 |
 |
| Décernés chaque année par l'académie
des prix Ignobels, ces trophés récompensent dans différentes catégorie les
travaux les plus stupides et inutiles du monde de la recherche, ainsi que les inventions qui font
régresser la Science. Les résultats sont annoncés tous les ans au mois d'octobre.
|
 |
|
|
 |
| Les lauréats 2005 |
|
En préparation
|
| Les lauréats 2004 |
|
En préparation
|
| Les lauréats 2003 |
|
En préparation
|
| Les lauréats 2002 |
| • Biologie |
|
Norma E. Bubier, Charles
G.M. Paxton, Phil Bowers, and D.
Charles Deeming of the United Kingdom, for their report "Courtship
Behaviour of Ostriches Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain."
[Référence: "Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches (Struthio camelus) Towards
Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain," Norma E. Bubier, Charles
G.M. Paxton, P. Bowers, D.C. Deeming, British
Poultry Science, vol. 39, no. 4, September 1998, pp. 477-481.]
|
• Physique
|
|
Arnd
Leike of the University of Munich, for demonstrating
that beer froth obeys the mathematical Law of Exponential Decay.
[Référence: "Demonstration
of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth," Arnd Leike, European
Journal of Physics, vol. 23, January 2002, pp. 21-26.]
|
• Recherche pluridisciplinaire
|
|
Karl Kruszelnicki of The University of Sydney, for performing a comprehensive
survey of human belly button lint -- who gets it, when, what color, and how much.
|
• Chimie
|
|
Theodore Gray of Wolfram Research,
in Champaign, Illinois, for
gathering many elements of the periodic table, and assembling them into
the form of a four-legged periodic table table.
|
• Mathématique
|
|
K.P.
Sreekumar and the late G. Nirmalan of Kerala
Agricultural University, India, for
their analytical report "Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian
Elephants." [Référence: "Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants (Elephas maximus indicus)," K.P. Sreekumar and
G. Nirmalan, Veterinary Research Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 1990, pp. 5-17.]
|
• Littérature
|
|
Vicki L. Silvers of the University of Nevada-Reno and David
S. Kreiner of Central Missouri State University, for their colorful report "The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension."
[Publié dans : Reading Research and Instruction, vol. 36, no. 3, 1997, pp. 217-23.]
|
• Paix
|
|
Keita Sato, Président
de la Takara Co., le Dr.
Matsumi Suzuki, Président du Japan Acoustic Lab, et le Dr.
Norio Kogure, directeur exécutif de l'hôpital vétérinaire de Kogure, pour leur promotion
de la paix et l'harmonie entre les espèces grace à leur invention : Bow-Lingual,
un programme informatique pour rendre compréhensible les aboyements des chiens aux humains.
|
• Hygiène
|
|
Eduardo Segura, de Lavakan de Aste,
dans la province de Tarragone en Espagne, pour l'invention
de la machine à laver les chiens et les chats.
|
• Economie
|
|
Les présidents, directeurs, exécutifs et auditeurs d'Enron, Lernaut &
Adelphia, Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Global Crossing, Informix, Kmart,
McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications,
Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom,
Xerox, Arthur Andersen [USA], Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan],
Gazprom [Russie], Hauspie [Belgique], HIH Insurance [Australie] et Maxwell Communications [Royaume-Unie]
pour avoir adapter le concept mathématique des nombres imaginaires
au monde de l'économie et des finances.
|
• Médecine
|
|
Chris McManus of University
College London, for his excruciatingly balanced
report, "Scrotal Asymmetry
in Man and in Ancient Sculpture." [Publié dans : Nature, vol. 259, February 5, 1976, p. 426.]
|
|
| Les lauréats 2001 |
| • Médecine |
|
Peter Barss de l'université McGill, pour son rapport médical frappant "Les blessures
dues à la chute des noix de coco." [Publié dans : The Journal of Trauma, vol. 21, no. 11, 1984, pp. 990-1.]
|
| • Physique |
|
David
Schmidt de l'Université du Massachusett pour sa démonstration
expliquant pourquoi les rideaux de douche trempent toujours dans la douche.
|
| • Biologie |
|
Buck Weimer de Pueblo au Colorado pour son invention appelée
Under-Ease, un sous-vêtement hermétique muni d'un filtre au charbon
actif qui élimine les mauvaises odeurs.
|
| • Economie |
|
Joel Slemrod,
de l'université de Michigan Business School, et Wojciech
Kopczuk, de l'université de Colombie Britannique, pour la conclusion de leur étude démontrant
que le gens préférent retarder leur propre décès pour profiter de droits d'héritage plus avantageux.
