Ig Nobel Prizes 2014 2014年度搞笑諾貝爾獎

The 24th Ig Nobel prizes were announced on September 18. The prizes annually award scientific research that “first makes people laugh and then makes them think.”

The ceremony was food-themed including competitions such as Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest. The awards for individual categories were presented at Harvard University by “a group of genuine， genuinely bemused1） Nobel Laureates.” And the winners are：

9月18日，第24屆搞笑諾貝爾獎評選結(jié)果揭曉。這些獎項每年頒發(fā)給“乍看引人大笑、而后發(fā)人深省”的科學(xué)研究。

頒獎典禮以食品為主題，設(shè)有諸如“與諾獎得主有約大賽”等比賽。各個類別的獎項由“一群真心感到困惑的真正的諾貝爾獎得主”在哈佛大學(xué)頒發(fā)。獲獎?wù)呷缦拢?/p>

The prize went to Kiyoshi Mabuchi of Kitasato University for his work “measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin， and between a banana skin and the floor， when a person steps on a banana skin thats on the floor.” Also tested were apple peels and orange skin—found to be less dangerous. Apparently the banana peels form a sugary gel under pressure that makes them more slippery. No humans were injured during the experiment.

該獎項頒發(fā)給了北里大學(xué)的馬 ?；清資，因為他的研究“計算了當(dāng)一個人踩到地板上的香蕉皮時，鞋與香蕉皮之間的摩擦力，以及香蕉皮與地板之間的摩擦力”。蘋果皮和橘子皮也被拿來做測試——結(jié)果表明這兩種果皮的危險性較小。顯然，香蕉皮在受到壓力時會形成一種含糖的凝膠，這種凝膠導(dǎo)致香蕉皮變得更滑。實驗過程中沒有人受傷。

Creatures of the night are， on average， “more self-admiring， more manipulative and more psychopathic2）” than people who habitually wake up early in the morning， according to Peter Jonason of the University of Western Sydney and colleagues. More specifically， the team showed that people with the Dark Triad3） set of personality traits—narcissism， psychopathy， and Machiavellianism4）—would do well after dark， because people would generally pay less attention to their manipulations.

西悉尼大學(xué)的彼得·約納松及其同事研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，夜貓子通常比早上習(xí)慣早醒的人“更自戀，更有控制欲，更變態(tài)”。更具體地說，該研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，具有“黑暗人格三合一”特質(zhì)（自戀、心理變態(tài)和精于權(quán)謀）的人在天黑之后狀態(tài)較好，因為天黑后，人們通常就不太注意他們的權(quán)謀了。

Researchers from the US， India， Japan and the Czech Republic shared the prize “for investigating whether it was mentally hazardous for a human being to own a cat.” Cats rule the internet， but these researchers revealed that owning a pet cat is associated with some personality changes， including lowering intelligence in men and feeling less guilt in women. Two different teams won this prize. One focused on a cat-borne parasite that can infect humans and is known to manipulate the behaviour of its victims； the second looked at whether depression correlated with being bitten by cats.

該獎項由來自美國、印度、日本和捷克共和國的研究人員共同獲得，“因為他們調(diào)查了養(yǎng)貓是否會給人帶來精神上的危害”。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)已經(jīng)是貓的天下，但是這些研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，養(yǎng)寵物貓與人的某些性格變化相關(guān)，包括男性智商的下降和女性內(nèi)疚感的減少。兩個不同的小組獲得了這個獎項。一個小組重點研究貓身上的一種寄生蟲，這種寄生蟲能感染人類，而且已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)能操縱被感染者的行為；第二個小組研究了抑郁癥與被貓咬傷之間是否存在相關(guān)性。

Kang Lee at the University of Toronto and colleagues bagged the neuroscience prize “for trying to understand what happens in the brains of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.” Their results show that this behaviour is quite normal： The human brain is wired to quickly recognise faces in things with slight suggestions of one， no matter whether they are on a dogs behind or on a naan bread5）. To find the regions of the brain involved in this， the researchers created a bunch of images of random noise6）， stuffed participants in an MRI tube， and told them that half of the images contained a face （they did a separate study where they were told they contained a letter）. Over a third of the time， the subjects thought they saw a face.

