A Theatrical Tribute To Unexpected Science

This year’s Ig Nobel Prizes include awards for studying coin flipping, the movements of a dead trout, and more.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Speaker 00

  It's the most wonderful time of the year?

• 0:06Speaker 01

  And now, let's get it over with, ladies and gentlemen, the awarding of the 2024 Ig Nobel Prizes.

• 0:15Speaker 00

  It's Thursday, December 5th. You're listening to Science Friday.

• 0:22Speaker 00

  I'm Sci-Fry producer Charles Burquist. Each year, the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research hand out awards for unusual scientific investigations. So, you know, if you've ever wondered about the big questions in life, like, how does a dead fish swim compared to a live fish, for instance? Stay tuned. Here's Ira to whisk you away to the awards ceremony.

• 0:48Ira Flatow?

  The awards are handed out each year by the editors of the science humor magazine, The Annals of Improbable Research, for work in science that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. It's stuff that might make you say, hmm, I wonder. Shower thoughts, some people call them. This year's celebration is the 34th First Annual Awards. And for the first time in several years, the ceremony was held post-COVID in person in a theater on the MIT campus. Glad to see them all back in the flesh. This year's ceremonies featured a mini-opera about Murphy's Law. You know, if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.

• 1:30Ira Flatow?

  And prizes handed out by genuine, real Nobel laureates. Just to explain a few things before we start. There are a few traditions at the ceremonies, like the traditional welcome, welcome and goodbye, goodbye speeches. There's an official who will sound an alarm if things threaten to get too raunchy. And then there's Miss Sweetie Pooh, a little girl who starts to whine whenever the speakers go on too long. And you know what? Sometimes the speakers try to bribe her, but she always wins in the end. So here's our post-Thanksgiving tradition as we take you back to earlier this year at MIT, where the dignitaries and the ignitaries are taking the stage. Welcome.

• 2:20Speaker 03

  Welcome.

• 2:25Speaker 03

  Ladies and gentlemen, and variations thereupon. Welcome to the 31st Fourth Annual Ig Nobel... Oh, sorry. Welcome to the 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Tonight, we are going to award the 2024 Ig Nobel Prizes. Soon, we will welcome our most special guests, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners. This year's winners represent many countries and exactly one planet. Now, ladies and gentlemen, children and elders, literati, glitterati, pseudo-intellectuals, quasi-pseudo-intellectuals, pseudo- quasi-intellectuals, smoots, bots, bacteria, willbe's, has-beens, victims of Murphy's Law.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  And the rest of you, may I introduce our Master of Ceremonies, the editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, Chief Airhead Mark Abrams.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  Tonight, today, no, tonight, we honor some remarkable individuals and groups. Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people laugh, and then makes them think. The Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony is produced by the magazine, our magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  And it's produced in collaboration with the MIT Press. The editors of the Annals of Improbable Research have chosen a theme for this year's Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. That theme is Murphy's Law.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  Murphy's Law is the idea that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. There are many other ways to phrase that, many of them are wrong.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Tonight, there are ten prizes. The achievements speak for themselves.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yet, we will speak of them. The prizes will be presented to the winners by Nobel laureates. Please welcome the Nobel laureates who will hand out the prizes. Let's give each of them a hand. 2007 Nobel laureate in economics, Eric Maskin.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  2009 Nobel laureate in economics, Esther Duflo.

• 5:06Speaker 01

  2009 Nobel laureate in economics, Abhijit Banerjee.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  1997 Nobel laureate in economics, Robert Merton.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  2023 Nobel laureate in chemistry, Mungie Bowendie.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  1990 Nobel laureate in physics, Jerome Friedman.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Is again unable to join us on this particular night. He joins us, though, as usual, via the magic of recorded video.

• 5:47Speaker 04

  Congratulations. I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  And now, let's get it over with. Ladies, gentlemen, whoever the award, whomever, the awarding of the 2024 Ig Nobel prizes. We are, as you've heard several times, giving out ten prizes. The winners do come from many nations. They have all earned their prizes. Karen, tell them what they've won.

