Ig Nobel

 

Ig Nobel

'The Stinker,' official mascot of the Ig Nobels.

Image source

The Ig Nobel Prize has been awarded annually since 1991 to encourage public interest in scientific research. It is a parody of the Nobel Prize, and purported to be named after Ignatius Nobel, a fictitious cousin of Alfred Nobel. Though satirical in nature, most awards are for genuine scientific achievements.

The awards are presented to the winners in ten categories by Nobel laureates. Each winner gives a one-minute acceptance speech and receives a simple, cheap prize.

The Igs were created in 1991 by Marc Abrahams for discoveries ‘that cannot or should not be reproduced.’ They were designed to ‘honour achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.’

Sometimes apparently unimportant research results in serious breakthroughs. A 2006 study by Bart Knols and Ruurd de Jong showed that mosquitoes are attracted equally to the smells of Limburger cheese and human feet. That study was awarded an Ig Nobel prize for Biology. Subsequently, traps baited with Limburger cheese have been used in Africa in the fight against malaria.

More information can be found here. Below are a few of the sometimes bizarre awards that have been made since 1991.

The 2009 Ig Nobel Veterinary Medicine award was won by Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson ‘for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.’

The 2011 Psychology award was presented to Karl Jalvor Teigen ‘for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh.’

In 2023, Jan Zalasiewicz was awarded the Chemistry and Geology prize ‘for explaining why many scientists like to lick rocks.’

Geologists and palaeontologists lick rocks as one means of identifying their structure, texture, and mineral content. Fossils may be discovered because bone is porous and a tongue sticks to it when it is licked.  

The 2025 Aviation prize was awarded to Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine, and Berry Pinshow, ‘for studying whether ingesting alcohol can impair ability to fly and also their ability to echolocate.’

According to their research, when fruit-eating bats ingested ethanol, the active intoxicant in alcoholic drinks, they flew more slowly and their echolocation ability was impaired. Bats tend to avoid over-ripe fruit, which is rich in ethanol, because it slows reactions and makes them vulnerable to predation.

A full list can be seen here and is bound to raise at least a smile and sometimes a guffaw.

Tomoki Kojima led a team including Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yuki Uchiyama, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Naoto Aoki, Say Sato, Tatsuaki Masuda, Junichi Ueda, Hiroyuki Hirooka, and Katsutoshi Kino to win the 2025 Biology prize "for their experiments to learn whether cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid being bitten by flies.'

Three black Japanese cows were used. One had white vertical stripes painted on her, one had black vertical stripes, and one was left unpainted.

'For 30 minutes twice a day, the researchers observed the cows and counted fly-repelling behaviours, such a head throws, leg stamps, and tail flicks. At the end of each observation period, the team took pictures of the cows so they could count the numbers of flies that had landed on the cows' bodies and legs . . . a year later, three other cows were put through the same process.

The results were unequivocal: the cows with painted white stripes had significantly fewer flies on their bodies and lower frequency of fly-swatting behaviours than the others . . . offering a welfare-friendly and chemical-free option to repel pests.' 

There are many agile minds and imaginations. I wonder how much research starts with ‘I wonder . . . ‘

The technology award for 2026 was given for research into ‘Pioneering the use of mosquito proboscises as high-resolution 3D printing nozzles, a process called Necroprinting.’

An article on Necroprinting can be found here.

Sleep tight

 

Sleep tight

Night night, sleep tight,

Don’t let the bed bugs bite.

What does ‘sleep tight’ mean?

There is a plausible, but possibly mistaken explanation for this. Rope beds were invented in the 16^th century. Before the 19^th century mattresses were stuffed with straw or feathers or horsehair and suspended on and supported by a web of ropes. (The very poorest people slept on a filled sack mattress on the floor!)

With time, the ropes would sag and need to be tightened with a wrench. This led to people thinking that ‘sleep tight’ referred to the tightening of ropes to provide a sounder night’s sleep.

However, rope beds gradually fell out of use after sprung mattresses were produced in the mid-19^th century. The phrase ‘sleep tight’ was not seen in print until 1866 and became common usage in the early 20^th century. By that time, rope beds were a thing of the past.

To ‘’sleep tight’ or ‘sit tight’ means to remain still or secure. Bidding someone to sleep tight was a way of wishing them a good, restful night’s slumber.

‘Don’t let the bed bugs bite’ was added to the phrase later, although it is certain that mattresses were repositories of many types of tiny pests. Mattresses had to be shaken and beaten regularly to dislodge bugs. Usually, if the stuffing was of straw or hay or pea husks, it would be replaced entirely at harvest time.

