The winners of the Ig Nobel Prize in 2021 have been announced! Scientists from all over the world with the most original ideas for research and experimentation become the winners of this unusual prize every year.
Even though you might think of the Ig Nobel Prize as of something which is given to the craziest scientists for the sake of making laugh of them, it is nowhere close to the truth. Even though some of the experiments and fields of research chosen by many of the winners of this prize might be found hilarious by ordinary people and not serious by the scientific community, the results of such research can turn out to be of great significance and used in the future for other problems.
Here is the list of the winners of the Ig Nobel Prize in 2021 and their scientific works.
Chemistry prize
The team of German scientists including Nicolas Krauter, Bettina Derstroff, Christof Stönner, Jörg Wicker, Achim Edtbauer, Thomas Klüpfel, Jochen Wulf, Jonathan Williams, Stefan Kramer and Efstratios Bourtsoukidis have conducted a chemical analysis of the air insight cinemas.
The idea behind this research was understanding the way people are reacting to various scenes in films with a major focus on violence and antisocial behaviour. This reaction was analysed by the examination of the chemical compounds released into the air with the change of emotional state of viewers.
Biology prize
The winners of the Ig Nobel Prize for the achievements in the field of biology were a team of Swedish researchers particularly interested in the commination between people and cats. Joost van de Weijer, Robert Eklund and Susanne Schötz have carried out a massive research of various noises and sounds produced by both humans and cats when they are attempting to communicate with each other. The work of these scientists took into consideration a whole range of communication mode such as murmuring, trilling, chirping, purring, chattering, squeaking, yowling, growling, howling, hissing and other forms.
Medicine prize
The Ig Nobel Prize in the field medicine this year was received by a group of international researchers coming from UK, Germany and Turkey. Burkard Lippert, Olcay Cem Bulut, Ralph Hohenberger and Dare Oladokun researched the effect of sexual orgasms on the nasal breathing passage. The scientists proved that sexual orgasms have a similar effect to decongestant medicines which are widely used for improving breathing through the nasal passage.
Ecology prize
A very unusual and interesting research was conducted by the group of scientist who received the Ig Nobel Prize for the achievements in the field of ecology.
The international group of scientists coming from Iran and Spain including Àngela Vidal-Verdú, Alba Guillén, Leila Satari and Manuel Porcar carried out a genetic analysis of used chewing gum. The scientists took a specific type of the gum for their research as they collected the samples exclusively from the pieces of used gum which could be found on the pavements located in different countries. The purpose of genetic analysis was identifying the species of identifying the types of microorganisms residing in the gum.
Other fields of studies for which scientists received The Ig Nobel prize this year
There were mere many other amusing experiments conducted by scientists for which they received the Ig Nobel Prize this year. They include entomology, physics, kinetics, transportation, economic and peace. You can learn about the in the newest article.
These fields of science are somewhat different from the ones which found their winners a year ago, when scientists working in the branch of Material Science, Medical Education, Acoustic and Psychology also received their prizes.