Organized by the Annals of Improbable Research, the annual Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate scientific achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology."

More than 1,000 spectators attended the gala ceremony for the 18th annual Ig® Nobel Prizes held at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre on Oct. 2. The prizes were presented by 1976 Nobel Laureate William Lipscomb and honored the scientists who discovered that heaps of hair will always get tangled, slime mold can solve puzzles and why armadillos are a pain to archaeologists.

The following are the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize categories and winners:

Nutrition Prize: The Italian-British duo of Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy, and Charles Spence of Oxford University, U.K., were able to electronically modify the sound of a potato chip to make the person eating it think it is crisper and fresher than it really is. Their study, The Role of Auditory Cues in Modulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips, first appeared in the Journal of Sensory Studies.

Peace Prize: Perhaps the most intensely watched of the real Nobel prizes, the peace prize was awarded to the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

Archaeology Prize: Brazilian archaeologists Astolfo G. Mello Araujo and José Carlos Marcelino of Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, discovered how the contents of an archaeological dig site can be scrambled by the actions of a live armadillo, thus potentially jumbling history.

Biology Prize: French scientists Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert and Michel Franc of Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse, France, proved that dog fleas jump higher than cat fleas.

Medicine Prize: Showing that price does matter, Ziv Carmon of INSEAD (Singapore) and American scientists Dan Ariely of Duke University, Rebecca L. Waber of MIT and Baba Shiv of Stanford University, demonstrated that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.

Cognitive Science Prize: Proving that there's more to mold than meets the eye, Japanese scientists Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Hokkaido University, Hiroyasu Yamada of Nagoya, Ryo Kobayashi of Hiroshima University, Atsushi Tero of Presto JST, Akio Ishiguro of Tohoku University and Hungarian Ágotá Tóth of the University of Szeged, showed how amoeba-like slime mold was able to find the minimum-length solution between two points in a labyrinth. In short, it solves puzzles.

Economics Prize: Helping lap dancers everywhere, Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, exposed the fact that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.

Physics Prize: Detangling shampoo manufacturers beware. Dorian Raymer of the Ocean Observatories Initiative at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego, proved mathematically that heaps of string or hair will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots.

Chemistry Prize: Nothing like contraception to cause controversy as joint chemistry prize winners proved and disproved that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide. Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers of New England and Deborah J. Anderson of Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School say it is, while Taiwanese scientists Chuang-Ye Hong of Taipei Medical University, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang say it is not.

Literature Prize: David Sims of Cass Business School in London, takes home the literature prize for his lovingly written study on behavior entitled, You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations.

For more information about the Ig® Nobel Prizes, visit Improbable Research's Web site where you can watch the 2008 ceremony, learn about past winners and find out how to nominate other wacky scientific works for 2009.

Resource

The Ig® Nobel Prizes
Improbable Research