[Référence :"Dying to Save Taxes : Evidence from Estate Tax Returns on the Death Elasticity,"
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. W8158, March 2001.]
|
| • Littérature |
|
John Richards
de Boston en Angleterre, fondateur de la
Société de Protection de l'Apostrophe, pour ses
efforts à protéger, promouvoir, and défendre les différences entre pluriel et possessif.
|
| • Psychologie |
|
Lawrence W. Sherman
of Miami University, Ohio, for his influential research report "An
Ecological Study of Glee in Small Groups of Preschool Children."
[Publiée dans : Child Development, vol. 46, no. 1, March 1975, pp. 53-61.]
|
| • Astrophysique |
|
Dr. Jack et Rexella Van Impe du Jack Van Impe Ministries,
à Rochester Hills, Michigan, pour avoir découvert que les trous noirs remplissent toutes les conditions requises
pour être un possible emplacement de l'enfer.
[Référence: le 31 Mars 2001, diffusion à la télévision et sur internet de l'émission "Jack
Van Impe Presents". (au environ de la 12ème minute du programme)]
|
| • Paix |
|
Viliumas Malinauskus,
de Grutas en
Lituanie, pour la création
du parc de jeu à thème
appelé "Stalin World" ("Le Monde de Staline").
|
| • Technologie |
|
John Keogh de la ville d'Hawthorn, dans la province de Victoria en Australia, pour avoir
breveté la roue en 2001, et l'Office Australien des Brevets
pour l'avoir approuvé par
le certificat d'innovation numéro 2001100012.
|
| • Santé publique |
|
Chittaranjan
Andrade and B.S. Srihari of the National Institute of Mental Health
and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, for their probing medical discovery
that nose picking is a common activity among adolescents. [Référence: "A
Preliminary Survey of Rhinotillexomania in an Adolescent Sample,"
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, vol. 62, no. 6, June 2001, pp. 426-31.]
|
|
| Les lauréats 2000 |
| • Psychologie |
|
David Dunning
of Cornell University and Justin
Kreuger of the University of Illinois, for their modest report, "Unskilled
and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence
Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments." [Published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 77, no. 6, December 1999,
pp. 1121-34.]
|
| • Littérature |
|
Jasmuheen
(formerly known as Ellen Greve) of
Australia, first
lady of Breatharianism, for
her book "Living
on Light," which explains
that although some people do eat food, they don't
ever really need to.
|
| • Biologie |
|
Richard Wassersug
of Dalhousie
University, for his first-hand report, "On the Comparative Palatability
of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles
from Costa Rica."
[Publié dans : The American Midland Naturalist, vol. 86, no. 1, July 1971, pp. 101-9.]
|
| • Physique |
|
Andre Geim de l'université de Nijmegen aux Pays-Bas et Sir
Michael Berry de l'université de Bristol en Angleterre pour avoir utilisé des aimants
afin de faire léviter une grenouille
et un lutteur de sumo.
[Référence : "Of Flying
Frogs and Levitrons" by M.V. Berry and A.K. Geim, European
Journal of Physics, v. 18, 1997, p. 307-13.]
|
| • Chimie |
|
Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni
B. Cassano of the University of Pisa,
and Hagop
S. Akiskal of the University of California (San Diego), for their discovery
that, biochemically, romantic
love may be indistinguishable from having severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
[Référence: "Alteration
of the platelet serotonin transporter in romantic love," Marazziti D,
Akiskal HS, Rossi A, Cassano GB, Psychological
Medicine, 1999 May;29(3):741-5.]
|
| • Economie |
|
The Reverend Sun
Myung Moon, for bringing efficiency
and steady growth to the mass-marriage
industry, with, according to his reports,
a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1800-couple
wedding in 1975, a 6000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding
in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36,000,000-couple wedding
in 1997.
|
| • Médecine |
|
Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek
van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart of Groningen, The Netherlands, and Ida
Sabelis of Amsterdam, for their illuminating
report, "Magnetic
Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual
Arousal." [Published in British Medical
Journal, vol. 319, 1999, pp 1596-1600.]
|
| • Informatique |
|
Chris Niswander de Tucson en Arizona, pour avoir programmé PawSense,
un logiciel qui détecte lorsque
un chat marche sur le clavier de votre ordinateur.
