Dutch researchers have won two Ig Nobel prizes on Thursday night, the annual awards for scientific research that makes you laugh first and think second.
Both prizes went to researchers from the University of Amsterdam. For the first prize-winning experiment, scientists tossed a coin 350,757 times: did it turn heads or tails? In almost 51 percent of cases, the coin landed on the same side it started on, which is just slightly different from the expected 50 percent.
The second prize-winning research deals with drunken and sober worms as models for the ‘behaviour’ of active polymers. Length appears to matter less than activity, is one of the results.
Cat on a cow
Besides these Dutch contributions, other unique research was also awarded. A study on placebos, for instance, showed that fake drugs prove more effective when they hurt. And if you have nothing to do you can always put a cat on the back of a cow and pop a paper bag. That’s an experiment from 1941 to see if milk then comes out of the udders.
The winners received 10,000 billion Zimbabwe dollars, a symbolic prize worth about 40 cents. The amount was handed in fake notes because the currency no longer exists. (HOP, BB)
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