Ig Nobel Award Winners 2009

Every year the Annals of Improbable Research hand out the Ig Nobel awards in various categories to research that "celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative--and spurs people's interest in science, medicine and technology." Without further ado, here is the research winners of 2009:

• Veterinary Science- Newcastle University scientists from the UK found that named cows give more milk than anonymous ones because monikered cows receive more personal attention.
• Peace-University of Bern scientists from Switzerland questioned which is better to smash a person's skull in--a full bottle of beer or an empty one? (Answer:Both can fracture a skull, but a full one is more likely to break open on the person )
• Economics-Banks of Iceland for "demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa--and showing that similar things can be done on an entire national economy."
• Chemistry- Scientists from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico prove you can grow diamonds from tequila.
• Medicine- A man from California tested the theory whether knuckle cracking leads to arthritis by cracking his left hand knuckles every day for 60 years and never on his right. He currently does not have arthritis.
• Physics- Scientists from University of Cincinnati analyzed why pregnant women don't fall forward due to their protruding stomachs and walking uprightly. It was found that women have a more significant curvature in their spine than men to balance out the weight.
• Literature-Ireland's police, who wrote 50+ traffic tickets to Prawo Jazdy, whose name means "Driver's License" in Polish. It turns out Irish cops have been looking at Polish licenses thinking Prawo Jazdy was the driver's name.
• Public Health- Three people from Chicago invented a bra that doubles as a gas mask for two people.
• Mathematics- The governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank who printed bills worth a penny to a hundred trillion dollars.
• Biology- Scientists from Kitasato University found that kitchen waste can reduce up to 90% in mass by using bacteria from panda poop.

Hey Boo Boo, Where Is My Pic-a-nic Basket?

Researchers with the South Central Florida Bear Project have been baiting with bears with stale doughnuts and pastries in efforts to attach a GPS collar to them. Every 15minutes, the collar text messages a cell phone letting researchers know where the bear is.


(Note to Self: Avoid solo brownies with whipped cream in the woods of Florida.)

Tracking the animals allows the project to see where the population goes and which habitats are important for conservation. Bears used to wander all over Florida, breeding with different bear populations. Human development has reduced this causing isolated bears who run the risk of inbreeding, lowering their genetic diversity.

When bears are caught, they are tranquilized and measured. They are also scanned for microchips to see if they have already been previously identified by scientists. A fur sample is also taken to see if the animal is related to any others that were caught. If they are old enough, they are fitted with a collar.

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LED light bulb from Salmon DNA

Scientist's have made a LED light bulb from Salmon DNA. Check this article.

Calm down scientists. Is making a light bulb from fish DNA really necessary? Or are you just doing it because you can? This is similar to a hummer. Why, oh why, did anyone ever make a crazy inefficient car that normal people can waste their money on. The car companies knew it was excessive, but they know there are people out there compensating for their lack of life skills with an absurd car. The lab people at the University of Connecticut were like.. hey, we made DNA glow. I'm tired of people not understanding our research, LETS MAKE A LIGHT BULB!

Okay, it is kinda cool. You would have a light bulb with salmon DNA on it and it changes the intensity of LED light? Making DNA florescence has been happening for years. Here's how it works:

There is a protein in jelly fish named GFP, green florescent protein. Basically, when certain wavelengths of light hit these proteins (ex UV light) an emission of light is the product of the reaction (i think its something like when a reaction causes heat to be released). These protein sequences were isolated and now it is used in many ways. They developed a way to tag certain genes with this protein (if the gene creates proteins they then have the ability to glow under UV light once tagged). So to see if a gene is involved in a certain activity, they run an experiment under conditions causing an assumed reaction and see if the now glowing protein is made, and can compare intensities with a control. Basically, it's like in a factory if you put red paint on a roller so that the finished product would get hit with paint as it entered a bin.. you would be able to count the products that came from that roller. Not a perfect example, but it will do I hope.

More to the point these crazy people tagged a piece of DNA then spun it until it became fibrous and then wrapped LED lights in it to be able to change the light intensity based on the dye use. It seems like there should be an easier way to do this. Poor salmon didn't want them to make their DNA all glow-y then used to dim lights.

Moral of the story: shit's wak.