|
| • Paix |
|
La Royal Navy Britannique, pour avoir ordonné à ses marins
de ne plus utiliser d'obus pendant les exercices, et de crier
"Bang!" à la place du tir.
|
| • Santé publique |
|
Jonathan Wyatt, Gordon McNaughton et William Tullet de Glasgow,
pour leur rapport alarmant sur "La
disparition des toilettes publiques à Glasgow". [Publié dans : the Scottish Medical Journal, vol. 38, 1993, p. 185.]
|
|
| Les lauréats 1999 |
| • Sociologie |
|
Steve Penfold,
of York University in Toronto, for doing his
PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian
donut shops.
|
| • Physique |
Dr. Len Fisher of Bath, England
and Sydney, Australia for calculating
the optimal
way to dunk a biscuit.
...and...
Professor Jean-Marc
Vanden-Broeck of the University of East Anglia, England, and Belgium,
for calculating how to
make a teapot spout that does not drip.
|
| • Littérature |
|
La British Standards Institution
pour son rapport de six page (BS-6008) spécifiant la meilleur manière de préparer une tasse de thè.
|
| • Enseignement scolaire |
|
Le Bureau de l'Education de l'état du Kansas
et le Bureau de l'éducation de l'état du Colorado,
pour avoir décidé
que les enfants ne devaient plus
croire dans la théorie de l'évolution
de Darwin,
pas plus que dans
la théorie de la gravitation
de Newton,
la théorie de l'électromagnétisme
de Faraday
et Maxwell,
ou dans la théorie de
Pasteur
sur les maladies transmisent par les bactéries.
|
| • Médecine |
|
Dr. Arvid
Vatle de Stord en Norvège, pour avoir patiemment observé, classifié, et collecté
le type de flacon que ses patients choisissent au moment de donner un échantillon
d'urine pour leurs examens. [Référence: "Unyttig om urinprøver," Arvid
Vatle, Tidsskift
for Den norske laegeforening [The Journal of the Norwegian
Medical Association], no.
8, March 20, 1999, p. 1178.]
|
| • Chimie |
|
Takeshi Makino, president of The Safety
Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan, for his involvement with S-Check,
an infidelity detection spray that wives can apply to their husbands' underwear.
|
| • Biologie |
|
Le Docteur Paul
Bosland, directeur de l'Institut
du Piment à l'université de l'état du Nouveau-Mexique aux Etats-Unis pour
avoir créé
une espèce de piments jalapeno sans le goût de piment.
|
| • Protection de l'environnement |
|
Hyuk-ho Kwon of Kolon Company of Seoul,
Korea, for inventing the self-perfuming business
suit.
|
| • Paix |
|
Charl Fourie et Michelle Wong de Johannesbourg en Afrique du Sud, pour leur invention :
une alarme pour automobile
constituée d'un circuit électronique de détection et d'un
lance-flamme.
|
| • Santé publique |
|
George and Charlotte Blonsky de New York et San Jose pour avoir inventé un appareil
(US Patent #3,216,423)
permettrant d'aider à l'accouchement -- la femme étant attaché sur une table circulaire
en rotation à grande vitesse.
|
|
| Les lauréats 1998 |
| • Sécurité |
|
Troy Hurtubise, de North Bay dans l'Ontario, pour avoir
développer et tester personnellement un vêtement renforcé imperméable aux
ours grizzlis [Référence: "Project
Grizzly", produit par le "National Film Board of Canada".]
|
| • Biologie |
|
Peter Fong of Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for
contributing to the happiness of clams by giving them Prozac.
[Référence: "Induction and Potentiation of Parturition
in Fingernail
Clams (Sphaerium striatinum) by Selective Serotonin Re - Uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)," Peter F. Fong, Peter T. Huminski, and
Lynette M. D'urso, "Journal
of Experimental Zoology, vol. 280, 1998, pp. 260-64.]
|
| • Paix |
|
Le premier ministre Indien Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee et le premier ministre Pakistanais
Nawaz Sharif pour leurs essais méchament pacifiques de bombes atomiques.
|
| • Chimie |
|
Jacques Benveniste of France, for his
homeopathic discovery that not only does water have memory, but that the information can be transmitted over telephone lines and the Internet.
[NOTE: Benveniste also won the 1991 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize.]
