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The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early fall — a week or two before the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced". Sponsored by the scientific humor journal Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony in Harvard University's Sanders Theatre.
The first Ig Nobels were awarded in 1991. The awards are sometimes veiled criticism — as in the two awards given for homeopathy research — but more often drawn attention to scientific articles that have some funny or unexpected aspect. Examples range from the discovery that the presence of humans tends to sexually arouse ostriches, to the statement that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell, to research on the "five-second rule," a commonly held belief that food dropped on the floor won't become contaminated if it is picked up within five seconds.
The name is a pun on the word "ignoble" and the name Nobel Prize. The official pronunciation, used during the ceremony, is "ig no-BELL", not "ig-noble", but this distinction eludes many people.
Unlike the Darwin Awards, whose aim is strictly to entertain, the aim of the Ig Nobel is also to arouse public interest in science. The ceremony is recorded and broadcast on National Public Radio, and for the last few years, the Ig Nobel Tour performed shows in Britain during National Science Week.
In 1995, Sir Robert May, the chief scientific advisor to the British government, requested that the organizers no longer award Ig Nobel prizes to British scientists, claiming that the awards risked bringing "genuine" experiments into ridicule. May was roundly critized by the British press, and his request was ignored.
Since 2001, it has been possible to watch the Ig Nobel prizes live over the Internet. After a period of around a month, the ceremony is then available for streaming using Real Player on several bandwidths.
The ceremony is followed a few days later by the Ig Informal Lectures at MIT, in which laureates have opportunity to explain their achievements and their relevance to the general public.
Two books have been published as of 2004 with writeups on some of the winners, ISBN 0-75285-150-0 (hardback), ISBN 0-75284-261-7 (paperback).
The annual ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.
With the exception of three prizes in the first year (see Administratium, Josiah Carberry, and Paul DeFanti), all Ig Nobel Prizes have been for genuine achievements.
Prize categories
Prizes have been awarded annually since 1991 for achievements in several catagories, including the "official" Nobel Prize catagories of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Literature, and Peace. However, these prizes often include other "unofficial" catagories such as Public Health, Engineering, Biology, Interdisciplinary Research, etc.
See also
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