Studies on constipated scorpions, blind dates, and ice cream therapy are among the scientific papers that earned researchers the 2022 Ig Nobel Prize, where Ig stands for “ignoble.” The 32nd Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony was held virtually on September 15, 2022 (September 16 in India). The researchers were awarded in 10 categories for their scientific work. Awarded annually since 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize is a satirical award recognizing ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research presents these awards less than a month ahead of the actual Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Why is the Ig Nobel Prize awarded?
The Ig Nobel Prizes are, according to Improbable Research’s official website, “honorary achievements that make people LAUGH and then THINK”. The aim behind the awards is to “celebrate the unusual, celebrate the imaginative – and spark people’s interest in science, medicine and technology”.
The categories in which researchers have been awarded the Ig Nobel Prize are Applied Cardiology, Literature, Biology, Medicine, Engineering, Art History, Physics, Peace, Economics and Security Engineering. The Ig Nobel Committee did not award a chemistry prize this year. However, the medicine award went to a discovery related to chemotherapy.
Applied Cardiology Award
Researchers from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Aruba received this year’s Applied Cardiology Award. The award winners are Eliska Prochazkova, Elio Sjak-Shie, Friederike Behrens, Daniel Lindh and Mariska Kret.
They received the Applied Cardiology Prize for their research on blind dating. The researchers sought and found evidence that when new romantic partners first meet and are attracted to each other, their heart rates sync up. Their study was published in the journal nature of human behavior.
Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony 2022
Each September, Harvard University’s Sanders Theater hosts the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Nobel Laureates physically award the Ig Nobel Prizes to researchers. For the past three years, the ceremony has been held in virtual mode. The theme of this year’s celebration was “Knowledge”.
The Nobel Laureates presented the Ig Nobel Prizes with the help of video tricks. In the official webcast, the Nobel Laureates can be seen presenting the award off-screen, while the winners extended their hands and showed an award that had been sent to them.
The Nobel Laureates who presented this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes are Esther Duflo (Nobel Prize in Economics 2019), Frances Arnold (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018), Donna Strickland (Nobel Prize in Physics 2018), Marty Chalfie (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008). ), Eric Maskin (Nobel Prize in Economics 2007), Barry Sharpless (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001), Rich Roberts (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993) and Jerome Friedman (Nobel Prize in Physics 1990).