• 6:19Speaker 03

  This year's winners each get an Ig Nobel prize.

• 6:27Speaker 03

  Sorry, and they get a piece of paper. This piece of paper says they've won an Ig Nobel Prize.

• 6:35Speaker 03

  It's been in here somewhere.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Ladies and gentlemen, now I will show you the coveted Ig Nobel Prize.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  This year's Ig Nobel Prize is a transparent box. The box contains historic items about the history of Murphy's Law.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  Some of these items are missing.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  And the box is almost impossible to open.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  The Peace Prize.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  The winner is from the USA. The Ig Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the late B.F. Skinner for experiments to see the feasibility of housing live pigeons inside missiles to guide the flight paths of the missiles. Accepting on behalf of B.F. Skinner, here is his daughter Julie Skinner-Vargas.

• 7:55Speaker 05

  On behalf of my father, B.F. Skinner,

• 8:02Speaker 05

  I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution.

• 8:11Speaker 05

  People know him only for discovering operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement, and for books like Walden 2, Verbal Behavior, Beyond Freedom D, and more.

• 8:32Speaker 05

  Even the B.F. Skinner Foundation fails to put a missile on its hat.

• 8:42Speaker 05

  So thank you for finally putting the record straight.

• 9:01Speaker 01

  The Anatomy Prize.

• 9:05Speaker 06

  Stay together, stay together. Can everyone hear me? Can everyone hear me? This is Room 10250. It's one of the most famous rooms here at MIT. It's used for all sorts of lectures. Nobel laureates have lectured here. MIT presidents have been introduced to the world here. Fortunately, nothing that important seems to be going on right now. Now, I'm told that if you want to take a nap during your class, the best place to do it is back there in Row P. Yes, thank you, thank you. And if you were ever to be here when it was empty, which is very unusual, because it's used about 90% of the time, but if you were ever to be here when it was empty, I'd suggest you look under your seat,

• 9:48Speaker 06

  because it's been said that more than one MIT student leaves their slide rule behind when they graduate. Anyway, our next stop is the Infinite Carter, so we don't want to linger, we don't want to linger.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  The Anatomy Prize. The Ig Nobel Anatomy Prize is awarded to: Marjolaine Williams, Quentin Hennoch, Sarah Tanon Delara, Nicholas Cogan, Vincent Fleury, Romy Ray Seguiere, Juan Jose Cortez Santander, Roberto Recaina, Julian Sterneman, and Roman Jose Consare for studying whether the hair on the heads of most people in the northern hemisphere swirls in the same direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, as hair on the heads

• 10:47Speaker 01

  of most people in the southern hemisphere.

• 10:54Speaker 07

  We warmly thank the scientific committee to have chosen our publication about genetic determinism and hemisphere influence on her world direction. So to make a long story short, it began with the observation of my own twin identical daughters. When they just were born, I observed the same direction of the world, but one left-sided and the other one right-sided. So I decided to investigate, and I called my friend Hossain.

• 11:33Speaker 06

  Yes, so we found interesting results on twins, and then we decided to check this quite strange hypothesis, whether they would turn in opposite direction in the northern and southern hemisphere. So then we started working with colleagues from Chile, and we realized that, in fact, they do. It's nearly clockwise for everyone.

• 11:57Speaker 05

  I'm bored. I'm bored. I'm bored.

• 12:06Speaker 06

  Next year for the rest.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  We have a demonstration. Everyone here, in this room, would you please look at the head of the person directly in front of you, who is slightly below your level, and please, by raising your own arm in the air and twirling it, indicate in which direction clockwise... Oh, if you're wearing a hat, would you please remove it? Please indicate by raising your arm in the air and twirling it which direction clockwise or counter-clockwise the hair is swirling.

• 12:47Ira Flatow?

  We have to take a break, but we'll be right back with more from the Igno Bell Awards in just a moment. Stay with us.

• 13:00Ira Flatow?

