科学界的盛会- Nobel Prize =) 还有搞怪的Ig Nobel

接下来一个星期就是2011 Nobel Prize颁奖的时间，从10月3日的Nobel Prize in Medicine开始。10月4日Nobel Prize in Physics，10月5日Nobel Prize in Chemistry... Nobel Prize是科学界最高荣誉和肯定。名气在Nobel Prize之后的科学界奖包括了Lasker Award 和 Wolf Prize...

2011年Nobel Prize会花落谁家？真令人期待到底和好奇是哪一项科学突破会得到这个荣誉。我对Nobel Prize得主们都十分敬佩，他们每个人成功背后的故事更是常常很有鼓励性。科学的热血。

犹记得曼彻斯特大学的Prof Andre Geim和Prof Konstantin Novoselov因为graphene而得了2010年Nobel Prize in Physics。从去年10月5日成绩公布直到今天，我依然还是为我的大学的这个成就感到很高兴。

科学界不只是有很认真的成就奖。其实科学界有一个搞怪搞笑的奖，也就是Ig Nobel Prize。它的宗旨"first make people laugh, and then make them think."它总是在真正的Nobel Prize颁发前几天公布。Andre Geim在拿到真正的2010年的 Nobel Prize in Physics之前，曾经因为using magnets to levitate a frog而得到2000年的Ig Nobel Prize in physics， 有些夸张吧。笑笑过后，其实背后的科学原理值得我们深思，活生生的青蛙可以被磁铁的magnetic field浮起，很少人会这样觉得。

其实李光耀也拿过1994年的Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology, 因为 "his thirty-year study of the effects of punishing three million citizens of Singapore whenever they spat, chewed gum, or fed pigeons." 一种黑色幽默？仔细想，30年的强行思想改变，不容忽视。

分享一下2011年的 Ig Nobel Prize一些有趣的得主。
Medicine: Mirjam Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop,and jointly to Matthew Lewis, Peter Snyder, Robert Feldman, Robert Pietrzak, David Darby and Paul Maruff for demonstrating that people make better decisions about some kinds of things – but worse decisions about other kinds of things – when they have a strong urge to urinate.

Physiology: Anna Wilkinson, Natalie Sebanz, Isabella Mandl and Ludwig Huber for their study "No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise Geochelone carbonaria".

Psychology: Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, Norway, for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh

Mathematics: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of Korea (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of Uganda (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on 6 September 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on 21 October 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.

开心地笑笑后，再想想科学吧。科学 =)