Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 94

Nobel Prize winners live (a bit) longer [study]

“We attempt to measure the impact of winning a Nobel Prize on longevity by comparing winners to a control group, namely, those scientists nominated for a Nobel Prize who were never successful.”

The 2007 study was performed by Professor Andrew Oswald [pictured] of the Department of Economics, The University of Warwick, UK, and Dr Matthew Rablen (now at the Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield, UK).

The team chose the Nobel Prize winners as a way of examining the effect of social status on longevity.

“Nobel Prize winners were viewed as an ideal group to study as the winners could be seen as having their status suddenly dropped on them.” [ source ]

The prize winners (a sample of 524 of the world’s top scientists from the first half of the 20th century) lived longer than those who were simply nominees – 2.08 years in the US, 1.30 years in Germany, and 0.69 years in Europe as a whole.

Note: The research team did take the prize money into account :

“Although winners do donate a proportion of their prize-money, we can be reasonably sure that winning a Nobel Prize never harms the bank balance.”

Nevertheless, they add :

“[…] the marginal wealth effect from differences in the real value of the Prize on longevity is zero.”

See: ‘Mortality and Immortality: The Nobel Prize as an Experiment into the Effect of Status upon Longevity’ Journal of Health Economics, 2008, 27(6), 1462-1471.

Research research Martin Gardiner

The Eyebrows of Narcissists [Ig Informal Lecture]

Here is the Ig Informal Lecture by the winners of the 2020 Ig Nobel Psychology Prize.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. [In non-pandemic years, the lectures happen at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, two days after the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. But in the pandemic year 2020, it’s all happening online.]

The 2020 Ig Nobel Prize for Psychology was awarded to Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas Rule, for devising a method to identify narcissists by examining their eyebrows.

They documented their research, in the study “Eyebrows Cue Grandiose Narcissism,” Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas O. Rule, Journal of Personality, vol. 87, no. 2, 2019, pp. 373-385.

“A Crab Eating Frozen Gas”, or “The Faux Milk Mustache”

A deep sea encounter between a crab and some apparently appetizing methane gas bubbles, documented on video:

(Thanks to Upasana Sarraju for bringing this to our our attention.)

Fruit-Bat-Fellatio (and more!) Christmas Lecture in Bristol

A batty, especially promising Christmas Lecture at the University of Bristol, is upcoming from Ig Nobel Prize winner Gareth Jones:

Echoes: reflections on science, sex and shootings

2 December 2020, 3.00 PM – 2 December 2020, 5.00 PM

Professor Gareth Jones

G13/14 or Zoom online

The university offers this preview from Gareth Jones: “…I will show how my research has adapted to technological change, and reflect on memorable characters such as Roland the randy dog, and events such as flying bats in lecture theatres, the Ig Nobel prize ceremony at Harvard and its aftermath, shootings, and what we did when the car lights failed at night in China.”

The above photo shows Gareth Jones delivering his acceptance speech at the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

The 2010 Ig Nobel Prize for biology was awarded to Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of Bristol, UK, for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats. They describe that research in the study “Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time,” Min Tan, Gareth Jones, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi Zhang and Libiao Zhang, PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 10, e7595.

Stirring the Porridge with Albert E. [investigation]

Can that act of stirring porridge provide insights into the puzzle of light’s quantum wave/particle duality?

Photographer / author David Gepp (pron. ‘jep’) explains how – citing :

1) An encounter with Professor Jacques Mandelbrojt (cousin of Benoit Mandelbrot, of fractals fame)

2) Various contemplations of Albert Einstein’s gedankenexperiments (thought experiments)

3) The experience of porridge-stirring (to stop it sticking to the saucepan)

See : Stirring the Porridge with Albert E  LEONARDO journal, Vol. 52, no. 5

BONUS: At the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Professor Benoit Mandelbrot, who invented the concept of fractals, here spoke on the topic: FRACTALS. His seven-word summary has become a classic definition, against which all others are measured.

Here’s video of that historic moment:

Research research by Martin Gardiner

Podcast Episode #1044: “Boring Machines”

In this Podcast Episode #1044, Marc Abrahams shares with Chris Cotsapas a number of boring machines. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue.

The patents mentioned in this episode of the Improbable Podcast are further elaborated upon in the special Boring Machines issue (Vol. 19, #3) the Annals of Improbable Research Magazine.

Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public.

Seth Gliksman, Production Assistant

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Google Podcasts, AntennaPod, BeyondPod and elsewhere!

Ig Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Parliament Keeps on Punching

BBC News reports (with action video!) today (November 27, 2020) about the ongoing peaceful activities of the Ig Nobel Peace Prize-winning Taiwan parliament:

Taiwan lawmakers throw pig guts and punches

Pig guts were thrown and scuffles broke out in Taiwan’s parliament over the easing of US pork imports.

The government have been criticised for a recent decision to allow pork containing ractopamine in to the country.

The additive ractopamine is currently banned for pig use in Taiwan, as well as in China and the European Union, due to concerns about safety for animals and humans.

The 1995 Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Taiwan National Parliament, for demonstrating that politicians gain more by punching, kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations.

Two-time Ig Nobel Prize Winner Lukashenko Might Give Up Presidency, Maybe

Alexander Lukashenko, who has been awarded two Ig Nobel Prizes, announced that he might, perhaps, possibly stop being the president of Belarus, say many news reports.

Reuters reports (on November 27, 2020: “Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that he would step down as president once a new constitution is adopted and proposed curbing presidential powers as part of the reforms, though he gave no timeline for those moves.”

Lukashenko was a co-winner of the 2020 Ig Nobel Prize for medical education. That prize was awarded to Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Narendra Modi of India, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald Trump of the USA, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turkmenistan, for using the Covid-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can.

This is the second Ig Nobel Prize awarded to Lukashenko. The 2013 Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Alexander Lukashenko, for making it illegal to applaud in public, AND to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.

One of Lukashenko’s fellow 2020 Ig Nobel Medical Education Prize winners, Donald Trump, made a similar announcement.

Ig Nobel on Science Friday

Today’s the day for this year’s day-after-Thanksgiving Ig Nobel special on the Science Friday radio program. This is the 29th year for the special. (It’s the 30th year for the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.)

A math cookie recipe for extra-ambitious caterers

Caterers who cater to every whim can tuck away this cookie recipe, saving it for the day a customer demands mathematics-laced cookies:

This recipe was cooked up by Jon Jacobsen and Kym Louie, for the Mathematics Association of America.

(Thanks to Stanley Eigen for bringing this to our attention.)