Award-winning cliché

Much more than a mere sardonic finger wag at the apparently ridiculous, the Ig Nobels celebrate scientific originality and curiosity in their most spectacular forms...

First make them laugh, then make them think – so goes the mantra of the Ig Nobels – and as the detritus of our celebration begins to clear, it is time to take you through some of this year’s victors and allow you to do just that.

But to start a caveat…

Although it may not seem like it, we do abhor a cliché here on the Science Lite desk – if we can avoid them, then we tend to… like the plague one might say. Sadly, there are times where that seems impossible.

Such it is that we come to introduce you to this year’s Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine as being a ‘real roller-coaster ride’. Unavoidable we are afraid… it is, as it turns out, literally the case. The lucky winner, Professor David Wartinger from the Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine, has discovered that riding a roller coaster helps patients pass kidney stones with nearly a 70% success rate.

“…I even had one patient say he passed three different stones after riding multiple times.”

The inspiration behind the award-winning research began several years ago when one of Professor Wartinger's patients returned from a holiday trip to Walt Disney World. “Basically, I had patients telling me that after riding a particular roller coaster, they were able to pass their kidney stone,” Wartinger said. “I even had one patient say he passed three different stones after riding multiple times.”

This resulted in Wartinger going out and testing the theory. Of course it did. What kind of scientist, when given the chance to scientifically validate a theory on a rollercoaster, turns it down? So theme-park tickets were purchased, loud shirts were donned and a validated, synthetic 3D model of a hollow kidney complete with three kidney stones was packed. And if you doubt the commitment to this project, know this: Wartinger then took the model in a backpack on Big Thunder Mountain 20 times.

“In all, we used 174 kidney stones of varying shapes, sizes and weights to see if each model worked on the same ride and on two other roller coasters,” Wartinger said. “Big Thunder Mountain was the only one that worked. We tried Space Mountain and Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and both failed.”

You see, it doesn't do to just jump onto rollercoasters willy-nilly if you are seeking to dislodge a kidney stone. Oh no. If the ride is too fast or violent with a G-force that pins the stone into the kidney, it simply won’t pass. “The ideal coaster is rough and quick with some twists and turns, but no upside down or inverted movements,” said Wartinger. And sir, hats off to you for a spectacular discovery – one that, presumably, will allow doctors to prescribe a trip to Disney Land. We have never wished ill health on ourselves quite so much…

Best of the rest:

Biology A Swedish team won the biology Ig Nobel for demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a fly in a glass of wine.

Chemistry This went to work measuring the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces. A ‘high degree’ it turns out. Phew.

Nutrition A British researcher James Cole, for calculating that the caloric intake from a human-cannibalism diet is significantly lower than the caloric intake from most other traditional meat diets. Again, Phew. Although to be clear, this was to analyse the eating practices of early humans, rather than to inform present-day dietary choices.

Medical Education Japanese researcher, Dr Akira Horiuchi took this for the report "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy." The lesson being, presumably, don’t do it.

Anthropology Prize Goes to Tomas Persson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc, and Elainie Madsen, for collecting evidence, in a zoo, that chimpanzees imitate humans about as often, and about as well, as humans imitate chimpanzees.