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Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses
(www.theguardian.com)
Some of these studies sound pretty interesting. Links to them in the article:
Botany
Given to Jacob White in the US and Felipe Yamashita in Germany for reporting evidence that the South American plant Boquila trifoliolata can mimic the leaves of plastic plants it is placed alongside, leading them to conclude that “plant vision” is a plausible hypothesis.
Medicine
Won by a Swiss, German and Belgian group for demonstrating that fake medicine that causes painful side-effects can be more effective in patients than fake medicine that does not cause painful side-effects.
Physics
Awarded to James Liao at the University of Florida for a comprehensive, multi-publication investigation into the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
Probability
Shared by a team of 50 researchers, mostly Dutch, who flipped 350,757 coins to test a hypothesis put forward by Persi Diaconis, a former magician and professor of statistics at Stanford University. Their work supported Diaconis’s prediction that tossed coins are (slightly) more likely to land the same way up as they started.