Attention science buffs, are the following statements true or false?
A 17th century Moroccan sultan had 888 children in 30 years.
All mammals take about 21 seconds to urinate, give or take 13 seconds.
When you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, it walks like dinosaurs are thought to have walked.
Scientists actually studied this stuff.
Seriously.
And they got tongue in cheek awards for their efforts last Thursday at Harvard University.
They are known as the ‘Anti-Nobel’ awards and are also called the Ig Nobel Prizes.
They are for “achievements that first make people LAUGH, then make them THINK”, the ceremony’s slogan says.
For instance, the physics award went to the three Georgia Tech University scientists who concluded that all mammals take about the same time to relieve themselves.
The award: a 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollar bill. It is worth a few cents. In Zimbabwe, inflation is rampant.
The winner of the group received the award from an actual Nobel winner, the 2007 economics laureate, American Eric Maskin.
In mathematics, the committee chose two Austrians who used statistical analysis to study whether – as legend claims – Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed during the years from 1697 through 1727 to father 888 children.
With four wives and a harem of 500 other women the answer was yes, the researchers concluded.
A Cornell University graduate student who allowed honeybees to sting him in 25 places was also among the winners.
Michael Smith estimates he was stung about 200 times during his 2012 honeybee study. His conclusion: The three most painful places to get stung are the nostril, the upper lip and the male sex organ.
“The sting is entirely non-toxic but hurts like the bejesus,” Schmidt said.
On other areas, aside from research, the committee gave an economics award to police in Bangkok for offering to pay policemen extra cash if they refuse to take bribes. – Nampa-AFP-AP
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