2024 IG Nobel Prize

The IG Nobel Prizes is an award show that celebrates the DUMBEST research studies from the past year.. And the newest winners were just announced!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Albert Einstein, smart guy, kind of a bore. Yeah, it's
Brook and Jeffrey in the morning. Sure, Albi did some
good stuff, he had some great hair, he did his
research have to be so freaking lame, dry your relativity,

(00:22):
snooze the concept of wave particle duality. I'll take least
sexy topics to bring up on a first date for
eight hundred Alex.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think he was like a total womanizer if.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
I remember, being honest, I mean there's some problematic stuff
in his dating.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's just because you're a scientist doesn't mean you have
to research boring topics. And that's why they created the
ig Nobel Prices, the awards that honor the brave scientific
souls who dared to add ask questions like what happens
if you give a frog a tiny pair of pants?

(01:07):
And can those picking actually improve your memory?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
That one.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
There? See, if you don't know, every single year we
talk about these the ig Nobel Prizes, where they honor
the weirdest studies that researchers are actually doing.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Right now, you know that, I honestly look forward to
this super fun.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Because this year's ig Nobel Prize winners were just announced,
so let's get to it. Your first one went to
a team of researchers who asked, can you breathe through
your butt? Ah? This is important to know.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Hey, everybody close their mouth and let's see.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
I don't think I got lungs back there.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
They found actually, many mammals are capable of it, even
humans sort of what the study show doctors might be
able to help treat things like COVID using a special
mixture of sgen rich liquid that goes into our secret
breathing place. What is the cure?

Speaker 3 (02:06):
I mean, I will say it's really going to change CPR.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Spread. What else was given out of the award show
A team in Amsterdam did three hundred and fifty thousand
coin flips and found it's not really a fifty to
fifty chance for exertails.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
What is it we choose?

Speaker 3 (02:27):
How?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah? Waited? Is it? Coins are slightly more likely to
land on the same side that they started up on.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Oh, you gotta pay attention what it is on the
person's finger that's flipping it? Oh man, dude, the NFL
and all the sports leagues need to.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Be writing this down. Meanwhile, this year's Peace Prize went
to a study that looked at whether you can put
pigeons inside of missiles to help guide them to the
proper destination.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Why do I feel like that doesn't turn out for
the pigeon.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Sounds ethical pigeons need jobs to What is it like
last we're going over the top big Nobel Prize winners
from this year, which celebrates the strangest and most hilarious
real studies happening in the world of science.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I also read there's like a whole like banquet for
this award ceremony and it happens at MI T.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Like this is like legit, Wow, only MI I T.
I thought it was more prestigious than that. Your Botany
Prize went to a study that found some plants will
imitate the shapes of fake plastic plants. If you put
them next to each other, they will shape shift into
a fake plant. You would never know that they were real.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
It's like standing next to somebody with fake boobs and
your boobs start to look like theirs.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
That's what I was, like, that happened, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Exception Yeah, written some insight into brooks inner desires about
people's chests. Though here maybe you need to be in
one of these studies I think works on the right track.
There it is, we don't know. Let's go and The
Anatomy Prize went to a study that asked, is the

(04:13):
direction that your hair swirls affected by the hemisphere that
you're born in? Odd like the idea that the toilet
water flushes in different directions. They wonder if your hair
goes in different directions based on where you're born.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Ye, did they give us an answer?

Speaker 1 (04:29):
After two hundred hours of research. They concluded that they
need more research, so we'll keep you updated on your
hair swirls. The prize for Medicine at the Ignobel went
to a study that found placebos seemed to work better
if they cause a few painful side effects.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
What wait, so it's medication that's doing nothing other than
giving you bad side effects. Yes, maybe it's just because
the pain goes somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
There you go, or you're like, something's happening, So something's working.
We're talking about the eig Nobel Prize winners from this
past year, not the Nobel Prize. This is the opposite,
celebrating the weirdest real studies in the world of science.
The prize for Physics went to a study that looked
at the swimming abilities of dead trout. You're not gonna

(05:20):
believe this. They found that dead trout don't swim as
good as living truck. I'm really glad that that somebody
granted the research for this. But oh, that's a different study.
Look at that. We have to look at that in
the future. This year's Chemistry prize went to a study
that used a process called chromatography to make drunk and

(05:44):
sober earthworms race against each other.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, this has to be a frat party thing that
they did not as scientific.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
I want to see an earthworm do it. Little tiny
keg stands yees, wakes up.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
In the morning and has lots of regrets.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
The IIG Nobel Prize for Biology went to an old
study from nineteen forty one where researchers popped brown paper
bags while a cat stood on top of a cow's bag.
Why why they're apparently trying to see if they could
scare cows into producing more milk.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Can we just get an information on how they got
cats to stand on the back of the.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Image? And finally, the prize for demographics went to a
study that found places where people supposedly live the longest
tend to have very poor record keeping in those places,
specifically when it comes to the years people were born.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Okay, the record show so basically, people really old don't
actually remember how old.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah, those are the important studies that we need to
make the world a better place. The EIG Nobel Prizes
for this year, We got your phone, Tawn coming up

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Brooke and Jeffrey in the morning.