多倫多大學(xué)的李康及其同事將神經(jīng)科學(xué)獎收入囊中，“因為他們試圖了解在面包片上看到耶穌面孔的人的大腦活動”。他們的研究結(jié)果表明這種行為很正常：人類的大腦會本能地在稍具面孔特征的事物上很快辨認(rèn)出面孔，無論這些面孔是在狗屁股上，還是在印度烤餅上。為了發(fā)現(xiàn)與此相關(guān)的大腦區(qū)域，研究人員制作了一批帶有隨機(jī)噪聲的圖像，把參與者推入核磁共振儀，并告訴他們有一半的圖像中含有一張臉（他們還做了另一項研究，參與者被告知圖像中含有一個字母）。在超過三分之一的情況中，受試者都認(rèn)為自己看到了一張臉。

After more than 5，000 observations， Vlastimil Hart of Czech University of Life Sciences and colleagues found that dogs prefer to align themselves to the Earths north-south magnetic field while urinating and defecating. Its nomination in the Ig Nobels was probably expected as soon as the paper was published. The researchers concluded that their findings forced “biologists and physicians to seriously reconsider effects magnetic storms might pose on organisms.” And no doubt those who have to clean up after them.

在進(jìn)行了5000多次觀察后，捷克生命科學(xué)大學(xué)的弗拉斯季米爾·哈特和同事們發(fā)現(xiàn)，狗在排尿和排便時喜歡讓自己的身體跟地球南北磁場平行。估計該論文剛剛發(fā)表，人們就預(yù)計這項研究將獲得搞笑諾貝爾獎提名。研究人員得出的結(jié)論是，他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)迫使“生物學(xué)家和醫(yī)生認(rèn)真地重新考慮磁暴可能對生物造成的影響”。毫無疑問，對必須在狗身后清理糞便的人也會產(chǎn)生影響。

The aesthetics of paintings have been a subject of interest for scholars for hundreds of years. Now Marina de Tommaso of the University of Bari and her colleagues have won the Ig Nobel prize for getting quantitative about it. The prize was given “for measuring the relative pain people suffer while looking at an ugly painting， rather than a pretty painting， while being shot [in the hand] by a powerful laser beam.” They found that the perception of pain can be changed based on the aesthetic content of the painting. Technically， however， they couldnt tell whether the art was altering the perception of the pain from the laser， or if the pain was an additive effect of looking at a painfully ugly piece of art while the laser was on.

千百年來，繪畫美學(xué)一直是學(xué)者很感興趣的主題。如今，巴里大學(xué)的瑪麗娜·德托馬索和同事們對其進(jìn)行了定量研究而獲得了搞笑諾貝爾獎。獲獎理由是“他們測量了人們觀看一幅丑陋的畫作（而非美麗的畫作）時[手部]接受強(qiáng)激光束照射所產(chǎn)生的相對痛感”。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，根據(jù)畫作的審美內(nèi)容不同，人們對疼痛的感知會發(fā)生變化。然而，從技術(shù)上講，他們無法分辨到底是藝術(shù)改變了人們對激光照射所產(chǎn)生的疼痛的感知，還是說疼痛是人們在激光照射下觀看一件無比丑陋的藝術(shù)品時所產(chǎn)生的附加效應(yīng)。

Sonal Saraiya of Michigan State University and her colleagues won the Ig Nobel prize in medicine for developing nasal tampons made from bacon. Their use is specifically for Glanzmann Thrombasthenia7）， a blood disorder which can lead to “uncontrollable nosebleeds.”

