and the people are on the moon [2].
 |
| Conrad von Soest, Source: wikicommons |
Thankfully, the Ig Nobel does not discriminate between disciplines, and members of all walks of life are equally “honored”. To avoid undue embarrassment, winners are contacted privately and offered the chance to decline their Ig Nobel. The number of refusals is a tightly-guarded secret, but all published winners seem to accept the reward with good grace. For some, however, it’s just bad press: the prestigious Ig Nobel for Peace was awarded to president Viktor Lukashenko of Belarus for outlawing applause in public, and to the Belarusian State Police for arresting a one-armed man for breaking the new law. Sadly, you can’t make this stuff up [3].
“Innovation” in Brain-Based Disciplines
But enough background. This newsletter is a space for the brain! 2014 was a marvelous year for many reasons. It was also the year in which an exciting Ig Nobel for Neuroscience was awarded, spurred by ground-breaking work on what happens in people’s brains when they see the face of Jesus in their toast [4]. However, there have been many, many prizes in closely related fields. For example, the Cognitive Science prize was awarded to a certain Dr. Nakagaki, for demonstrating that a species of mold can solve puzzles. It should be noted that the award-winning paper was published in Nature [5]. In 2005, the Peace prize was given to a team who monitored neural activity in a locust while it watched Star Wars [6].
A common theme among neuro-related Ig Nobels is pain, specifically the kind where study participants probably need to be generously compensated. Are you concerned about traumatic brain injuries? Never fear! Bolliger and colleagues won a Peace Ig Nobel for studying whether it is better to be smashed over the head by an empty or a full beer bottle [7]. What about the burgeoning field of neuro-aesthetics? Well, de Tommaso and colleagues combined art contemplation with zapping subjects with a powerful (and presumably painful) laser to showcase modulation of the nociceptive response [8]. Of course, the Ig Nobels are not simple violence-mongers. In 2010, a group from the UK was awarded the Peace Ig Nobel for scientifically proving that swearing helps relieve pain [9].
Eternal Questions
The Ig Nobels have occasionally waded into real scientific controversy. For example, in 2012, a winning team led by Craig Bennett used a very fancy MRI machine and very simple statistics to find amazing activity-related correlations… in a dead salmon [10]. The study was meant as a tongue-in-cheek criticism of poor statistical practices in functional neuroimaging, but instead, infuriated many members of the community. Other studies, which seem rather silly at first glance, have actually been incredibly important. Eleanor Maguire and colleagues got an Ig in 2000 for showing that the hippocampi of London cab drivers are more developed than those of other professionals [11]. This work was one of the first hints that brains could substantially develop and rewire themselves in adulthood. No laughing matter at all for the neuroscience community…
Still, as a young researcher in an immensely serious field, I'd like to believe that we are capable of finding humor in neuroscience. The Ig Nobels, while quite silly and (delightfully) overblown are a fun tool for reminding ourselves that science is meant to answer people’s questions. Even if those questions are as frivolous as “why does needing to urinate change decision-making capability?” [12]. Yes, the scientific community can stand to learn a lot from the Ig Nobels. Even if it is only to keep one’s own research in perspective, and approach all discoveries with an open mind and good sense of humor.Making you laugh. Then making you think.
[1] Watanabe et al, J Exp Anal Behav, 1995
[2] Minetti et al, PLoS One, 2012
[3] Barry, New York Times, 2011
[4] Liu et al, Cortex, 2013
[5] Nakagaki et al, Nature, 2000
[6] Rind and Simmons, J Neurophysiol, 1992
[7] Bolliger et al, J Forensic Leg Med, 2009
[8] de Tommaso et al, Conscious Cogn, 2008
[9] Stevens et al, Neuroreport, 2009
[10] Bennett et al, 2010, JSUR
[11] Maguire et al, PNAS, 2000
[12] Tuk et al, Psych Sci, 2011
Constance Holman, PhD student AG Schmitz
This article originally appeared 2015 in CNS Volume 8, Issue 1, Humor
No comments:
Post a Comment