Ig Nobel

The 2006 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded last night, and I must say, I'm intrigued by the hiccup cure. The list of winners:

ORNITHOLOGY _ The late Philip R.A. May and Ivan R. Schwab for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.

NUTRITION — Wasmia Al-Houty and Faten Al-Mussalam, for showing that dung beetles are finicky about the dung.

PEACE — Howard Stapleton, for inventing a teenager repellent, an electronic device that makes annoying noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not adults. The same technology is used to make telephone ringtones audible to teens, but not teachers.

ACOUSTICS — D. Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hillenbrand for their experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.

MATHEMATICS — Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed.

LITERATURE — Daniel Oppenheimer, for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."

MEDICINE — Francis Fesmire, for his medical case report "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage"; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven for their subsequent medical case report.

PHYSICS — Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch, for their insights into why dry spaghetti often breaks into more than two pieces when bent.

CHEMISTRY — Antonio Mulet, Jose Javier Benedito, Jose Bon and Carmen Rossello, for their study "Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature."

BIOLOGY — Bart Knols and Ruurd de Jong, for showing that female malaria mosquitoes are attracted equally to the smell of Limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.

Past winners are here.