Winners of the 2014 Shnobel Prize


    The 2009 Shnobel Prize laureate demonstrates his invention : a bra that quickly turns into a pair of protective face masks if necessary; Three Nobel laureates take part in the ceremony (from left to right): Wolfgang Ketterle, Orhan Pamuk and Paul Krugman

    September 18, 2014 at the Harvard University , the next Shnobel Prize ceremony was held . This prize is given for ridiculous, at first glance, scientific discoveries, which "make you laugh first and then think." The task is to “attract attention and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology.”

    Seemingly amusing discoveries can be of great practical value. For example, as the Dunning-Krueger effect(Laureate of 2000), which explains a lot in the formation of the social hierarchy of human society.

    Or take the Shnobel Prize this year in the field of medicine. She received a group of doctors from the Detroit Medical Center. They found that in cases of certain bleeding disorders (Glanzmann thrombasthenia), a tampon made from slices of chopped pork, such as those sold in a sandwich shop, best stops bleeding. There are some coagulants in pork, and a large amount of salt absorbs liquid.



    It would seem that a fun, funny uncle stuffs bacon into his nose. But such a method can someday save someone’s life by preventing deadly blood loss. ["Nasal Packing With Strips of Cured Pork as Treatment for Uncontrollable Epistaxis in a Patient with Glanzmann Thrombasthenia "Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin, Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, vol. 120, no. 11, November 2011, pp. 732-36] A

    prize in the field of psychology was awarded to a study of people who wake up late in the mornings and find themselves prone to more narcissism, more manipulative and psychopathic than people who get up early regularly. [" Creatures of the Night: Chronotypes and the Dark Triad Traits "Peter K. Jonason, Amy Jones, and Minna Lyons, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 55, no. 5, 2013, pp. 538-541]

    A truly unique study was conducted by a group of Czech biologists. They determined that dogs during bowel movements are located in accordance with the lines of the earth's magnetic field! They deservedly received a prize in biology. [" Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth's magnetic field " Vlastimil Hart, Petra Nováková, Erich Pascal Malkemper, Sabine Begall, Vladimír Hanzal, Miloš Ježek, Tomáš Kušta, Veronika Němcová, Jana Adámková, Kateřina Benediktováerý Jaroval, Burate , Frontiers in Zoology, 10:80, 27 December 27, 2013]

    Another “dirty” topic is the use of young fecal bacteria as a probiotic starter culture for fermented sausages (nutrition bonus). This is a typical example of a discovery that sounds strange but has great potential for practical use. [" Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Potential Probiotic Starter Cultures for Fermented Sausages " Raquel Rubio, Anna Jofré, Belén Martín, Teresa Aymerich, Margarita Garriga, Food Microbiology, vol. 38, 2014, pp. 303-311]


    Nobel laureates Eric Maskin and Rich Roberts try sausages made using new Spanish technology

    Professor Kiyoshi Mabuchi may become a regular at the Shnobel Prize ceremony. He has long been searching for biocompatible lubricants for the human body. This time, bananas fell into his area of ​​interest. The professor measured the force of friction between the leg and the banana skin, as well as between the skin and the floor (premium in physics). [" Frictional Coefficient under Banana Skin " by Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai, Tribology Online 7, no. 3, 2012, pp. 147-151].



    It is curious that a lot of bananas was needed for the study, so laboratory assistants received free food for a long time.

    Professor Kang Lee of the University of Toronto studied how people react to human faces baked in slices of toast. It turned out that if people see a face or any other unfamiliar object, they activate a region of the brain that is responsible for recognizing faces (a prize in the field of neurobiology). [" Seeing Jesus in Toast: Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Face Pareidolia " Jiangang Liu, Jun Li, Lu Feng, Ling Li, Jie Tian, ​​Kang Lee, Cortex, vol. 53, April 2014, Pages 60–77]

    Another unusual study was conducted by Norwegian biologists. They checked whether deer in the Svalbard archipelago are afraid of people dressed in white clothes and resembling polar bears. [" Response Behaviors of Svalbard Reindeer towards Humans and Humans Disguised as Polar Bears on Edgeøya"Eigil Reimers and Sindre Eftestøl, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, vol. 44, no. 4, 2012, pp. 483-9]



    The art prize was given for examining the level of pain that people experience from a laser beam if this watch a beautiful picture painting or disgusting. [ " Aesthetic value of paintings affects pain thresholds " Marina de Tommaso, Michele Sardaro, and Paolo Livrea, Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 17, no. 4, 2008, pp. 1152-1162]

    Specific employees of the National Institute of Statistics are worthy of respect. turnover in the fields of prostitution, drug trafficking, smuggling and other illegal operations of the shadow economy. ["European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010) "Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013]

    Three studies on the mental health of people living with cats received health benefits. There are certain signs that communication with a cat is associated with risk of depression,

    but there’s no reason to panic: "Perhaps the reason is the opposite: people with an increased risk of depression themselves decide to have a cat," explains Dr. David Hanauer of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. - I’m not cat owners get rid of cats. "[" Changes i n personality profile of young women with latent toxoplasmosis "Jaroslav Flegr and Jan Havlicek, Folia Parasitologica, vol. 46, 1999, pp. 22-28] ["Decreased level of psychobiological factor novelty seeking and lower intelligence in men latently infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii Dopamine, a missing link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis? "Jaroslav Flegr, Marek Preiss, Jiřı́ Klose, Jan Havlı́ček, Martina Vitáková, and Petr Kodym, Biological Psychology, vol. 63, 2003, pp. 253–268] [" Describing the Relationship between Cat Bites and Human Depression Using Data from an Electronic Health Record "David Hanauer, Naren Ramakrishnan, Lisa Seyfried, PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 8, 2013, e70585]

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