Awards bestowed for serious studies of oddball scientific questions

[BridgeTheGap]

Formula for Ig Nobel fame: strippers and Coke

BOSTON - Deborah Anderson had heard the urban legends about the contraceptive effectiveness of Coca-Cola products for years.

So she and her colleagues decided to put the soft drink to the test. In the lab, that is.

For discovering that, yes indeed, Coke was a spermicide, Anderson and her team are among this year's winners of the Ig Nobel Prize, the annual award given by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine for oddball but often surprisingly practical scientific achievements.

The ceremony at Harvard University, in which actual Nobel laureates bestow the awards, also honored a British psychologist who found that foods that sound better taste better; a group of researchers who discovered exotic dancers make more money when they are at peak fertility; and a pair of Brazilian archaeologists who determined armadillos can change the course of history.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26996167/?GT1=43001

[bananas]

1. Hold that coke!

"Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill and Deborah Anderson for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang for proving it is not (report at Snopes.com)."

[Nihil]

2. Next up: Anderson works with the British psychologist ...

... to find out if the sound of bubbles in the Coke makes sperm taste better ...
:hide:

[BridgeTheGap]

3. Ha ha!!! n.t

[semillama]

4. The Ig Nobel for archaeology is actually a really important study

Knowing how much an animal can disturb archaeological deposits is key in interpreting what is found. It's still somewhat silly, but very real in its practical applications!

[comtec]

5. Actually.. MYTH BUSTERS already disproved cola as a spermicide

they found that the caffeine excited the sperm more than killed it.
hows that for embarrassing, outdone 2-3 years earlier by a tv show.