Ig Nobel

Kinda like the Nobel prize, only not. If you havn't heard of them, go here. "Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK."

Listed is the research topics of years winners (since that is the funny part). Go here to see the fully referenced list:

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY: for his scholarly study, "The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers."

PHYSICS: for patiently conducting an experiment that began in the year 1927 -- in which a glob of congealed black tar has been slowly, slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years.

MEDICINE: for inventing Neuticles -- artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness.

PEACE: for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie "Star Wars."

ECONOMICS: for inventing an alarm clock that runs away and hides, repeatedly, thus ensuring that people DO get out of bed, and thus theoretically adding many productive hours to the workday.

CHEMISTRY: for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?

BIOLOGY: for painstakingly smelling and cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.

FLUID DYNAMICS: for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation."

Just as a reminder....this is valid, respected research. You too can have a future in a similar research career. Look over previous years winners for more of the same...