Roller coaster against kidney stones, olfactory detection of flies in wine and stamps in reproductive medicine

The 2018 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

17-Sep-2018 - USA

The 2018 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded at the 28th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, on September 13, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. These years prizes were awarded to:

Medicine: Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, for using roller coaster rides to try to hasten the passage of kidney stones. [1]
Anthropology: 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. [2]
Biology: Paul Becher, Sebastien Lebreton, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenstrom, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jorger, and Peter Witzgall, for demonstrating that wine experts can reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine. [3]

Chemistry: Paula Romão, Adília Alarcão and the late César Viana, for measuring the degree to which human saliva is a good cleaning agent for dirty surfaces. [4]
Medical Education: Akira Horiuchi, for the medical report "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy." [5]
Literature: Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson, for documenting that most people who use complicated products do not read the instruction manual. [6]
Nutrition: 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. [7]
Peace: Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartín, Constanza Calatayud, and Beatriz Alamar, for measuring the frequency, motivation, and effects of shouting and cursing while driving an automobile. [8]
Reproductive Medicine: John Barry, Bruce Blank, and Michel Boileau, for using postage stamps to test whether the male sexual organ is functioning properly—as described in their study "Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps." [9]
Economics: Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris, and Lisa Keeping, for investigating whether it is effective for employees to use Voodoo dolls to retaliate against abusive bosses. [10]

Original publication

[1] Marc A. Mitchell, David D. Wartinger, "Validation of a Functional Pyelocalyceal Renal Model for the Evaluation of Renal Calculi Passage While Riding a Roller Coaster.", The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, vol. 116, October 2016, pp. 647-652.

[2] Tomas Persson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc, and Elainie Madsen, "Spontaneous Cross-Species Imitation in Interaction Between Chimpanzees and Zoo Visitors."; Primates, vol. 59, no. 1, January 2018, pp 19–29.

[3] Paul G. Becher, Sebastien Lebreton, Erika A. Wallin, Erik Hedenstrom, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jorger, and Peter Witzgall; "The Scent of the Fly."; bioRxiv, no. 20637, 2017.

[4] Paula M. S. Romão, Adília M. Alarcão and César A.N. Viana; "Human Saliva as a Cleaning Agent for Dirty Surfaces."; Studies in Conservation, vol. 35, 1990, pp. 153-155.

[5] Akira Horiuchi and Yoshiko Nakayama, "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy by Using a Small-Caliber, Variable-Stiffness Colonoscope."; Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, vol. 63, No. 1, 2006, pp. 119-20.

[6] Alethea L. Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson, "Life Is Too Short to RTFM: How Users Relate to Documentation and Excess Features in Consumer Products."; Interacting With Computers, vol. 28, no. 1, 2014, pp. 27-46.

[7] James Cole, "Assessing the Calorific Significance of Episodes of Human Cannibalism in the Paleolithic."; Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 44707, April 7, 2017.

[8a] Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge and Maria-Luisa Ballestar; "Shouting and Cursing While Driving: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment." Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, vol. 1, no. 12017, pp. 1-7.

[8b] F. Alonso, J. Sanmartín, C. Calatayud, C. Esteban, B. Alamar, and M. L. Ballestar; "La Justicia en el Tráfico: Conocimiento y Valoración de la Población Española" ["Justice in Traffic: Knowledge and Valuation of the Spanish Population")]; Cuadernos de Reflexión Attitudes, 2005.

[9] John M. Barry, Bruce Blank, Michael Boileau,"Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps"; Urology, vol. 15, 1980, pp. 171-172.

[10] Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas J. Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris, and Lisa M. Keeping; "Righting a Wrong: Retaliation on a Voodoo Doll Symbolizing an Abusive Supervisor Restores Justice."; The Leadership Quarterly, February 2018.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/1157460/roller-coaster-against-kidney-stones-olfactory-detection-of-flies-in-wine-and-stamps-in-reproductive-medicine.html

Original publication

[4] Paula M. S. Romão, Adília M. Alarcão and César A.N. Viana; "Human Saliva as a Cleaning Agent for Dirty Surfaces."; Studies in Conservation, vol. 35, 1990, pp. 153-155.

[7] James Cole, "Assessing the Calorific Significance of Episodes of Human Cannibalism in the Paleolithic."; Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 44707, April 7, 2017.

[9] John M. Barry, Bruce Blank, Michael Boileau,"Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps"; Urology, vol. 15, 1980, pp. 171-172.

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