[Référence:"Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link," J. Benveniste, P. Jurgens, W. Hsueh and J. Aissa,
"Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - Program and abstracts of papers to be presented during scientific sessions AAAAI/AAI.CIS Joint Meeting February 21-26, 1997"]
|
| • Science de l'éducation |
|
Dolores Krieger, Professor Emerita, New York University, for
demonstrating the merits of therapeutic
touch, a method by which nurses manipulate the energy fields of ailing patients by carefully avoiding physical contact with those patients.
|
| • Statistique |
|
Jerald Bain of
Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Kerry Siminoski
of the University
of Alberta for their carefully measured report,
"The Relationship Among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size." [Published in "Annals of Sex Research," vol. 6, no. 3, 1993, pp. 231-5.
|
| • Physique |
|
Deepak Chopra of The Chopra Center for Well Being, La
Jolla, California, for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
economic happiness. [Référence: Deepak Chopra's books "Quantum Healing,"
"Ageless
Body, Timeless Mind," etc.]
|
| • Economie |
|
Richard Seed of Chicago for his efforts to stoke up the
world economy by cloning himself and other human beings.
|
| • Médecine |
|
To Patient Y and to his doctors, Caroline Mills, Meirion Llewelyn, David Kelly,
and Peter Holt, of Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport, Wales, for the cautionary medical report, "A Man Who Pricked His Finger and
Smelled Putrid for 5 Years." [Published in "The Lancet," vol. 348, November 9, 1996, p. 1282.]
|
| • Littérature |
|
Dr. Mara Sidoli of Washington, DC, for her illuminating report,
"Farting as a Defence Against Unspeakable Dread." [Published in "Journal
of Analytical Psychology," vol. 41, no. 2, 1996, pp. 165-78.]
|
|
| Les lauréats 1997 |
| • Biologie |
|
T. Yagyu and his colleagues from the University Hospital
of Zurich, Switzerland, from Kansai Medical University in Osaka,
Japan, and from Neuroscience Technology Research in Prague, Czech
Republic, for measuring people's brainwave patterns while they
chewed different flavors of gum. [Published as "Chewing gum flavor
affects measures of global complexity of multichannel EEG," T.
Yagyu, et al., "Neuropsychobiology," vol. 35, 1997, pp. 46-50.]
|
| • Entomologie |
|
Mark Hostetler of the University of Florida, for his
scholarly book, "That
Gunk on Your Car," which identifies the insect splats that appear on automobile windows. [The book is
published by Ten Speed Press.]
|
| • Astronomie |
|
Richard Hoagland de l'état New Jersey aux Etats-Unis, pour avoir
identifié des constructions artificielles sur la Lune et sur la planète Mars, incluant un visage humain sur Mars et des bâtiments de 15 kilomètres
de haut sur la face caché de la Lune. [Référence : "The
Monuments of Mars : A City on the Edge of Forever", par Richard C. Hoagland, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA,1996.]
|
| • Communication |
|
Sanford Wallace,
president of Cyber Promotions
of Philadelphia -- neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night have
stayed this self-appointed courier from delivering electronic junk mail to all the world.
|
| • Physique |
|
John Bockris of Texas A&M University, for his wide-
ranging achievements in cold
fusion, in the transmutation
of base elements into gold, and in the electrochemical
incineration of domestic rubbish.
|
| • Littérature |
|
Doron Witztum, Eliyahu
Rips and Yoav Rosenberg de l'état d'Israël, et l'Américain Michael Drosnin, pour leur découverte statistique tirée par les
cheveux que la Bible contiendrait un code secret. [Référence : à l'origine, les travaux de recherche de Witztum, Rips et Rosenberg ont été publiés
dans l'article "Equidistant
Letter Sequences in the
Book of Genesis," "Statistical Science," Vol. 9, No. 3, 1994,
pp. 429-38. Le livre écrit par Dronin est "The
Bible Code", publié par Simon & Schuster.]
|
| • Médecine |
|
Carl J. Charnetski and Francis X. Brennan, Jr. of Wilkes
University, and James F. Harrison of Muzak Ltd. in Seattle,
Washington, for their discovery that listening
to elevator Muzak stimulates immunoblobulin A (IgA) production, and thus may help prevent the common cold.
|
| • Economie |
|
Akihiro Yokoi of Wiz Company in Chiba, Japan and Aki Maita of Bandai Company in Tokyo,
the father and mother of Tamagotchi, for diverting
millions of person-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets.
|
| • Paix |
|
Harold Hillman of the University of Surrey,
England for his lovingly rendered and ultimately peaceful report "The Possible Pain Experienced During Execution by Different Methods."
