Laugh your brain off

WHAT'S not to love about science? Add a little humour and wild thinking and you have a recipe for some interesting, albeit wacky breakthroughs.

Fondly referred to as The Igs, the Ig Nobel Prizes are a hilarious and stimulating parody of the highly acclaimed Nobel Prizes.

Awarded each year for research achievements that “cannot or should not be reproduced”, the prizes honour demonstrations of humour in science, medicine and technology.

The absurd nature of the Ig Nobel Prizes is reflected in its ironic title, coined from a combination of the Nobel Prizes and the word ignoble.

Driving the paradoxical point home is the prizes’ official mascot, The Stinker – a caricatural take on Auguste Rodin’s well-known bronze sculpture The Thinker.

Instead of sitting in deep thought and philosophical pondering, The Stinker is a replica of the sculpture on his back, fallen to the floor in the midst of laughter.

The ingenious madcaps at the Annals of Improbable Research magazine, the establishing organisation of the Ig Nobel Prizes, even went so far as to adapt their own vocabulary in conjunction with the ignoble theme, some words being:

Ignitaries – Persons of high esteem Ignobelium – Recipient of an Ig Nobel prize Igginess – The quality of humour and absurdity that somehow makes absolute sense

The intention to celebrate the unusual and honour the imaginative is certainly manifested by the ingenuity behind the Ig Nobel Prizes.

With 2017 coming to a close, we take a look at some of the wacky discoveries and batty breakthroughs that were recognised this year.