可口可樂有避孕作用？聽上去美妙的食物嘗起來也更好吃？脫衣舞娘在生育高峰期賺的錢也更多？全身披滿鱗甲的小動物犰狳也能“改變”人類歷史的進程？這些聽起來稀奇古怪的發(fā)現(xiàn)都是今年“搞笑諾貝爾獎Ig Nobel Prizes”的大贏家?！案阈χZ貝爾獎”始于1991年，最初在麻省理工大學頒布，后來典禮轉(zhuǎn)移到哈佛大學。每年搞笑諾貝爾獎在經(jīng)濟、醫(yī)藥、文化到和平等十個方面評選出十個獲獎者。贏得搞笑諾貝爾獎的標準是：“Ig Nobel Prizes 給予那些不能或者不應當重復的成就。”
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 to 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 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.
Anderson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University's School of Medicine, and
her colleagues found that not only was Coca-Cola a spermicide, but that Diet Coke for some reason worked best. Their study appeared in the
New England Journal of Medicine in 1985.
"We're thrilled to win an Ig Nobel, because the study was somewhat of a parody in the first place,
" Anderson said, adding she does not recommend using Coke for birth control purposes.
A group of Taiwanese doctors were honored for a similar study that found Coca-Cola and other soft drinks were not effective contraceptives. Anderson said the studies used
different methodology.
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman refused comment on the Ig Nobel awards.
Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely won an Ig Nobel for his study that found more
expensive fake medicines work better than cheaper fake medicines.
"When you expect something to happen, your brain makes it happen," Ariely said.
Ariely spent three years in a hospital after suffering third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body. He noticed some burn patients who woke in the night
in extreme pain often went right back to sleep after being given a shot. A nurse confided to him
the injections were often just saline solution.
He says his work has implications for the way drugs are marketed. People often think generic
medicine is inferior. But gussy it up a bit, change the name, make it appear more expensive, and
maybe it will work better, he said.
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 to 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 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.
Anderson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University's School of Medicine, and
her colleagues found that not only was Coca-Cola a spermicide, but that Diet Coke for some reason worked best. Their study appeared in the
New England Journal of Medicine in 1985.
"We're thrilled to win an Ig Nobel, because the study was somewhat of a parody in the first place,
" Anderson said, adding she does not recommend using Coke for birth control purposes.
A group of Taiwanese doctors were honored for a similar study that found Coca-Cola and other soft drinks were not effective contraceptives. Anderson said the studies used
different methodology.
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman refused comment on the Ig Nobel awards.
Duke University behavioral economist Dan Ariely won an Ig Nobel for his study that found more
expensive fake medicines work better than cheaper fake medicines.
"When you expect something to happen, your brain makes it happen," Ariely said.
Ariely spent three years in a hospital after suffering third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body. He noticed some burn patients who woke in the night
in extreme pain often went right back to sleep after being given a shot. A nurse confided to him
the injections were often just saline solution.
He says his work has implications for the way drugs are marketed. People often think generic
medicine is inferior. But gussy it up a bit, change the name, make it appear more expensive, and
maybe it will work better, he said.