Money Well Spent?: Or, the ingenious uses to which research funding is put!

Movies have their Oscars, hockey has its Stanley Cup, TV has its Emmys, science (and literature, economics, and peace) has its Nobel Prize. But did you know that science also has its Ig Nobel prize?

Check out these health-related research items that have won Ig Nobel prizes:

2007

Medicine – "(F)or their penetrating medical report Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects." (Published in British Medical Journal, December 2006.)

Linguistics – "(F)or showing that rats sometimes cannot tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards." (Published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, January 2005.)

Nutrition – "(F)or exploring the seemingly boundless appetites of human beings, by feeding them with a self-refilling, bottomless bowl of soup." (Obesity Research, January 2005.)

Peace – "The Air Force Wright Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio, USA, for instigating research & development on a chemical weapon – the so-called "gay bomb" – that will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other." (Harassing, Annoying, and "Bad Guy" Identifying Chemicals, page 2, June 1, 1994.)

2006

Medicine – "For the case report 'Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.'" (Published in Annals of Emergency Medicine, August 1988.)

Biology – "For showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet." (Published in The Lancet, November 9, 1996.)

2005

Medicine – "Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing Neuticles – artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness."

Nutrition – "Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting)."

2004

Medicine – For the report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide." (Published in Social Forces, 1992.) According to a news item in the October 2004 British Medical Journal, the author of the study protested that "…it was unfair of Newsweek to call him and his colleague 'academic coneheads.' 'We had hard data showing that cities with higher than average country music radio market share had higher white suicide rates,' he said. African-American suicide rates, he explained, were not affected by the country music market."

Public Health – For investigating the validity of the Five-Second Rule. (What is the Five Second Rule? The idea that it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor if it's on the floor for less than five seconds.)

2003

Medicine – For a study showing that the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens. (Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2000.)

Interdisciplinary Research – For a study showing chickens prefer beautiful humans. (Published in Human Nature, 2002.)

2002

Medicine – For a report detailing scrotal asymmetry in man and in ancient sculpture. (Published in Nature, 1976.)

2001

Medicine – For a study of injuries resulting from falling coconuts. (Published in The Journal of Trauma, 1984.)

Biology – For the invention of Under-Ease, an "airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes bad-smelling gases before they escape."

Public Health – For a year 2001 study that "discovered" that nose picking is a common activity among adolescents. (Published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2001.)

2000

Public Health – For a report entitled "The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow." (Published in the Scottish Medical Journal, 1993.)

Psychology – For a study entitled "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments." (Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999.)

1999

Medicine – For "collecting, classifying, and contemplating which kinds of containers his patients chose when submitting urine samples." (Published in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, 1999.)

Sociology – For a 2002 PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut shops.

Chemistry – For creation of "an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands' underwear."

Managed Healthcare – For invention of a device (US Patent #3,216,423) to assist women in childbirth (the woman is strapped onto a circular table, then the table is rotated at high speed).

1998

Statistics – For the report "The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size." (Published in Annals of Sex Research, 1993.)

Medicine – For the report "A Man Who Pricked His Finger and Smelled Putrid for 5 Years." (Published in The Lancet, 1996.)

1997

Medicine – For a study suggesting that "listening to elevator Muzak stimulates immunoglobulin A (IgA) production, and thus may help prevent the common cold."

1996

Biology – For the study on the "Effect of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches." (Published in the British Medical Journal, 1994.)

Public Health – For the report "Transmission of Gonorrhea Through an Inflatable Doll." (Published in Genitourinary Medicine, 1993.)

1995

Medicine – For the study "The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition." (Published in the International Journal of Neuroscience, 1991.)

Public Health – For the study "Impact of Wet Underwear on Thermoregulatory Responses and Thermal Comfort in the Cold." (Published in Ergonomics, 1994.)

1994

Medicine – "This prize is awarded in two parts. First, to Patient X, formerly of the US Marine Corps, valiant victim of a venomous bite from his pet rattlesnake, for his determined use of electroshock therapy – at his own insistence, automobile sparkplug wires were attached to his lip, and the car engine revved to 3000 rpm for five minutes. Second, to Dr. Richard C. Dart of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center and Dr. Richard A. Gustafson of The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, for their well-grounded medical report: "Failure of Electric Shock Treatment for Rattlesnake Envenomation." (Published in Annals of Emergency Medicine, 1991.)

1993

Biology – For the study "Salmonella Excretion in Joy-Riding Pigs." (Published in the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation's Health, 1970.)

Medicine – For the study "Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis." (Published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, 1990.)

1992

Medicine – For the conclusion of a study "Elucidation of Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Malodour," which summarized that "people who think they have foot odor do, and those who don't, don't." (Published in the British Journal of Dermatology, 1990.)

To see winners in other fields, visit the Ig Nobel prize website.

Money Well Spent?