As you may have heard, last week a bunch of lucky stiffs talented, hard-working scientists (and one fiction author) got invited to meet the King of Sweden. Science-y highlights include the Physics prize, which went to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for some fancy tricks with carbon (specifically graphene); the Medicine prize, to Robert G. Edwards for inventing the test tube baby; and the Chemistry prize, to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki for, ah, some other fancy tricks with carbon (plus palladium). That’s all well and good.
But the highlight of this year’s Nobel season was unquestionably the award of the 2010 (Ig) Nobel Prize for Engineering to Dr. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and co-workers for figuring out how to collect whale snot by strapping a Petri dish to an R/C helicopter, just as yours truly predicted back in March when we first covered the story. Stay tuned for hot stock tips!
8 thoughts on “Told You So: Whale snot takes Ig Nobel”
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Could have been a worse body fluid…
Are you joking?
Do you know the difference between Sweden and Norway? Only the economics prize is awarded in Norway.
The prizes are awarded on 10 December.
Do your homework.
Well Anders, the economics prize is awarded in Sweden, its the peace prize that is awarded in Norway :-)
More importantly, please note that this year marks the first time a igNobel laureate gets a Nobel prize. Se the end of this interview: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2010/geim-telephone.html
Certainly anyone can make a mistake, but Anders has got me, here. I made two of them. The first (the date when the prize winners will actually get to “meet the King”) is not very embarrassing. The second error, however (suggesting that an official meeting with the King of Norway would take place in Stockholm) is downright mortifying ugly Americanism. Apologies all ’round. I’ve made corrections above.