[Published in "Perception 1993," vol 22, pp. 745-53.]
|
| • Météorologie |
|
Bernard Vonnegut of the State University of Albany,
for his revealing report, "Chicken Plucking as Measure of Tornado Wind Speed." [Published in "Weatherwise,"
October 1975, p. 217.]
|
|
| Les lauréats 1996 |
| • Biologie |
|
Anders Barheim and Hogne Sandvik of the
University of Bergen, Norway, for their tasty and tasteful report, "Effect
of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches." [Published
in "British Medical Journal," vol. 309, Dec 24-31, 1994, p. 1689.]
|
| • Médecine |
|
James Johnston of R.J. Reynolds, Joseph Taddeo of U.S. Tobacco,
Andrew Tisch of Lorillard, William Campbell of Philip Morris,
Edward A. Horrigan of Liggett Group, Donald S. Johnston of American
Tobacco Company, and the late Thomas E. Sandefur, Jr., chairman of
Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co. for their unshakable discovery,
as
testified to the U.S.
Congress, that nicotine is not addictive.
|
| • Physique |
|
Robert Matthews
of Aston University, England, for his
studies of Murphy's
Law, and especially for demonstrating that toast
often falls on the buttered side. [Référence: "Tumbling
toast, Murphy's Law and the fundamental constants," "European Journal of Physics," vol.16, no.4, July 18, 1995, p. 172-6.]
|
| • Paix |
|
Jacques Chirac, Président de la république Française, pour avoir commémoré
le cinquantième anniversaire d'Hiroshima en commençant
une série de tests sur la bombe atomique dans l'atoll de Mururoa (océan Pacifique).
|
| • Santé publique |
|
Ellen Kleist of Nuuk, Greenland and Harald
Moi of Oslo, Norway, for their cautionary medical report "Transmission of Gonorrhea
Through an Inflatable Doll." [Published in "Genitourinary
Medicine," vol. 69, no. 4, Aug. 1993, p. 322.]
|
| • Chimie |
|
George Goble de l'Université de Purdue aux USA, pour son foudroyant record du monde d'allumage
de barbecue de 3 secondes, en utilisant du charbon et de l'oxygène liquide.
|
| • Biodiversité |
|
Chonosuke Okamura of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory in Nagoya,
Japan, for discovering the fossils of dinosaurs, horses, dragons,
princesses, and more than 1000 other extinct "mini-species," each
of which is less than 1/100 of an inch in length. [Référence: the
series "Reports
of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory," published by
the Okamura Fossil Laboratory in Nagoya, Japan during the 1970's
and 1980's.]
|
| • Littérature |
|
The editors of the journal "Social
Text," for eagerly publishing
research that they could not understand, that the author said was meaningless, and which claimed that reality does not exist. [The
paper was "Transgressing
the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative
Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," Alan
Sokal, "Social Text," Spring/Summer 1996, pp. 217-252.
|
| • Economie |
|
Dr. Robert J. Genco of the University of Buffalo for his discovery
that "financial strain is a risk indicator for destructive periodontal disease".
|
| • Art |
|
Don Featherstone de la ville Fitchburg au Massachusetts (USA), pour son indispensable
invention décorative :
le flamand rose en plastique.
[Référence: "Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass"]
|
|
| Les lauréats 1995 |
| • Nutrition |
|
John Martinez
of J. Martinez & Company in Atlanta, for Luak Coffee,
the world's most expensive coffee, which is made from coffee beans ingested and excreted by the luak (aka, the palm civet), a bobcat-like animal native to Indonesia.
|
| • Physique |
|
D.M.R. Georget, R. Parker, and A.C. Smith, of the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, England, for their rigorous analysis of
soggy breakfast cereal, published in the report entitled 'A Study
of the Effects of Water Content on the Compaction Behaviour of
Breakfast Cereal Flakes." [Published in "Powder Technology,"November, 1994, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 189-96.]
|
| • Economie |
|
Awarded jointly to Nick Leeson and his superiors at Barings Bank
and to Robert Citron of Orange
County, California, for using the calculus of derivatives
to demonstrate that every financial institution has its limits. [Référence: "Barings
Lost : Nick Leeson and the Collapse of Barings Plc," and "Big Bets Gone Bad"]
|
| • Médecine |
|
Marcia E. Buebel, David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, and Michael R. Boyle, for their invigorating study entitled "The Effects of
Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition." [Published in
"International Journal of Neuroscience," vol. 57, 1991, pp. 239-249.]
|
| • Littérature |
|
David B. Busch and James
R. Starling, of Madison Wisconsin, for their deeply penetrating research report, "Rectal
foreign bodies: Case Reports and a Comprehensive
Review of the World's Literature." The citations
include reports of, among other items: seven light bulbs; a knife sharpener; two flashlights; a wire
spring; a snuff box; an oil can with potato stopper; eleven different forms of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs; a
jeweler's saw; a frozen pig's tail; a tin cup; a beer glass; and one patient's remarkable ensemble collection consisting of
spectacles, a suitcase key, a tobacco pouch and a magazine.
