Did you ever wonder about the mathematics behind wrinkled sheets? Or whether sword-swallowing was bad for your health? These and other questions have been carefully researched by various scientific teams around the world, and now their results are being highlighted by the Ig Noble awards, which celebrate the more frivolous sides of science.
Among the various award-winners are the following studies:
- “Sword swallowing and its side effects” was published in a British medical journal last year.
- An inventor designed a bowl of soup that gradually refilled itself, creating a virtual “bottomless bowl.”
- A Harvard professor discovered that the patterns in wrinkled sheets also are found in nature, coinciding with human and animal skin.
- And lastly…an award went to the U.S. Air Force, which developed a proposal for a chemical bomb that would make enemy soldiers so aroused they wouldn’t want to fight anymore. Unfortunately, no military representative stepped forward to receive the award.
Nice to know that scientists are at least being imaginative in their pursuits, eh? What would you spend your time and money on if you were able to research any wacky sort of theory? I’d be interested in seeing if any of the old wives’ tales and other superstitious cures that people float about had any legitimacy to them at their origin.
I see that smile.
I’m not creative enough to think of anything wacky. These are interesting. With the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ rule of the military.. oh.. I won’t go there… sorry.
again… your word verification gets me rolling… gayrufhp… hahaha. Oh my.