Although Americans seem to have swept the board by winning all of the Nobel prizes for science this year it is good to be able to report a triumph for BRITISH science. A prestigious IgNobel prize has been awarded to Howard Stapleford, managing director of Compound Security Systems in Merthyr Tydfil. Mr Stapleford had designed the a security device which emits high-frequency sounds that cannot normally be heard by adults but are easily discernible to teenagers. It could either be used by late-night shopping centres to annoy adolescents who linger for too long or as a special ring-tone so that teachers cannot hear mobile phones sneaked into class by students."I think it was the combination of uses that made the organisers of the awards smile. The device can be turned on when shopkeepers are being troubled by gangs of teenagers," Mr Stapleforth said. "Alternatively, the high-frequency sound can be incorporated into a mobile phone ring tone so that it is difficult for people over 30 to hear”.
The chemistry prize was awarded to a team of Spanish scientists who investigated the velocity of ultrasonic sound in cheddar cheese and the biology prize went to a team of researchers who found that female mosquitoes were equally attracted to the smells of limburger cheese and human feet.The physics prize was won by a team who studied "fragmentation in rods by cascading cracks", which can account for why bending dry spaghetti always causes it to break into more than just two pieces. The Ig Nobel literature prize was given to a study entitled: "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilised Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."
Most importantly the winner of the Ig Nobel prize in medicine was Francis Fesmire, of University Hospital in Florida, for a study that showed that intractable hiccups can be terminated by "digital rectal massage".
"Initially, gagging and tongue pulling manoeuvres were attempted with no change in symptomatology," Dr Fesmire wrote in a study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. "Digital rectal massage was then attempted using a slow circumferential motion. The frequency of hiccups immediately began to slow, with a termination of all hiccups within 30 seconds," the valiant scientist found.
The IgNobel is awarded for research that that “makes people laugh and then makes them think” The prizes were handed to the winners by Nobel laureates Roy Glauber (Physics, 2005), Dudley Herschbach (Chemistry, 1986), William Lipscomb (Chemistry, 1976), Rich Roberts (Physiology or Medicine, 1993) and Frank Wilczek (Physics, 2004).
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8 comments:
Hiccup time!
LOL. I still prefer the "water down the throat without swallowing" hiccup cure to the digital rectal one.
The thing that puzzles me, though, is what ever possesed the inventor to take this backdoor approach to researching this problem.
U think I will go along with you on that one Roman.. Then again if I had the hiccups for weeks then I suppose I would welcome a finger up the arse if it made it stop. Otherwise it remains solely for egress!
Fingers solve everything. I'll use mine to cover my eyes so I don't have to see someone digit massage their anus, and you can use yours to plug your ears so you won't have to hear me hiccup because that's one cure I'm not going to try. So, do gay men hiccup? That's the real scientific question here, and you know I'm all about science.
The ring tone thing I read about in The Wall Street Journal. I wonder if the pitch bothers animals?
I'm so inspired that I'm going to invent Linberger mosquito traps. Goodness knows that there is no other use for Linberger cheese as it is inedible.
I was just struck with the mental image of my rambunctious Labrador, Reagan, when he goes in for his Vet. exams. They place him on a stainless steel table and insert a blue stick thingy in the rectum to extract a fecal sample. He stiffens up, the tongue stops lolling around, and he gets very serious and quiet and still.
I'm thinking that most people would have the hiccups stop just from the sheer surprise of "circular motions" in their bunghole.
I suppose there is a trade off between the unpleasantnes of a finger going where a finger should never go and the misery of hiccups that never stop....If the hiccups had lasted weeks or months then a brief period of discomfort may be well worth it!
But Jam,s how do you know where a finger should go? Are you qualified to tell? (cheers, hiccups)
Call me an old stick in the myd Red but my bot is not a place I wish my finger to go unless the hiccups are serious!
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