Asian Scientist Journal (Sep. 21, 2022) —Science is not only about groundbreaking discoveries. It is usually about tackling the bizarre and wacky questions similar to “What’s the best methodology of turning a doorknob?” and “How do ducklings swim in formation?” These and extra are the winners of this 12 months’s Ig Nobel Prize.
A satirical tackle award ceremonies and prizes, the Ig Nobel Prize was established in 1991 by the educational humor journal Annals of Unbelievable Analysis to rejoice splendidly bizarre and imaginative analysis carried out within the title of science.
“The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make folks chortle, then suppose,” as said on the official web site. “The prizes are supposed to rejoice the weird; honor the imaginative; and spur folks’s curiosity in science, medication and expertise.”
In earlier years, the ceremonies have been performed in-person at Cambridge, Massachusetts. However this 12 months’s ceremony was performed totally on-line on September 15 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Two teams from Asia have received this 12 months’s prize for engineering and physics. Gen Matsuzaki, Kazuo Ohuchi, Masaru Uehara, Yoshiyuki Ueno, and Goro Imura from Japan received the engineering prize for making an attempt to find probably the most environment friendly method for folks to make use of their fingers when turning a knob. Whereas Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik – two teams from the US and China – collectively received the physics prize for making an attempt to know how ducklings handle to swim in formation.
Gen Matsuzaki and workforce from the Chiba Institute of Expertise, Japan had revealed their analysis in 1991. It concerned 32 college-age college students who have been tasked with holding doorknobs of differing widths and turning the doorknob clockwise. The workforce then checked out how the individuals’ fingers have been positioned on the doorknob. They found that the broader the doorknob, the extra fingers are wanted to seize maintain of it, and the 2 most used fingers are the thumb and the pointer finger.
Though you could surprise that discovering probably the most environment friendly methodology of turning a doorknob is a bit foolish, the analysis performed by Matsuzaki and workforce does have an vital use. As Japan’s growing old inhabitants continues to develop, aged individuals who have bodily difficulties could have growing bother opening doorknobs and handles. Matsuzaki’s workforce champions the event of a superb common doorknob design. Manufacturing bigger doorknobs which might be simpler to twist open can enable simpler entry to rooms for the aged.
Now, coming to geese–Mark Fish, a biologist from the US had initially questioned in 1994 how formation motion in animals, just like the V-shaped formations birds create throughout their migration path, reduces power expenditure in these animals. Quick ahead to 2021, a analysis group from the Jiangsu College of Science and Expertise, China determined to revisit Fish’s query. Minglu Chen and Chunyan Ji together with collaborators from the UK performed their research by observing how Mallard ducklings swim in a single-file line behind their mom.
Twelve teams of seven one-day outdated ducklings imprinted on a decoy of a feminine Mallard duck have been educated to swim spherical in a pool with recirculating water. The researchers measured the metabolic expenditure of the ducklings as they have been swimming. The researchers found that the ducklings instinctively “trip on waves” created by their mom – or on this case by the decoy duck – thus lowering the quantity of power wanted to paddle and swim to maneuver ahead.
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Supply: Ig Nobel Prize ; Picture: Ajun Chuah
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