  Hi there. Ira here, letting you know that we have a dollar-for-dollar match right now. So any donation you make will be doubled. And this week, we're celebrating Giving Tuesday, which means now is a great time to double your impact and show your support for Science Friday, a nonprofit dedicated to making science accessible to the public. So please, go to sciencefriday.com/support to make your donation and invest in the future of science journalism. Again, that's sciencefriday.com/support. And thanks.

• 13:37Speaker 05

  WNYC is supported by Bear. Every day in America, science delivers, not just in the headlines, but in the moments that matter most. Science is a journey, one of curiosity, persistence, and progress. It's about asking questions, testing, learning, and improving again and again. Science delivers harvests that feed families, tools that help farmers grow more with less, and new ways to protect land for generations to come. Let's keep asking, keep testing, keep discovering, so science can keep delivering. Learn more at sciencedelivers.com.

• 14:12Speaker 07

  I'm Kevin Ruess. And I'm Casey Newton. And together, we've been tech journalists for decades. Now, we're your hosts of Machine Gods, a new podcast from NPR that makes sense of what AI means for your work, your life, and all of our futures. Twice a week, we'll be exploring the biggest moves in tech and give you unmatched access to the real titans of industry. Listen to Machine Gods from NPR on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 14:40Ira Flatow?

  We're playing highlights from this year's Ig Nobel Awards ceremony, research that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. It was recorded in September of this year on the MIT campus. Here's Ig Nobel Master of Ceremonies again, Mark Abrams.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  The Botany Prize. The winners.

• 15:05Speaker 01

  Are from Germany, Brazil, and the USA. The Ig Nobel Botany Prize is awarded to Jacob White and Felipe Yamashita for finding evidence that some real plants imitate the shapes of neighboring artificial plastic plants.

• 15:31Speaker 07

  Thank you. I would like to thank the organization and also the Stiftung Zukunftsket for funding our research. And as this research was based on a plant who can mimic the leaf of other plants. And we just use a plastic leaf, and this plant mimics the plastic leaf. And how they do that? Our hypothesis is this bokehla plant have some sort of eye, they can see what's going around. And how they do that? We have no idea. And we need to continue studying on this plant. But to study on this, I need a position. So I just finished my PhD.

• 16:16Speaker 07

  And I need a job now.

• 16:26Speaker 07

  Thank you. And I need a job to continue this research. Thank you.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  Thank you. Now get set for the 24/7 lectures. We've invited several of the world's top thinkers to tell us very briefly what they are thinking about. Each 24/7 lecturer will explain their subject twice. First, a complete technical description in 24 seconds. And then, after a brief pause, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  The first 24/7 lecture will be delivered by economist and Nobel laureate Esther Duflo.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  Her topic is climate injustice. First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go.

• 17:31Speaker 05

  Taking into account our full carbon footprint, an American in the top decile of the income distribution emits 120 times as much CO2e as an African in the bottom half. However, extrapolating from the marginal impact of past weather realizations, researchers estimate that higher temperatures could lead to at least 6 million extra annual deaths by 2100, concentrated in poor countries which are both hotter...

• 18:00Speaker 01

  And now, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go.

• 18:10Speaker 05

  The rich consume, heat kills the poor.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  The next 24/7 lecture will be delivered by ornithologist, Ig Nobel Prize winner, and Natural History Museum director, Case Mulcher.

• 18:29Speaker 01

  His topic: Murphy's Law and Ducks. First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go. The 130 species of ducks are spread worldwide in wet habitats. In a duck's life, anything can go wrong, but ducks are resilient. They've evolved to handle predators and harsh conditions, aggressive mating, and even human impact. Their numbers and diversity show that while things do go wrong, they're built and behave to survive, ensuring their presence in a changing world.

• 19:13Speaker 01

  And now, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go. Ducks prove that nature overcomes Murphy's Law.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  The Medicine Prize.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  The winners are from Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium. The Ig Nobel Medicine Prize is awarded to Leven Schenk, Tamine Fadé, and Christian Buchholz for demonstrating that fake medicine that causes painful side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that does not cause painful side effects.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  The prize will be presented by Nobel laureate Esther Duflo.

