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According to one study, nasal breathing improves after an orgasm
Photo: Zero Creatives / Westend61 / Getty Images
Can you tell the degree of corruption from the weight of a politician?
Can beards cushion blows to the face?
And: what effect does sex have on a stuffy nose?
These are questions that may not even arise - but to which there are now answers, thanks to researchers.
First laugh, then think
On Friday night, the venerable Harvard University in Cambridge awarded the Ig Nobel Prizes - awards for scientific research that "should make people laugh and then think," as the organizers say.
Because of the corona pandemic, the traditionally somewhat shrill gala took place online.
The name of the award is based on the English word
ignoble
, which can be translated as "unworthy" or "dishonorable".
The Ig Nobel Prizes are not endowed.
According to the organizers, the award ceremony is intended to "celebrate the unusual and honor the imaginative."
Ten scientific papers were awarded
A total of ten works were awarded prizes.
In the
biology
category
, this year's prize went to a research team from Sweden for an acoustic analysis of the purring of cats.
All sorts of variations in cat-human communication were examined, from ordinary purring to chattering, mumbling and meowing to squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling and growling.
Scientists from Spain and Iran received
the prize in the
ecology
category
.
Using genetic analysis, they identified different types of bacteria found in discarded chewing gum that stuck to sidewalks in different countries.
Researchers from six countries, including Germany, were
honored for their special work in the field of
chemistry
.
The team had examined the air in movie theaters.
They wanted to test whether the smells that are generated by the audience in the hall correspond to what is happening on the screen - specifically, whether the smells are a reliable indicator of the level of violence, sex, anti-social behavior, drug use and Give swear words in the film.
The
economic
award also
went to a team from six nations who had discovered that the obesity of a country's politicians can actually be a good indicator of corruption in that country.
In the
medicine
category
, the Ig Nobel Prize went to three researchers from Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
They had shown that orgasms can help improve nasal breathing, as can decongestant nasal sprays.
In the
transport
category
, a team from Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and three other countries triumphed with an experimental study on the question of whether it is safer to transport a rhinoceros upside down in the air.
The answer: it is.
A team from the USA received
the
peace
prize.
It had investigated the hypothesis that the human beard could have developed to protect against blows to the face.
Scientists from the Netherlands, Italy, Taiwan and the USA were honored
for their work in the field of
physics
.
They had conducted experiments to find out why pedestrians don't constantly collide with other pedestrians.
The prize for
kinetics
went to Japan, Switzerland and Italy: the award-winning scientists had investigated how mutual anticipation can contribute to self-organization in crowds.
In the field of
entomology
,
i.e. entomology
, four researchers from the USA were honored for developing a new method for combating cockroaches on submarines.
Especially the winners: better luck next year
The event was moderated - as in the previous 30 years - by the mathematician Marc Abrahams, who publishes the journal "Annals of Improbable Research", the annals of improbable research.
And as every year, he ended the gala with the closing words: "If you haven't won an Ig Nobel Prize this year - and especially
if
you have won one: better luck next year!"
vki / dpa / Reuters
