From "dead spider mechanical grabbing tool" to "smart toilet", to "counting nose hair on corpses" and "explaining why scientists like to lick stones"... This is the list of winners of this year's "Funny Nobel Prize".
According to the American magazine "Chemical and Chemical News", the British "Guardian" and many other media reports, the 2023 "Funny Nobel Prize" was announced on the 14th local time, including 10 spoof awards. Due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, since 2020, the award ceremony of the "Funny Nobel Prize" has been online and recorded in advance.
According to the report, this year's "Chemistry and Geology Award" was jointly awarded to Jan Zaswich of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom for explaining why scientists like to lick stones in an article titled "Eating Fossils" published in the November 2017 issue of Paleontology Letters.
The team that won the "Funny Nobel Prize in Mechanical Engineering" for their research on "mechanical grasping tools made of dead spiders" Source: The Guardian
The "Mechanical Engineering Award" was awarded to Daniel M. Researchers at Rice University, led by J. Preston, won the prize for a "mechanical grasping tool made of dead spiders." NBC's NBC DFW website mentions that the team includes scientists from India, China, Malaysia and the United States.
"Electrified chopsticks that can change the taste" Source: Japan Times
"Perhaps even more appetizing is the 'Nutrition Prize' of the 'Funny Nobel Prize'." This year, Yoshiaki Miyashita of Meiji University in Japan and Hiromi Nakamura of the University of Tokyo won the prize for their research on "electrified chopsticks that can change taste," according to the Guardian. The Guardian went on to say that this year's "Funny Nobel Prize" for the "Public Health Prize" focused on "the other end of the digestive system" and was awarded a smart toilet developed by researchers that uses multiple technologies to monitor human waste for signs of disease and an "imprint sensor" to identify the user.
The winner of the "Funny Nobel Prize in Public Health" sits in front of the sculpture of Rodin's "thinker" at Stanford University in the United States Source: The Guardian
In terms of the "Literary Prize", the award was awarded to researchers who explored "the strange feelings that can arise when the same word is written repeatedly", which they say is a case of "jamais vu", that is, "things that are often experienced become strange", which is precisely the opposite of "déjà vu".
In the Communication Prize, the team that studies "the mental and neural activities of people who are good at talking backwards" received this honor. In addition, the research team at the University of California, Irvine, USA, won the "Medical Award" for "counting whether the number of hairs in a person's two nostrils is the same from cadavers".
"Boring will beg boredom." At least that's what the University of Hong Kong research team said, and they won the Education Award for "systematically studying the boredom of teachers and students."
"The degree of influence of anchovies mating behavior on seawater mixing" project Source: Chemical and Chemical News
In the Psychology Prize, three researchers were awarded for conducting an experiment on how many passers-by on a city street stop to look up when they see a stranger looking up. The Physics Prize was awarded to a team of researchers at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom who explored "the extent to which anchovies mate behavior affects seawater mixing".
According to the media, the "Funny Nobel Prize" is an interesting imitation of the Nobel Prize, which began in 1991 and was awarded to the top ten achievements that "look funny at first glance, but then thought-provoking", the award-givers and some judges are real Nobel laureates, generally speaking, the winners will have 1 minute to give their acceptance speeches. The Guardian mentioned that each winning team this year will receive a check for "10 trillion Zimbabwe dollars".
Source: Global.com