• 20:29Speaker 07

  Well, thank you very much for this prize. It's a great honor, of course. Very happy to be here. So, we actually investigated if side effects and how they actually can improve treatments. Although this sounds very counterintuitive, in some cases, previous research on placebo effects actually suggests that this is the case. So, we investigated and we found that this is the case, that non-painful side effects can actually lead to a bigger pain reduction. And yeah, if you're interested in the details,

• 21:14Speaker 07

  I have to refer you to the paper. Thank you.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  The Physics Prize.

• 21:30Speaker 01

  The winner is from the USA. The Ig Nobel Physics Prize is awarded to Jimmy Liao for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

• 21:47Speaker 01

  This is presented by Nobel laureate Rishi Lohandi.

• 21:53Speaker 07

  I discovered that a live fish moves more than a dead fish.

• 22:02Speaker 07

  But not by much, not by much. A dead trout toed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things, using its body like a sailboat to tack upwind, its torso undulating, acting as a lift-producing sail and a stabilizing keel at the same time. Fluids flap flexible fish forward from forces and feedback. The water swims the fish.

• 22:40Speaker 07

  This flaccid trout ignited my career, and I'll forever be grateful.

• 22:47Speaker 07

  Thank you, Ig Nobel, for not ignoring the fun in fundamental science. Viva la fish!

• 23:03Speaker 01

  The Physiology Prize.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  The winners are from Japan and the USA.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  The Ig Nobel Physiology Prize is awarded to Ryo Okabe, Toyofumi Chen Yoshikawa, Yosuke Yoniyama, Yuhei Yokayama, Satana Tanaka, Akehiko Yoshizawa, Wendy Thompson, Gokul Kanan, Aijii Kobayashi, Hiroshi Date, and Takanoori Takebe.

• 23:47Speaker 01

  For discovering that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Prize is presented to them by Nobel laureate Robert Merton.

• 24:06Speaker 06

  First and foremost, thank you so much for believing the potential of anus, for breathing potential.

• 24:15Speaker 06

  So, in Japan, we have a very interesting creature called lochi's that has a capacity to suck up oxygen from the bats. So why we can't do that? So that was the question we started. So let me show how it works with this extraordinary colleagues. So, we start from making oxygenated liquids and then preparing that beforehand. Then, you know, this very talented professors in the surgery in prominent university in Japan, these are full professors, by the way,

• 24:49Speaker 06

  and operating every day, but he just helping to pick model first and try to inject. Thank you so much. So lochi, as if lochi's, they are injecting lots of bubbles in the bats and they eventually pump it up, enjoying the extraordinary capacity to suck up the oxygen, eventually leading to improvements of respiratory failure conditions. Okay? And so, sorry, now we survive.

• 25:22Speaker 06

  We studied Kunigo trials. Any volunteers are welcome. Thank you, Thomas.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  It's time for the next 24/7 lectures. This 24/7 lecture will be delivered by the permanent acting interim executive director of MOBA, the Museum of Bad Art, Louise Riley Sacco.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  Her topic: Bad Art.

• 25:59Speaker 01

  First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go.

• 26:06Speaker 05

  Museum-quality bad art is first of all art, created by someone seriously attempting to make an artistic statement, but has gone horribly awry in concept or execution. Poor technique is not sufficient unless the lack of drawing ability, perspective, or sense of color results in a compelling image. Many works contain over-the-top imagery, whether or not the artist's intent is decipherable by the artist or the audience.

• 26:36Speaker 01

  And now, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go.

• 26:46Speaker 05

  It's art too bad to be ignored.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  The next 24/7 lecture will be delivered by economist and Nobel laureate Eric Maskin.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  His topic: Murphy's Law and Economics. First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go. In the pandemic, the government sent checks to low-income individuals. This had the dual purpose of tidying the neediest people over and propping up demand to avoid a downward recessionary spiral. Unfortunately, a perfect storm of broken supply chains meant that demand exceeded supply, causing notable inflation. In other words, if you conduct fiscal policy before your chickens have hatched, you might end up with egg on your face.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  And now, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go.

