Ig Nobel Prize Is a Tongue in Cheek Award Show for Eccentric Scientists

[cageymaru]

Eccentric scientists gathered in Tokyo to see which would take home the Ig Nobel Prize or "anti-Nobels" award for eccentric inventions which are designed to make people smile and think. One of the winners was for a Self-Colonoscopy study which was meant to promote better health in Japan as many people are too embarrassed to go to the doctor for a colonoscopy. Bowlinguals is an invention that translates dog barks into 6 different emotional categories. Finally there is the Babypod speaker which is designed to be inserted into the vagina to create a concert for the unborn child as playing music on the belly was deemed less effective by researchers.

Japanese researchers have won Ig Nobel prizes for 12 years in a row. The winners include a team who developed Bowlingual and researchers who discovered female insects endowed with a penis.

 

[clockdogg]

Wait. Are you saying the Bowlinguals invention isn't the self-colonoscopy device?

Oh well... the selfie ass-cam could loosen the bowels of instagram and provide a distraction from the usual shit. #Bowelingual

 

[clockdogg]

Here is the Arstechnica's take on it. The seated vs supine is also discussed with respect of what is the best way for women to give birth.

"
Medical education
Laugh: Akira Horiuchi, for the medical report, "Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned from Self-Colonoscopy."

Think: Colonoscopies are never pleasant, but some people have more difficulty with them than others. There's a long tradition of scientists using themselves as guinea pigs—in this case, to explore whether it might be better to conduct a colonoscopy while in a seated versus the usual supine position. That's just what the recipient did, not just once, but four different times, with varying degrees of discomfort. So even single patients' experiences can vary. He called for further study comparing seated and supine positions to determine whether the former might be better for problem patients.
"

Interesting...from my experience the pre-Colonoscopy phase is best experienced seated. Repeatedly. For hours. Even then, not a recommended experience for the shitstorm-adverse.

 

[emphy]

Might as well go to the source:

https://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2018

I like this year's Literature prize, especially in light of the recent verge pc build video:

LITERATURE PRIZE [AUSTRALIA, EL SALVADOR, UK] — 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.

Edit: noice, the research in question has not been paywalled: https://academic.oup.com/iwc/article/28/1/27/2363584