The Nobel Prize — 2016: awards for the most useless scientific discoveries were presented

On September 22, the Nobel Prizes were awarded for the 26th time at the Sanders Theater.

Every year, real Nobel laureates gather at Harvard and, adorned with various carnival attributes, present awards for various dubious works and inventions that claim to be scientific, but have no obvious practical application.

(10 photos in total)

Source: tjournal

Biology

Two people received the award in this category at once: Charles Foster and Thomas Thwaites. Thwaites spent three days grazing in the Swiss Alps as a goat — they even made special prostheses for him so that he could move exactly like an artiodactyl. Foster transformed into other animals — for example, in the role of a fox cub, he dug in a trash can and slept in gardens. The idea of the researchers was to get rid of the stress of modern civilization and better understand the life of animals.

Chemistry

The Nobel Prize in this nomination was awarded to Volkswagen for inventing a clever way to cheat tests for nitrogen oxide in exhaust gases. The company's cars were equipped with a system that deceived experts, showing that the emissions of the car correspond to the norm.

Reproduction

The prize in this field was awarded posthumously — the Egyptian researcher Ahmed Shafiq died in 2007. The urologist put on male rats underpants made entirely of polyester, polyester in half with cotton, pure cotton and pure wool. The study allowed us to establish that the sexual activity of rodents decreases if they wear pants with the addition of synthetics.

Economy

New Zealand professor Mark Avis found out together with colleagues that stones have a pronounced personality and that sometimes a personality develops from an extremely detailed personification. This work got into the economics section for criticizing Jennifer Aaker's popular marketing theory, the main idea of which is that the consumer perceives the brand as a celebrity, correlating the brand's individuality with his own personality. Thus, scientists have left no stone unturned from the Aaker theory.

Physics

The prize in this field went to a group of scientists from four countries at once — Hungary, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Firstly, they proved that horseflies almost never mount white horses, attacking brown and black animals. Due to the peculiarities of the structure of the eyes of insects, white horses are practically invisible to them. Secondly, the same group proved that dark tombstones look like a water surface for dragonflies, as a result of which insects often sit on them and lay eggs.

Medicine

Christoph Helmchen and his German colleagues found out that if you have something itching on the left side, you can relieve itching by going to the mirror and scratching the same place on the right side (and vice versa).

Psychology

Evelyn Debi from Belgium studied the influence of age on the ability to lie. The researchers forced the volunteers to tell lies, and then estimated the speed with which they did it. It turned out that teenagers turned out to be the most skilled liars, and over the years this skill is being lost.

Literature

Swedish entomologist Fredrik Sjoberg won the prize for the first book in his three-volume autobiography, The Path of the Fly Collector, describing the pleasure of collecting dead and still living flies. The first part of the trilogy was published in Russian under the title "The Trap of Malez, or About the happiness of living in captivity of an unusual passion, about flies and the vagaries of fate." Based on his many years of experience, the scientist claims that he loves to catch babbler flies most of all.

Perception

The nomination in this field was shared by Japanese scientists Atsuki Higashiyama and Kohei Adachi, who found that if you look at an object upside down between your legs, the distance to it visually decreases. To verify this conclusion, they gave the control group glasses that turn the image 180 degrees, but no effect was observed from them. So experience has demonstrated that it is precisely the orientation of the head that matters.

Do not be deceived by the world with its illusions and vain hobbies. He is like a mirage in the desert, which thirst takes for water. #mood #beauty #freedom #happiness #freedom #world #motivation #life #beautiful #free #dream #success #life #love #mood #thoughts #quotes #wisdom #philosophy #LifeIsGood #beautiful #nice #moscow #krasotavokrug #inspiration #journey #path #way of the warrior #life is beautiful #life is a journey

A photo posted by GOOD GIRL (@ch_yul) on Sep 23, 2016 at 3:14am PDT

Do not be deceived by the world with its illusions and vain hobbies. He is like a mirage in the desert, which thirst takes for water. #mood #beauty #freedom #happiness #freedom #world #motivation #life #beautiful #free #dream #success #life #love #mood #thoughts #quotes #wisdom #philosophy #LifeIsGood #beautiful #nice #moscow #krasotavokrug #inspiration #journey #path #way of the warrior #life is beautiful #life is a journeyA photo posted by GOOD GIRL (@ch_yul) on Sep 23, 2016 at 3:14am PDT