• 28:02Speaker 05

  The fiscal stimulus won't cause inflation. Oops.

• 28:14Speaker 01

  The final 24/7 lecture will be delivered by rock star and human curtain rod Amanda Palmer.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Her topic: Murphy's Law and Musical Performance. First, a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds. On your mark, get set, go.

• 28:41Speaker 05

  You're a musician, so don't throw me under the bus, okay?

• 28:46Speaker 05

  The one time you decide to select the two-leg, hella-cheap Iceland air flight from Boston to London to kick off a tour will coincide with the exact afternoon that the infamous Ash Cloud volcano erupts thereby grounding your flight in Reykjavik and trapping you in Iceland. The decision to book a tiny, unnecessary gig in Christchurch, New Zealand will coincide with the exact afternoon that the Christchurch earthquake kills almost 200 people, destroying the venue that you were meant to be performing in five hours later, grounding your flight and trapping you in northern New Zealand.

• 29:16Speaker 05

  I got two-thirds in.

• 29:18Speaker 01

  And now, a clear summary that anyone can understand in seven words. On your mark, get set, go.

• 29:26Speaker 05

  If it's all going well, just wait.

• 29:34Speaker 01

  A public service announcement. Did anyone lose an Ig Nobel Prize and a $10 trillion bill here?

• 29:42Ira Flatow?

  In this year's Ig Nobel Mini Opera, the International Murphy's Law Song Competition Contest Opera, about a competition to see who can perform the most Murphy-esque song about Murphy's Law. And of course, during the opera, things went wrong. Here's a taste of the opera.

• 30:01Speaker 06

  We need to pass a law of imperfection, a law that will give people some protection to ease the suffering and vile sensation that comes from fairness, yes, and from frustration. With everything that can and will go wrong, we all know, yes, we know it will go wrong.

• 30:34Speaker 06

  We need a law requiring punishment or firing for whenever someone is successful because it is distressful for the rest of us to see the wicked cruelty and the unfairness when they succeed while my life is a mess. We must imprison them. They are deserving. And when they fail to fail, it is unnerving. If they think that the bad times are behind them,

• 31:16Speaker 06

  the legal system really must remind them. We must succeed in making people fail. If they should fail to fail, send them to jail. We must succeed in this. We will not, will not let a single, single, single thing go right. So whenever anything goes right, we must require that it goes wrong. We need to pass love imperfection

• 31:58Speaker 06

  to give my, our grievances some real protection.

• 32:13Ira Flatow?

  Coming up, more highlights from this year's 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Awards. Stay with us.

• 32:20Speaker 05

  I'm Kevin Ruess. And I'm Casey Newton. And together, we've been tech journalists for decades. Now, we're your hosts of Machine Guts, a new podcast from NPR that makes sense of what AI means for your work, your life, and all of our futures. Twice a week, we'll be exploring the biggest moves in tech and giving you

• 32:37Ira Flatow?

  You unmatched access to the real titans of industry. Listen to Machine Gods from NPR on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 32:50Ira Flatow?

  And we now return you to highlights from this year's Ig Nobel Awards ceremony. The awards are presented by the editors of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, and you can find out more about them at improbable.com. Here's master of ceremonies Mark Abrams with more of the awards.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  The second paper airplane deluge is about to commence.

• 33:20Speaker 06

  Please prepare your paper airplanes for the second paper airplane deluge. But remember, safety first. Throw your paper airplanes only at the designated target. Prepare your airplanes for launch.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  The probability prize.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  The winners are from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The Ig Nobel Probability Prize is awarded to Frantisek Bartosz, Eric Jan Wagenmaker, Alexandra Sefoglu, Hendrik Godman, and many colleagues for showing both in theory and by 350,757 experiments that when you flip a coin, it tends to land on the same side as it started.

• 34:57Speaker 01

  Prize will be presented by Nobel laureate Ayesha Badajew.