密歇根州立大學(xué)的索娜爾·薩萊婭及其同事因研制腌豬肉做的鼻腔止血塞而獲得了搞笑諾貝爾醫(yī)學(xué)獎。這種止血塞專門用于治療血小板無力癥，這種血液疾病可導(dǎo)致“無法控制地流鼻血”。

Reindeer arent safe in Norway. Eigel Reimers and Sindre Eftest?l of the University of Oslo noticed that polar bears were stalking them. To find out whether the reindeer were able to respond to the threat from bears， Reimers and Eftest?l had people approach the reindeer. To make the experimental and control groups as similar as possible， they got some humans to dress in polar bear costumes. The results showed that reindeers ran twice the distance when they saw a person in a polar bear costume.

在挪威，馴鹿并不安全。奧斯陸大學(xué)的艾格爾·賴默斯和辛勒·奧菲斯托爾注意到，北極熊正在跟蹤馴鹿。為了弄清馴鹿能否對北極熊的威脅做出反應(yīng)，賴默斯和奧菲斯托爾讓人去接近馴鹿。為了使實驗組和對照組盡可能相似，他們讓一些人化裝成北極熊。結(jié)果表明，當(dāng)馴鹿看到化裝成北極熊的人時，它們跑開的距離是看到人時的兩倍。

When you think of healthy eating， you probably dont think of sausages. But that may change， thanks to the amazing power of baby poop. With noses held tight， a team of medical researchers obtained bacteria from the faeces8） of infants， then tested which ones could both help to ferment sausages and also pass through the stomach to take up residence in the gut. Their finding could ultimately lead to probiotic9） sausages.

考慮到健康飲食，你可能不會想到香腸。但是，有了嬰兒便便的神奇力量，這可能會發(fā)生改變。一幫醫(yī)學(xué)研究人員捏緊鼻子，從嬰兒糞便中獲取了細(xì)菌，然后測試哪些細(xì)菌既有助于香腸發(fā)酵，也能經(jīng)過胃部而在腸道定居。他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)最終可能會導(dǎo)致益生菌香腸的出現(xiàn)。

While the world loves the Ig Nobels， not all scientists take it in the same spirit. Peter Stahl， from the University of Victoria and a previous prizewinner， said there was a session at the end of the event where researchers are able to discuss the scientific aspects of their work. “But they could do a lot more to give people the context in which the science being mocked was done，” Stahl said.

Harry Flint， from the University of Aberdeen， said a certain amount of negativity was attached to the prize and the hard work by scientists. “Most scientists wont want to be an award winner of the Ig Nobel Prize，” he said.

雖然全世界都熱愛搞笑諾貝爾獎，但并非所有科學(xué)家都對其抱有同樣的態(tài)度。維多利亞大學(xué)的彼得·斯塔爾曾是獲獎?wù)?，他說頒獎典禮最后有一個會議，研究人員可以在會上討論其工作科學(xué)方面的內(nèi)容?！暗麄兤鋵嵖梢宰龈嗟墓ぷ鱽碜屓藗兞私膺@些受到嘲弄的科學(xué)的研究背景?！彼顾栒f。

阿伯丁大學(xué)的哈里·弗林特說，人們對這個獎項和科學(xué)家的辛勤工作有一些負(fù)面的聯(lián)想?！按蠖鄶?shù)科學(xué)家不想成為搞笑諾貝爾獎的獲獎?wù)??！彼f。

1. bemused [b??mju?zd] adj. 困惑不解的；茫然的

2. psychopathic [?sa?k???p?θ?k] adj. 心理變態(tài)（者）的；患精神病的

3. Dark Triad：“黑暗人格三合一”，心理學(xué)名詞，由自戀、心理變態(tài)和精于權(quán)謀這三種人格特質(zhì)構(gòu)成。

4. Machiavellianism [?m?ki??veli?n?z（?）m] n. 馬基雅弗利主義；（玩弄權(quán)術(shù)、不擇手段等）政治家的狡詐伎倆

5. naan bread：印度烤餅

6. noise：此處指圖像噪聲，即圖像中妨礙人們接收其信息的各種因素。

7. GlanzmannThrombasthenia：血小板無力癥，是一種遺傳性出血病。

8. faeces [?fi?si?z] n. [復(fù)]糞便，排泄物

9. probiotic [?pr??ba???t?k] adj. 益生菌的