Happy Thought for 22 September 2022

Have a Happy Thought: 

Sometimes the best way to learn something is to have a laugh about it.

That’s pretty much the mission statement of the Ig Nobel Prizes.

In case you don’t know about these, check out previous Friday emails about them here, and here, oh and here, too.

Or go to the Ig Nobel website.

 

Without further ado, here are some of the wonderful discoveries and research from the past year, announced just last week.

 

1. If you’re getting chemotherapy, make sure you eat some ice cream

MEDICINE PRIZE [POLAND]
Marcin Jasiński, Martyna Maciejewska, Anna Brodziak, Michał Górka, Kamila Skwierawska, Wiesław Jędrzejczak, Agnieszka Tomaszewska, Grzegorz Basak, and Emilian Snarski, for showing that when patients undergo some forms of toxic chemotherapy, they suffer fewer harmful side effects when ice cream replaces one traditional component of the procedure.

REFERENCE: “Ice-Cream Used as Cryotherapy During High-Dose Melphalan Conditioning Reduces Oral Mucositis After Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation,” Marcin Jasiński, Martyna Maciejewska, Anna Brodziak, Michał Górka, Kamila Skwierawska, Wiesław W. Jędrzejczak, Agnieszka Tomaszewska, Grzegorz W. Basak, and Emilian Snarski, Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 22507, 2021.

<https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02002-x>

2. Further cementing the concept of “white lies” as something that helps society function:

PEACE PRIZE [CHINA, HUNGARY, CANADA, THE NETHERLANDS, UK, ITALY, AUSTRALIA, SWITZERLAND, USA]
Junhui Wu, Szabolcs Számadó, Pat Barclay, Bianca Beersma, Terence Dores Cruz, Sergio Lo Iacono, Annika Nieper, Kim Peters, Wojtek Przepiorka, Leo Tiokhin and Paul Van Lange, for developing an algorithm to help gossipers decide when to tell the truth and when to lie.

REFERENCE: “Honesty and Dishonesty in Gossip Strategies: A Fitness Interdependence Analysis,” Junhui Wu, Szabolcs Számadó, Pat Barclay, Bianca Beersma, Terence D. Dores Cruz, Sergio Lo Iacono, Annika S. Nieper, Kim Peters, Wojtek Przepiorka, Leo Tiokhin and Paul A.M. Van Lange, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, vol. 376, no. 1838, 2021, 20200300.

<https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0300>

3. Staring at fluffy ducklings for hours, then running the maths and fluid dynamics to figure out why they follow mum like… ducklings in a row

PHYSICS PRIZE [CHINA, UK, TURKEY, USA] [AWARDED JOINTLY TO TWO GROUPS]
Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik, for trying to understand how ducklings manage to swim in formation.

REFERENCE: “Energy Conservation by Formation Swimming: Metabolic Evidence from Ducklings,” Frank E. Fish, in the book Mechanics and Physiology of Animal Swimming, 1994, pp. 193-204.

<https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Mechanics_and_Physiology_of_Animal_S/orLvpB-EMgEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Energy+Conservation+by+Formation+Swimming:+Metabolic+Evidence+from+Ducklings&pg=PA193&printsec=frontcover>

REFERENCE: “Wave-Riding and Wave-Passing by Ducklings in Formation Swimming,” Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 928, no. R2, 2021.

<https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.820>

4. And last but very definitely not least: developing a Moose Crash Test Dummy.

SAFETY ENGINEERING PRIZE [SWEDEN]
Magnus Gens, for developing a moose crash test dummy.

REFERENCE: “Moose Crash Test Dummy,” Magnus Gens, Master’s thesis at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, published by the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, 2001.

<https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A673368&dswid=-2909>

 

And yeah, you know I had to go find photos of those last two for you 😃

 

Ducklings:

Image: “Energy Conservation by Formation Swimming: Metabolic Evidence from Ducklings,” Frank E. Fish, in the book Mechanics and Physiology of Animal Swimming, 1994, pp. 193-204.

 

Just kidding, here’s real ducklings:

Image: VICKI JAURON, BABYLON AND BEYOND PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES PLUS, accessed via https://www.sciencenews.org/article/physics-why-ducklings-swim-row-behind-mother-duck-waves-energy

 

Moose crash test dummy:

Image: Gens, M. (2001). Moose crash test dummy : master’s thesis. Retrieved from Statens väg- och transportforskningsinstitut website: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-4543

 

 

 

Thanks to Carl Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom on Twitter) for bringing this to our attention!

And click here for links to details on the above as well as all previous years' prizes:

https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/winners/#ig2022