There is an alternative suggestion which is that ‘bed bug’ was the name for the tightening wrench for a rope bed, and it would sometimes jump back and hit or’ bite’ the hand that was holding it.

Bed bugs are not entirely the affliction of poverty-stricken people. Like cockroaches, they are ancient insects and have adjusted to living with humans. It is thought that they originally lived in caves in the Middle East, where they fed on bats. Eventually they adapted their feeding to humans who inhabited the caves. They are attracted to body heat and the carbon dioxide humans exhale.

They cannot fly or jump but can crawl quickly onto clothing or other personal items. Thus, when travelling to places where bed bugs might be encountered, it is advisable to keep luggage off the floor and away from mattresses and walls. Bed bugs creep into small crevices and seams.

 Furthermore, unpack immediately on returning home and wash and dry everything at as high a temperature as possible. An infestation of bed bugs is difficult to eradicate.

Bats

 

Bats

Britain's largest bat, the Noctule, is about 8cms (3") long, It eats moths, chafers, mayflies and flying ants and lives for about 5 years.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

We had a sad little WhatsApp message from Susannah last night:-

‘The cats just murdered a bat in the house😨’

I was quite impressed by that, though feeling sorry for the bat, and thinking that cats were not likely bat predators. How wrong I was! When I looked for more information I discovered that cats are responsible for a great number of bat fatalities. They can hear bat calls and may sit just beneath a roost and leap to catch bats as they emerge. They are thought to be among the most significant predators of bats, along with owls, principally the barn owl and the tawny owl.

The advice to concerned cat owners is to keep their cats indoors half an hour before and one hour after sunset. However, Susannah’s unfortunate ‘guest’ was in the house, so asking for trouble, dicing with death, in fact.

Although I find these furry flying mammals very interesting, they are not very attractive with their pug noses. They don’t really look like pretty little mice with wings!

                                                          Noctule
                                          Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Worldwide, there are more than 1,400 species of bats and the majority are nocturnal. Around ten species are diurnal. They are the megabats, the flying foxes or fruit bats.

Almost a quarter of UK mammals are bats. There are 18 species, ranging from the Pipistrelle, (Pipistrellus) the smallest and commonest, to the largest bat, the Noctule (Nyctalus noctula). Pipistrelle comes from the Italian ‘pipistrello’, meaning bat.

Britain's smallest bat, the Pipistrelle, is less than 5 cms (2") long. It can live for 4-5 years and will eat 3,000 insects a night. Its diet consists of flies, moths, midges and mosquitoes.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

All UK bats and their roosts are protected under European and UK legislation because these small mammals have been significantly in decline for a few decades. There are many reasons for this, including a loss of habitat and a considerable decrease in insects.

All British bats hibernate. They are one of only three British mammals to do so, the other two being hedgehogs and dormice. Bats usually start hibernating in November, when cold weather has significantly reduced the insect population. When they hibernate, their bodily functions slow down, using less energy. Their heart rate, which is over 1,000 beats per minute in flight, reduces to around 20 beats a minute. Their breathing also slows. The decrease in metabolic activity enables the bats to survive for longer on the fat reserves they built up prior to hibernating. In warmer spells in the winter the animals may wake up and fly to different locations or seek food before going back into hibernation.

Bats hibernate in a variety of places. About three quarters of them roost in trees, others enter caves or tunnels, while yet others find shelter in barns or the roofs of houses. They have no means of drilling holes in trees or making nests so use whatever they can find.

Bats mate in the autumn but the females store the sperm so that they become pregnant in the spring. Delayed implantation (embryonic diapause) is a strategy used by around one hundred mammals, including stoats, badgers, rodents and roe deer.  In this way, the bat pups develop at a time when food is more readily available.

 Bats emerge from hibernation in May. Babies are born between the middle of June and August and are fed by their mothers for four to five weeks, until they are strong enough to fly. When they are very small, they cling to their mothers while they fly out to catch food. Once they are too heavy to carry, their mothers leave them holding onto a wall, or branch while they hunt for food.

'An  Inconvenience' by John Banister Tabb

To his cousin the Bat

Squeaked the envious Rat,

"How fine to be able to fly!"

Tittered she, "Leather wings

Are convenient things,

But nothing to sit on have I."

Father John Banister Tabb (1845-1909) was an American poet, Roman Catholic priest and professor of English