• 35:09Speaker 07

  So, we flipped coins over 350,000 times, which means 650 hours of constant coin flipping, or about 81 workdays. It might seem ridiculous at first, and perhaps it was.

• 35:22Ira Flatow?

  We wanted to test a prediction from the economists Holmes and Montgomery, who argued that when people flip coins, the coins wobble in the air.

• 35:35Ira Flatow?

  Because of this wobble, coins presumably tend to land on the same side they started. But the effect is very small, possibly only 1%.

• 35:52Speaker 07

  We found compelling evidence for the effect. Also, some people show effects larger than others. Finally, there seems to be learning effects, and the more coins you flip, the less biased you become.

• 36:07Ira Flatow?

  So, we would encourage everybody to pick up this fascinating line of research and maybe attempt a replication of our experiment as well. Good luck!

• 36:23Speaker 01

  We have a demonstration, and we ask for a volunteer from the audience to do this demonstration. We will give you a coin, some paper, and a pencil, and then you, you, will replicate the experiment rapidly, the full number of times. If you would like to volunteer, just raise your arm, please.

• 36:49Speaker 01

  Okay, all right, thank you. When the ceremony ends, if you have not finished doing the full number of experiments, you can remain here in the lecture hall for as many months as you need.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  The demography prize!

• 37:14Speaker 01

  The winner is from Australia and the UK. The Ig Nobel Demography Prize is awarded to 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 record-keeping.

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Prize is presented by Dabba Lohi with Yvonne B.

• 37:50Speaker 05

  Okay, I was working away in my little lab, undisturbed by Buncombe and Wu, when I was told the way not to get old was the Blue Zones lifestyle breakthrough. At a stroke of a pen, they had solved medicine and shown how geriatrics keep breathing. "Long live them," they said in the abstract I read, "had as a secret of heavy inbreeding." And when that didn't sell, they thought grandly, "Well, we shall play out the long game in sales, and when searching about for a secret to tout us a way to outlive all the whales." But the secrets fell over like a lover in clover when I checked the government books.

• 38:30Speaker 05

  "The Blue Zones are poor, the records no more, the hundred-year-olds are all crooks." So the secret, it seems, to live out your dreams and make sure you keep living, not dying, is to move where birth certificates are rare. Teach your kids pension fraud and start lying.

• 38:55Speaker 05

  And I'd like to thank my mom, my dad, I'd like to thank all the old people who are collecting the

• 39:02Speaker 01

  Pension while they're dead? It's really excellent work. I'd like to thank the world's oldest man for having three birthdays. I'd like to thank the... I'm stopped. Okay.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  The Chemistry Prize.

• 39:33Speaker 01

  The winners are from the Netherlands and France. The Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize is awarded to Hesse-Herrmanns, Antoine de Blé, Daniel Bond, and Sander Voterson for using chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  The prize is presented to them by Nobel laureate Eric Maskin.

• 40:08Speaker 05

  So if you show a long, slender, wiggly object to a chemist, he will tell you it's a polymer. But if you show the same thing to a biologist, he will tell you it's a worm that moves because it's looking for food. The naive question we asked is what the actual difference between the two systems is.

• 40:32Speaker 05

  And to answer this question, we said, "Let's do worm chromatography."

• 40:40Speaker 05

  So we made the worms flow through a maze, which you see there. But before doing that, we made half of them drunk, inactive, and we painted them blue.

• 40:55Speaker 05

  So now we're going to reproduce the experiment onstage. It was a rafting race between a sober red worm and a drunk blue worm. Okay, get ready.

• 41:07Speaker 05

  Set, go!

• 41:23Speaker 05

  And the winner is... Sultan Wu!

• 41:37Speaker 05

  Please stop. I'm bored. Please stop. I'm bored. Please stop. I'm bored. Please stop. I'm bored.

• 41:54Speaker 01

  The... This is the 10th and final prize. The...

• 42:02Speaker 01

  I said "the" already.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  Mind if I say it again? The Biology Prize.

