3/11/2023 0 Comments Ig nobel speech timer![]() The research found that shifting body posture affects visual perception. Punch-preventing beardsĪ trio of beard-stroking US researchers came up with a pretty odd hypothesis: that humans evolved beards to protect our faces.The Japanese winner’s results were published in Vision Research under the title "Perceived size and Perceived Distance of Targets Viewed From Between the Legs: Evidence for Proprioceptive Theory." “Our results have implications in fields such as criminology, contagious disease control, waste management and bioremediation,” they write. (How did they know this? Well, they chewed 13 gum samples, stuck them to outdoor pavement, and monitored them over 12 weeks, of course.) When gum is first stuck to the pavement, it largely boasts oral bacteria, but over time this is replaced by bacteria from the environment.īut the oral bacteria stuck around for a surprisingly long time, the team says in their paper in Scientific Reports. They were particularly interested in how the bacteria changed over time. Leila Satari and her colleagues at the University of Valencia in Spain collected 10 chewy samples from France, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Singapore, froze them, and ground them into powder for analysis. The ecology prize was awarded to researchers who used genetic analysis to figure out which species of bacteria lived in wads of gum left stuck on the pavement in five different countries.Ĭredit: Juan Camilo Bernal / Getty Images Our mouths contain a lot of different types of bacteria, and you never know where someone else’s mouth has been.īut one study aimed to find out. If you’ve ever stepped on or accidentally touched a piece of used chewing gum, you probably reacted with disgust – for good reason. “These results imply that avoidance manoeuvres are normally a cooperative process and that mutual anticipation between pedestrians facilitates efficient pattern formation.” 4. ![]() “Both the distracted pedestrians and the non-distracted ones had difficulties avoiding collisions while navigating,” the team writes in Science Advances – though distraction did slow down walking speed. They conducted an experiment where some pedestrians were asked to walk while using their phones, and others without, to see whether distraction interfered with their ability to anticipate and react to their neighbours’ motions. The team argues that anticipation is a big part of the reason – that pedestrians don’t just navigate based on where others are, but where they anticipate others soon will be. The study that took out the kinetics prize, on the other hand, looked into why pedestrians do actually sometimes collide with others. “While in motion, pedestrians adapt their walking paths trying to preserve mutual comfort distances and to avoid collisions,” the authors explain. The physics prize went to a bit of research that explains why pedestrians aren’t constantly smacking into each other, using models to look at the interactions between people walking in crowds. We’re cheating a bit here, because two equally interesting studies about the physics of foot traffic were awarded prizes. Why pedestrians don’t collide…and also why they do We’ve ranked our top five for your reading pleasure. This year, the pickings are particularly hilarious. Vibrating earthworms pick up an Ig NobelĮvery year, the science humour magazine the Annals of Improbable Research awards the Ig Nobel Prizes – a riff on the prestigious Nobel Prizes, for weird and wacky research that “first makes people laugh, and then think”.The Ig Nobel Prize: the Nobel Prize’s alter ego.Gossiping for Peace: 2022 Ig Nobel prize winners, or losers?.
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