Ig Nobel prizes awarded

By Aussiegirl

As the Nobel prizes are announced, can the Ig Nobel prizes be far behind?

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

A scientist who studied the anatomy of the woodpecker's skull to find out why it does not suffer from headaches after banging its head against a tree trunk 12,000 times a day has won an alternative Nobel prize.

Ivan Schwab, of the University of California, Davis, has joined the pantheon of scientists whose research has been deemed quirky enough to win an "Ig Nobel" - an alternative to the genuine Nobel prizes.

[...]The chemistry prize was awarded to a team of Spanish scientists who investigated the velocity of ultrasonic sound in cheddar cheese and the biology prize went to a team of researchers who found that female mosquitoes were equally attracted to the smells of limburger cheese and human feet. (Note from Aussiegirl: How could they tell the difference?)