• 42:13Speaker 01

  The winners...

• 42:16Speaker 01

  Are from the USA. The Ig Nobel Biology Prize is awarded to the late Fordis Ely and the late William E. Peterson for exploding a paper bag next to a cat

• 42:37Speaker 01

  that's standing on the back of a cow

• 42:42Speaker 01

  to explore how and when cows spew their milk.

• 42:58Speaker 01

  Here to accept the prize on behalf of the winners are the daughter and grandson of Fordis Ely, Matt Wells and Jane Wells.

• 43:19Speaker 01

  The prize is presented to them by Nobel laureate Esther Duflo.

• 43:25Speaker 05

  Go ahead and say "thank you."

• 43:29Speaker 05

  An excerpt from this work.

• 43:34Speaker 05

  "It was thought that there might be a difference in the response of the two halves of the udder, as measured by the rate of ejection of milk, if the cow was severely frightened. Accordingly, the cow was systematically frightened, as the mechanical milker was attached. Frightening at first consisted in placing a cat on the cow's back and exploding paper bags every ten seconds for two minutes. Later, the cat was dispensed with as unnecessary."

• 44:22Speaker 01

  We have a demonstration.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  For which we ask the five Nobel laureates to assist us. Would the minor domos please bring out the cow, the cat, and some paper bags?

• 45:07Speaker 01

  Thank you, thank you.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  As you leave the lecture hall, as you leave the lecture hall in about two minutes, possibly, please help us tidy up. There are some stray paper airplanes, and if you gather them, perhaps you would like to bring one of those stray paper airplanes to an Ig Nobel Prize winner and get an autograph, transforming it into a historic item of some sort. Now Barry Duncan will give the traditional Ig Nobel goodbye, goodbye speech.

• 45:49Speaker 07

  Goodbye?

• 45:56Speaker 07

  Goodbye.

• 46:06Speaker 01

  Thank you for joining us at the 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. We estimate that next year's ceremony will be the 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Now, on behalf of Improbable Research and the MIT Press and everyone here, please remember this final thought: If you didn't win an Ig Nobel Prize tonight, and especially if you did, better luck next year. Thank you.

• 47:03Ira Flatow?

  And that about wraps it up for us. Thanks to Mark Abrams and everybody at the Annals of Improbable Research. You can find out more about them at improbable.com. We're going to leave you with a selection from this year's Ig Nobel mini-opera entitled "The International Murphy's Law Song Competition Contest Opera."

• 47:39Speaker 05

  But just wait, mate. Your luck will mutate. It's your fate, mate. It's Murphy's Law. First the day breaks, then your phone breaks, then your car's brakes start to fail. Then some jerk makes. You get headaches. Magic. Will these bad breaks make you quail? Then some old schmuck screws with your luck

• 48:22Speaker 05

  and your coffee fails to perk. Then you get struck by a tough truck. Is it just luck? Just some quirk? More than one time in your lifetime, you smelled solid, sweet success. But so often, it goes soft then. It becomes a, a crappy mess. You've worked so hard, always on guard,

• 49:06Speaker 05

  fending off each fatal flaw. But it's no good, no way you could have restored.

• 49:20Speaker 04

  Murphy's Law.

• 49:22Speaker 05

  Murphy's Law.

• 49:34Speaker 03

  Well, well, well, well, well.

• 49:36Ira Flatow?

  One more thing before we go. The end of the year is almost here, and we need your help to recap the best science stories from 2024. Tell us your favorite science news stories or discovery from this year. Your submission might even be featured in our recap. Share your thoughts and find out how you can attend our New York City event on December 6th, all on our website, sciencefriday.com/science2024.

• 50:08Speaker 00

  That's it for today. Lots of folks helped make this show happen, including Jordan Smudgic. Rasha Reedy. Shoshana Buckspahn. Danielle Johnson. And many more. Tomorrow, we'll check in on some of the top stories from the week in science. But for now, I'm Sci-Fry producer Charles Burquist. Thanks for listening. We'll see you soon.