Saturday, October 04, 2008

The Ig Nobels are out!

The annual Ig Nobel prizes honor "research" that "can not or should not be repeated." (Actually, they also include some real research with applications if the project is weird enough.)
One project honored this year showed armadillos can displace artifacts in archaeological dig sites.
Two studies of Coca-Cola were honored. One showed it was an effective spermicide (ick), the other showed it wasn't. That's nothing unusual in the surreal world explored by the Annals of Improbable Research, which hands out the Ig Nobels. A doctor at Duke discovered placebos presented as expensive medicines worked better than "ordinary" placebos. And a British psychologist found that potato chips which make a better "crunch" sound are rated by consumers as tasting better. You the chip makers will want to put that one to work.
Science marches on!

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