Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded

The Nobel Prizes are dribbled out during the month of October. The year the prize for Medicine and Physiology was awarded to Fine and Mello for their very important work on gene repression by double-stranded RNA. This is a key discovery in how to make things such as stem cell therapies work. It was well deserved.

The Nobel Prize carries a cash award of $1.3 million.

And also at Harvard, the Ig Nobel prizes are awarded. The prize is a set of Groucho glasses/nose/mustache, a Harpo wig, and a badly stained labcoat.

Actually, this is just for fun, and even the winners usually show up at the awards ceremony to give a talk and participate in the fun. Usually the winners are chosen from the titles of their papers, such as this year's, "Why don't Woodpeckers Get headaches?"

Actually, these are worthy indeed of asking the question and finding an answer. It may not be as important as talking about double-stranded RNA, but is is one of those curiosities of nature that a curious scientist will ask.

For a list of this year's winners go HERE ......