On September 14, the solemn ceremony of awarding the Ig Nobel Prize was held at Harvard. Every year, 10 scientists receive it for discoveries that make you laugh but then make you think. In other words, the Ig Nobel Prize is awarded for research that sometimes seems witty, but absurd or simply bizarre. The main purpose of the award is to attract public attention to scientific research.
The Schnobel Prize was founded in 1991 by Mark Abrahams, editor and journal of Annals of Improbable Research, specializing in science comedy. His idea was to mark works that are difficult or impossible to replicate. He was inspired by his previous work at the Journal of Irreproducible Results, which published unusual scientific papers. Abrahams invited several Nobel Prize winners and presented the Ig Nobel Prizes for the first time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among the first awardees were scientists with a variety of studies: one of them claimed that water has a memory, another created a sperm bank for Nobel laureates and Olympic champions, and a third proposed a remedy for gastric gas.
During the existence of the award, many more interesting discoveries and studies appeared, the authors of which received the Schnobel Prize. Let's take a look at some?
Dead Spider Robots
The team found that spiders have special characteristics that make them excellent gripping tools for robots: spiders are lightweight, relatively strong and flexible, and do not require special modification. The researchers took a tarantula and used it as a gripping mechanism for the robot – the spider showed high efficiency. Instead of creating complex and expensive parts, the researchers said, dead spiders could be used as off-the-shelf components. They say that it reduces costs, environmental burden, and also looks quite unusual and intriguing.
Researchers at Rice University have discovered the potential of deceased spiders as hydraulic gripper robots. Their new scientific approach, called "necrobotics," is presented as a low-cost, highly efficient and biocompatible solution in the world of robotics.
In the wild, spiders control their legs by adjusting the fluid pressure in each of them, using a unique valve system: when the pressure rises, the leg straightens, overcoming the force of the flexor muscles. This process helps to understand why spiders' legs fold when they die – there is no necessary pressure for balance. In fact, activating the leg mechanism of a dead spider is not that difficult: a simple air injection into the central valve system allows the legs to be controlled as if it were a robot.
The researchers evaluated the effectiveness of such a "spider" gripper and were amazed at the results: it was able to lift a load 1.3 times its weight, with a maximum clamping force of 0.3 millinewtons, while still remaining functional after 700 uses! Although microcracks appear on the joints after 1,000 cycles (probably due to moisture loss), applying a protective layer (such as beeswax) can extend the lifespan.
The ability of a deceased spider to grasp a variety of objects is due to a combination of the natural flexibility of the legs and the microscopic structures on them that function as specialized adhesives. This research is an important step in the integration of biomaterials into robotics. Historically, humans have always used the remains of deceased creatures, from clothing skins to sharp bones, as tools, so using a deceased spider as a robot seems quite logical.
Robot designers often turn to nature for ideas, such as the stickiness of a gecko's paws or the movements of a fish's tail. Why create something new when you can take advantage of what nature has been developing for millions of years?
The Dirtiest Money
In 2019, scientific researchers from the Netherlands conducted an analysis to find out which country's paper money contains the most harmful microorganisms. As a result of the study, they found that the most "polluted" is Romania's money, the lei.
Life of the Beast
In 2016, Thomas Thwaites and Charles Foster received the Ig Nobel Prize in Biology for a unique experiment: Thwaites lived for three days in the guise of a goat, grazing in alpine meadows, and Foster got used to the role of a wild animal, rummaging through garbage cans. The goal of the experiment is to try to look at the world through the eyes of animals.
Report on Reports
In 2012, the United States Court of Auditors received the Schnobel Prize in the literature category. The reason is that this organization annually creates about 900 reporting documents. One of these reports, which aroused public interest, was entirely devoted to the analysis of other reports.
Cats are liquid
In 2017, Marc-Antoine Fardin, a scientist from the city of Lyon, was awarded for a unique study in which he applied the principles of fluid dynamics... to analyze the behavior of cats. As a result of his research, he came to the conclusion that cats are able to exhibit the characteristics of both solid and liquid, adapting their shape to the container they are trying to fit into! In addition, Fardin determined the time it takes for the cat to fully "adapt" to the shape of the container.
Levitating Frogs
Among the numerous scientific works awarded the Ig Nobel Prize, it is quite difficult to single out the most unusual. However, a 2000 physics study on levitating a frog using a strong magnetic field deserves special attention! Andre Geim and Michael Berry have demonstrated the ability to lift non-magnetic objects into the air using a magnetic field. Their choice fell on a frog consisting mainly of water, which has little resistance to a magnetic field: by placing the frog in a coil of current, they were able to achieve its levitation.
The Ig Nobel Prize not only provides an opportunity to laugh at unusual research, but also, oddly enough, helps to awaken interest in science, demonstrating its creativity and diversity. The award is sponsored by Harvard University Societies that actively support scientific innovation, humor, and creativity in scientific research.
