Newsweek

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