Everyone knows about the Nobel Prizes annually awarded for extraordinary achievements in physics, medicine, chemistry, economics, literature and peace. (Congratulations to this year’s winners in medicine–Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen for their discovery of the AIDS virus.)
But have you heard of the Ig Nobel Prizes? Sponsored by the magazine “Annals of Improbable Research” and MIT, the awards are given for research “that first make people laugh, and then make them think.”
(The Ig Nobels are awarded every year in early October, around the time that the Nobel Prizes are handed out. Check out a video of the 2006 ceremony http://improbable.com/ig/2006/webcast/stream.html.)
