The Ig Nobel Prizes (http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-top.html) are awarded every year, to scientific works and research that are more funny than useful or groundbreaking. It's always fun to browse through the winners, however this year I found something quite disturbing on the list of this year's winners (http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html).

The Ig Nobel Prize for Physics goes to an Australian paper (http://www.culvenor.com/Download%20Files/An%20analysis%20of%20the%20forces%20required%20to% 20drag%20sheep.pdf) with the title "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces." Yes, the paper is real, it's not a joke.

This is not only stupid science, but it is science gone awfully wrong IMHO.

The criterium for winning an Ig Nobel Prize is that it goes to "achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced". I agree more than ever.

:furious:

:down: Should not be reproduced, indeed! :no: How awful.

Isn't it a joke ?!

Looks more like a high school paper to me ?!

I think the site is a joke.

I couldn't find anything on

http://www.nobel.se/index.html

It's not affiliated with the real Nobel prize.

The Ig Nobel prizes are presented more as a gag, but the scientific works are real. The paper is not a joke.

It's not affiliated with the real Nobel prize.

The Ig Nobel prizes are presented more as a gag, but the scientific works are real. The paper is not a joke.

:wall: so much for early morning posting......

BIOLOGY
C.W. Moeliker, of Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.
[REFERENCE: "The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)" C.W. Moeliker, Deinsea, vol. 8, 2001, pp. 243-7. Photographs can be viewed at <http://www.nmr.nl/deins815.htm>]
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Kees Moeliker.


I think this actually made it to TV over here :p.