2025 Ig Nobel Prize Winners(arstechnica.com)

35 pointsby sohkamyung5 months ago2 comments

ProllyInfamous5 months ago
2025 Ig Nobel Prize Winners:
Biology: Does painting zebra stripes on cows reduce biting flies [yes]
Chemistry: Does Teflon™ as a food additive increase satiety/fullness [yes, allegedly safely?!]
Physics: Avoiding unpleasant spaghetti sauce texture
Engineering: Does using a ventilated UV shoe rack decrease odor [yes]
Aviation: Do intoxicated bats fly worse [yes]
Psychology: The effects of telling narcissists they're intelligent ["external feedback helped shape the subjects' perception of their own intelligence, regardless of the accuracy of that feedback" ; negative feedback is more impactful]
Nutrition: Is just cheese the favored pizza of reptiles [yes]
Pediatrics: Does garlic affect breast feeding [yes, babies will feed longer]
Literature: Does fingernail growth diminish as one ages [yes]
Peace: Does slight inebriation increase foreign language composition [yes]
astrange5 months ago
[flagged]
- wewtyflakes5 months ago
  That seems like a reasonable premise and conclusion though; I think the spirit of these prizes is that one or both of (premise|conclusion) is absurd. You wasted your time being reasonable! ;-)
  - recursivecaveat5 months ago
    I think there's room for research that feels absurd in that the premise & conclusion are almost too reasonable, like "Saul Justin Newman, for detective work to discover that many of the people famous for having the longest lives lived in places that had lousy birth-and-death recordkeeping" or "Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson, for documenting that most people who use complicated products do not read the instruction manual".
    I think "Statistically demonstrated that being stupid makes you a bad monarch" is a good fit in that vein :P Though I suppose it's a legitimately interesting question to what extent the monarch actually matters to their state's outcomes.
- amai5 months ago
  Can‘t inbreeding also increase the IQ?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jewish_intelligence
  - _DeadFred_5 months ago
    Here's a chart by country that you can research from. Highest on the chart look to be 50-60% in Pakistan, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan. With many other middle eastern countries in the 40s. Israel is at 10%, half of Turkey's rate and one spot above India so maybe not the best source for your interest.
    Seems like there would be noticable standout family groups in those populations if your theory is true but I don't think it is. Totally not calling you out (your post is a natural response to OP) but it's online reference in my experience is just another way to 'other' one ethnic group and call them inbreds online:
    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/inbreedin...
  - tptacek5 months ago
    As the article observes, it's a stereotype, not a scientific fact.
    astrange5 months ago
    It's not highly credible though; the article estimates their IQs the same way all other IQ research does, ie they just made it up.
    tptacek5 months ago
    I agree I guess? Any attribution of any kind of statistical aggregate of IQ to an intuitively recognizable "race" is presumptively fictitious as far as I can tell.