Improbable Research

The 2011 Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced and introduced at the 21st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University.

Click here for the list of winners.

The ceremony was webcast live on YouTube. Here’s a recording of it:

Tonight’s the 21st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. 1200 people will have the privilege of watching it live, in-person at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University.

Many more will have the opportunity to watch it live on the internet.

The webcast will be available here on Improbable.com, at the Improbable Research YouTube channel and at finer media outposts around the world and across the World Wide Web.

One of our technology partners, Elemental Technologies, will be hosting the webcast on their site.

Among the other websites hosting the webcast are such geeky luminaries as io9, BoingBoing, Scientific American, New Scientist, Central Science, Forest of Thoughts, and QI (Quite Interesting).

If you prefer a more traditional media experience, you may watch the webcast at sites like The Guardian, MSNBC, Fox News, The Huffington Post, CBC, ABC (Australia), Nashua Telegraph, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Metro Newspaper.

If your preferences tend towards the non-English, you may enjoy the webcast at such sites as Wyborcza (Poland), Veja (Brazil), Ansa (Italy), Publico (Portugal), Clarin (Argentina), Wetenschap24 (Netherlands), and UOL (Brazil).

The broadcast will begin at 7:30 PM (US Eastern Time) on September 29th, 2011. It will last between 90 minutes and two hours.

The 21st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony happens tonight:
Thursday, September 29, 7:30 pm (US eastern time).

Watch the live webcast.

If you were tasked with implanting silicone gel testicular prostheses in a beagle dog, which would be the more effective procedure, “under the tunica albuginea” or “under the tunica vaginalis”?

Tong-li Hao (Department of Urology, General Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing, China) and
Peng Chen (Department of Electromagnetics and Laser Biology, Radiation Medicine Institute, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China) recently performed a study to find out. For background, the team remind us that :

“Implantation of testis prosthesis under the tunica albuginea has been considered to be the standard method in the most of the reports. However, postoperative scrotal appearance, the mobilization and the palpitation of the prosthesis are not always satisfactory to all the patients.”

Their comparative experimental tests with nine beagles indicated :

“Prostheses implanted under the tunica vaginalis showed a more satisfying mobilization and palpation than those implanted under the tunica albuginea.”

But noting however :

“Showered with paper airplanes, garlanded by admiring Nobel laureates, some of the world’s quirkiest scientists will be honoured at a sellout ceremony at Harvard University today. The 21st annual Ig Nobel Prizes, conferred by the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), have become one of the most coveted prizes in science. Bringing neither personal riches nor offers of future funding, the Ig Nobels do bestow a heavy dollop of cool on their winners who, collectively, seem to put the fizz in physics and the giggles in gigabytes.”

—So writes Victoria Lambert in The Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, in Italy:

“Prima ridere e poi pensare,”  says La Repubblica.