2021 Ig Nobels
A few of the winner citations:
Economics Prize
“for discovering that the obesity of a country’s politicians may be a good indicator of that country's corruption.”
Medicine Prize
“for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.”
Peace Prize
“for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face.”
Biology Prize
“for analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat–human communication.”
Ecology Prize
“for using genetic analysis to identify the different species of bacteria that reside in wads of discarded chewing gum stuck on pavements in various countries.”
Chemistry Prize
“for chemically analyzing the air inside movie theaters, to test whether the odors produced by an audience reliably indicate the levels of violence, sex, antisocial behavior, drug use, and bad language in the movie the audience is watching.”
Transportation Prize
“for determining by experiment whether it is safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down.”