WEEKEND EDITION, October 2-3, 1999
Homage to the Inconsequential
The British have long regarded making and drinking tea as a science, and
now it looks like
they have some validation. This week, scientists from around the world
gathered to celebrate
the scientific community's most inconsequential discoveries at the 9th
First Annual Ig Nobel
Prize Ceremony. A spoof of the Nobel Prizes, which are awarded later this
month, the event
is organized by the "Annals of Improbable Research" magazine. "We try to
celebrate the
amusing and goofy side to science in a hope to get people interested in
the subject," Marc
Abrahams, editor of "Annals," and master of ceremonies, told Newsweek.com.
He lives in
the hope that these achievements "can not and should not be reproduced."
A sampling of the discoveries the world can merrily live without: To celebrate
the Brits'
pastime of tea and biscuits, the Physics prize was jointly awarded. Ken
Fisher was honored
for his study on calculating the most scientifically efficient method of
dunking a biscuit.
Professor Jean-Marc Vanden Broeck was singled out for working out how to
make a teapot
spout that does not drip. And the prize for literature was given to the
British Standards
Institution for their six-page specification on the correct way to make
a cup of tea. However,
by far the most outrageous invention was the one awarded the prize for
medicine: Japanese
scientist Takeshi Makino's infidelity detection spray. ó Louise Rosen