Reflections on a urination duration peroration

Joe Stapleton went to a public talk by Ig Nobel physics prize winner David Hu. Here are Joe’s reflections on what he saw and heard:

BACKGROUND: The 2015 Ig Nobel prize for physics was awarded to Patricia Yang, David Hu, and Jonathan Pham, and Jerome Choo, for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds). That research is described in the study “Duration of Urination Does Not Change With Body Size,” Patricia J. Yang, Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo, and David L. Hu, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 111 no. 33, August 19, 2014, pp. 11932–11937.