[Published in "Surgery,"September 1986, pp. 512-519.]
|
| • Paix |
|
The Taiwan National Parliament, for demonstrating that politicians
gain more by punching,
kicking and gouging each other than by waging war against other nations.
|
| • Psychologie |
|
Shigeru Watanabe,
Junko Sakamoto, and Masumi Wakita, of Keio
University, for their success in training pigeons to discriminate
between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet. [Référence:
"Pigeons'
Discrimination of Paintings by Monet and Picasso,"
"Journal
of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior," vol. 63, 1995, pp. 165-174.]
|
| • Santé publique |
|
Martha Kold Bakkevig of Sintef Unimed in Trondheim, Norway, and
Ruth Nielson of the Technical University of Denmark, for their
exhaustive study, "Impact of Wet Underwear on Thermoregulatory Responses and Thermal Comfort in the Cold." [Published in
"Ergonomics,"vol 37, no. 8, Aug. 1994 , pp. 1375-89.]
|
| • Dentisterie |
|
Robert H. Beaumont, of Shoreview, Minnesota, for his incisive
study "Patient Preference for Waxed or Unwaxed Dental Floss."
[Published in "Journal of Periodontology," vol. 61, no. 2, Feb. 1990, pp. 123-5.]
|
| • Chimie |
|
Bijan Pakzad of Beverly
Hills, for creating DNA Cologne and DNA
PERFUME,
neither of which contain deoxyribonucleic acid, and both
of which come in a triple helix bottle.
|
|
| Les lauréats 1994 |
| • Biologie |
|
W. Brian Sweeney, Brian Krafte-Jacobs, Jeffrey W. Britton, and
Wayne Hansen, for their breakthrough study, "The Constipated
Serviceman: Prevalence Among Deployed US Troops," and especially
for their numerical analysis of bowel movement frequency.
[Published in "Military
Medicine," vol. 158, August, 1993, pp. 346-348.]
|
| • Paix |
|
John
Hagelin of Maharishi University and The Institute of Science,
Technology and Public Policy, promulgator
of peaceful thoughts, for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators
caused an 18 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington,
D.C.
[Référence: "Interim Report: Results
of the National Demonstration Project To Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness
In Washington, D.C., June 7 to July 30, 1993,"Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Fairfield, Iowa"]
|
| • Médecine |
|
Ce prix est remis à deux lauréats ex-aequo.
Premièrement, au patient anonyme, membre du corps des Marines Américains qui,
ayant été mordu par son serpent à sonnettes de compagnie, s'est soigné (de son propre
chef) en branchant des câbles électriques entre ses lèvres et un moteur de voiture
fonctionnant à 3000 tours par minutes pendant cinq minutes.
Deuxièmement, au Dr. Richard
C. Dart du centre anti-poison de Rocky Mountain et au Dr. Richard A. Gustafson du
centre d'étude sur la santé de l'Université d'Arizona pour leur rapport médical parfaitement
établi : "Le traitement par choc
électrique d'un empoisement par le venin du serpent à sonnettes est un échec".
[Publié dans : "Annals of Emergency
Medicine," vol. 20, no. 6, June 1991, pp. 659-61.]
|
| • Entomologie |
|
Robert A. Lopez of Westport, NY, valiant veterinarian and friend
of all creatures great and small, for his series of experiments in
obtaining ear mites from
cats, inserting them into his own ear,
and carefully observing and analyzing the results. [Published in
"The Journal of the American
Veterinary Medical Association," vol. 203, no. 5, Sept. 1, 1993, pp. 606-7.]
|
| • Psychologie |
|
Lee
Kuan Yew, former
Prime Minister of Singapore, practitioner of the psychology of negative reinforcement, for his thirty-year
study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of
Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons.
|
| • Physique |
|
The Japan Meterological Agency, for its seven-year study of
whether earthquakes are caused by catfish wiggling their tails.
|
| • Littérature |
|
L. Ron Hubbard, ardent author of science fiction and founding father of Scientology, for his crackling Good Book, "Dianetics,"
which is highly profitable to mankind or to a portion thereof.
