Move over, Sweden
Boston has the Ig Nobel Prizes, recognizing dubious scientific “achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced.” The Ig Nobel Laureates for the year 2002 were announced last night in a riotous ceremony at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.
The “honored” researchers, several of whom attended the ceremony (at their own expense), had reported their studies in scientific papers such as
“Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches (Struthio camelus) Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain”
“Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth”
“Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants”
“The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension”
Yes, they really did.
Since we need a detail of Catholic interest to justify this post: pro-life doctor Micheline Mathews-Roth of Harvard Medical School opened and closed the ceremony with the traditional “Welcome, Welcome” and “Goodbye, Goodbye” speeches. I quote her two addresses in their entirety:
Welcome! Welcome.
and
Goodbye! Goodbye.
They were received with enthusiasm.
You simply cannot imagine how silly an affair this is.