The Ig Nobel awards 2018

The scientific event of the year took place this year on September the 13th.

I am, of course, talking about the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, where researchers are given prizes for research that makes people laugh, and then think. If you have never heard of these awards, then it's worth taking the time to rummage through their list of current and past winners here: https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/

In trying to think of a favourite, I found that there are far too many to choose from. Whether it's the 2017 Physics prize, for using a fluid dynamics approach to assess whether a cat can be both a solid and a liquid (no cats were harmed), the 2016 prize in economics for for assessing the perceived personalities of rocks from a sales and marketing perspective, the medicine prize from the same year awarded for discovering that if you have an itch on the left side of your body, you can relieve it by looking into a mirror and scratching the right side of your body (and vice versa), the 2013 psychology prize awarded for confirming, by experiment, that people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive, or one of the many, many others awarded over the years.

The research topics often, at first glance, seem silly but what is interesting are the (often very creative) methods used to investigate these questions as well as the implications of their outcomes. 

Have a look - maybe you will find some inspiration, or at least a few minutes of entertaining diversion.