|
| • Chimie |
|
Texas State Senator Bob
Glasgow, wise writer of logical legislation, for sponsoring the 1989
drug control law which make it illegal to purchase beakers, flasks, test tubes, or other
laboratory glassware without a permit.
|
| • Economie |
|
Jan Pablo Davila of Chile, tireless trader of financial futures
and former employee of the state-owned Codelco Company, for
instructing his computer to "buy" when he meant "sell," and
subsequently attempting to recoup his losses by making
increasingly unprofitable trades that ultimately lost .5 percent
of Chile's gross national product. Davila's relentless achievement
inspired his countrymen to coin a new verb: " davilar," meaning, "to botch things up royally."
|
| • Mathématique |
|
L'Eglise Baptiste du Sud en Alabama, arpenteuse
de la moralité, pour son estimation comté par comté du nombre de citoyens non repentis et promis à
l'Enfer.
|
|
| Les lauréats 1993 |
| • Psychologie |
|
John Mack
of Harvard Medical School and David
Jacobs of Temple University, mental visionaries, for their leaping conclusion that
people who believe they were kidnapped by aliens from outer space,
probably were -- and especially for their conclusion "the focus of
the abduction is the production of children. [Référence: "Secret
Life : Firsthand, Documented Accounts of UFO Abductions"]
|
| • Consommation |
|
Ron
Popeil, incessant inventor and perpetual pitchman of late
night television, for redefining the industrial revolution with
such devices as the Veg-O-Matic,
the Pocket Fisherman,
Mr. Microphone,
and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler.
[Référence: "The
Salesman of the Century : Inventing, Marketing, and Selling on TV : How I Did It and How You Can Too!"]
|
| • Biologie |
|
Paul Williams Jr. of the Oregon
State Health Division and Kenneth
W. Newell of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, bold
biological detectives, for their pioneering study, "Salmonella
Excretion in Joy-Riding Pigs." [Published in American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health, vol. 60, no. 5, May 1970, pp. 926-9.]
|
| • Economie |
|
Ravi Batra of
Southern Methodist University, shrewd economist and
best-selling author of "The
Great Depression of 1990" ($17.95) and "Surviving
the Great Depression of 1990" ($18.95), for selling enough copies of his books to single-handedly prevent worldwide economic collapse.
|
| • Paix |
|
La succursale de la compagnie Pepsi-Cola basée aux Phillipines,
vendeuse de rêves doux et sucrés, pour avoir sponsorisé un concours visant à créer un millionaire,
et qui , en annonçant le mauvais numéro gagnant,
à unifier contre elle 800 000 émeutiers ainsi que plusieurs factions ennemis, ce qui n'était jamais arrivé
dans l'histoire du pays.
|
| • Technologie de l'image |
|
Presented jointly to Jay Schiffman of Farmington Hills, Michigan,
crack inventor of AutoVision, an image projection device that
makes it possible to drive a car and watch television at the same
time, and to the Michigan state legislature, for making it legal to do so.
|
| • Chimie |
|
James Campbell and Gaines Campbell of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee,
dedicated deliverers of fragrance, for inventing scent
strips, the odious
method by which perfume is applied to magazine pages.
|
| • Littérature |
|
E.
Topol, R.
Califf, F. Van de Werf, P. W. Armstrong, and
their 972 co-authors, for publishing a medical
research paper which has one hundred times as many authors as pages.
[The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 329, no. 10, September 2, 1993, pp. 673-82.]
|
| • Mathématiques |
|
Robert Faid résidant Greenville dans l'état de Caroline du Sud, fervent prophète des statistiques, qui a calculé l'exact probabilité (1 chance sur 710 609 175 188 282 000) que Mikhail
Gorbachev soit l'Antéchrist.
[Référence: "Gorbachev! Has the Real Antichrist Come ?"]
|
| • Physique |
|
Le Français Louis Kervran,
fervent admirateur de l'alchimie, pour sa conclusion comme quoi le calcium des coquilles d'oeufs est créé
par un procédé de fusion froide.
