THE IG NOBEL PRIZE - 2022

For an explanation of the IG NOBEL PRIZE, please see the post for 10/13/2020.

Winners of the 2022 Ig Nobel Prize:

Biology

To escape predators, some types of scorpions will jettison their tails. The tails do not grow back, so the critters are no longer able to complete their digestive processes. They can survive without their tails for several months, albeit in a state of constipation. The University of Sao Paulo's Solimary Garcia-Hernandez and Glauco Machado received this year's Biology Prize for their study of how this constipation affects the scorpions' ability to mate.

Physics

The prize for physics went to Frank E. Fish of West Chester University and a team from the University of Strathclyde and Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. Working independently, these researches were recognized for "trying to understand how ducklings manage to swim in formation." Frank's work was published in the book Mechanics and Physiology of Animal Swimming and the other team's work in The Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

 

Engineering

Awarded to the Chiba Institute of Technology "for trying to discover the most efficient way for people to use their fingers when turning a door knob."

Literature

A team form the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Edinburgh took home the literature prize for "analyzing what makes legal documents unnecessarily difficult to understand."

Peace Prize

Say what you will about gossip, but research on this topic nabbed the 2022 Peace Prize. An international team claimed the honor for "developing an algorithm to help gossipers decide when to tell the truth and when to lie."

 

Art History

Peter deSmet and Nicholas Hellmuth shared this year's Art History Prize for their study "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Ritual Enema Scenes on Ancient Maya Pottery."