[Référence: "Biological Transmutations and
their applications in: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Ecology, Medicine, Nutrition, Agronomy, Geology"]
|
| • Médecine |
|
James F. Nolan, Thomas J. Stillwell, and John P. Sands, Jr., medical men of mercy, for their painstaking research report,
"Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis." [Published
in Journal of Emergency Medicine, vol. 8, no. 3, May/June 1990, pp. 305-7.]
|
|
| Les lauréats 1992 |
| • Médecine |
|
F. Kanda, E. Yagi, M. Fukuda, K. Nakajima, T. Ohta and O. Nakata of the Shisedo Research Center in Yokohama, for their pioneering
research study "Elucidation of Chemical Compounds Responsible for Foot Malodour," especially for their conclusion that people who
think they have foot
odor do, and those who don't, don't. [Published in British
Journal of Dermatology, vol. 122, no. 6, June 1990, pp. 771-6.]
|
| • Archéologie |
|
Les Eclaireurs de France,
un groupe Protestant apparenté aux Scouts, qui, lors d'une campagne d'effacement de tags et autres graffitis ont
nettoyés d'anciennes peintures rupestres de la
Caverne de Meyrieres, près du village de Bruniquel.
|
| • Economie |
|
The investors of Lloyds
of London, heirs to 300 years of dull prudent management, for their bold attempt to insure disaster by
refusing to pay for their company's losses.
|
| • Biologie |
|
Dr. Cecil Jacobson, relentlessly generous sperm donor, and
prolific
patriarch of sperm banking, for devising a simple,
single-handed method of quality
control. [Référence: "The
Babymaker : Fertility Fraud and the Fall of Dr. Cecil Jacobson"]
|
| • Chimie |
|
Ivette Bassa, constructor of colorfulcolloids,
for her role in the crowning achievement of twentieth century chemistry, the
synthesis of bright blue
Jell-O.
|
| • Physique |
|
David Chorley
and Doug Bower, lions of low-energy physics, for
their circular contributions
to field theory
based on the geometrical destruction of English crops.
|
| • Paix |
|
Daryl Gates,
former Police Chief of the City of Los Angeles, for
his uniquely compelling methods
of bringing people together.
|
| • Nutrition |
|
Les fidèles amateurs du corned beef "Spam", courageux consommateurs de nourriture en boite,
qui survivent depuis 54 ans grâce à un appareil digestif en béton.
|
| • Littérature |
|
Yuri Struchkov, inarrêtable chercheur de l'Institut de
Organoelemental Compounds in Moscow, pour ses 948 articles scientifiques publiés entre 1981 et 1990, soit une moyenne d'un article tous les 3,9 jours.
|
| • Art |
|
Presented jointly to Jim Knowlton, modern Renaissance man, for his classic anatomy poster "Penises
of the Animal Kingdom," and to the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts
for encouraging Mr. Knowlton to extend his work in the form of a pop-up book.
|
|
| Les lauréats 1991 |
| • Chimie |
|
Jacques Benveniste, prolifique prosélitiste et correspondant
au magazine scientifique "Nature," pour sa croyance tenace
que l'eau, H2O,
est un liquide intelligent, et pour les résultats de ses recherches qui, à sa grande
satisfaction, prouvent que l'eau est capable de souvenir d'évènements très longtemps après que
les traces de ces derniers aient disparu.
|
| • Médecine |
|
Alan
Kligerman, deviser of digestive
deliverance, vanquisher of vapor, and inventor of Beano,
for his pioneering work with anti-
gas liquids that prevent bloat, gassiness, discomfort and embarassment.
|
| • Education |
|
J. Danforth Quayle, consommateur de temps et d'espace, pour
avoir démontré mieux que personne d'autre
la nécessité d'un enseignement scientifique de qualité.
|
| • Biologie |
|
Robert Klark Graham, sélectionneur de graines et prophète de la théorie de la propagation,
pour avoir été le premier à développer un dépôt pour le choix de sa semence :
une banque de sperme réservée aux prix nobels et aux champions olympiques.
|
| • Economie |
|
Michael Milken,
faucon de Wall Street et père du "junk
bond", grâce auquel le monde entier est endetté.
|
| • Littérature |
|
Erich Von Daniken, écrivain visionnaire
auteur du livre "Chariots of the Gods"
("Les Chars des Dieux"), expliquant que la civilisation humaine a été influencée par d'anciens astronautes venus d'ailleurs.
|
| • Paix |
|
Edward
Teller, père de la bombe H et grand défenseur du projet militaire de "Guerre des étoiles",
pour avoir, toute sa vie durant, défendue une certaine vision de la paix.
|
|
(Note : Cette page est une traduction libre de la page d'origine. Sauf exception,
les liens renvoient vers des pages en anglais.)
Pour plus d'informations, consultez le site officiel ou
le livre
"Ig Nobel Prizes" par Marc Abrahams aux éditions Orion (Londre, 2002, ISBN 0752851500) (en anglais).
|
