What are the Ig Nobel Prizes?

Dear Clever Cali,

What are the Ig Nobel Prizes? People keep telling me my ideas are worthy of the Ig Nobel Prize. I need to arm myself with information.

Sincerely,

I-Feel-Like-I-Should-Be-Offended Ian

Dear I-Feel-Like-I-Should-Be-Offended Ian,

Well, the title of the prize does rhyme with “ignoble.” But actually, the Ig Nobel Prize is very cool. The journal Nature called the awards “arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.” The prizes were founded to award scientists for pursuing unusual or trivial questions of study. They are kind of tongue-in-cheek accomplishments, “for achievements that first make people LAUGH, then make them THINK,” according to the website. Last year’s award in the Literature category went to Chris Moulin and his team for “for studying the sensations people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times.” The first ever Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1991, was awarded to Jacques Benveniste, “for his persistent discovery that water, H2O, is an intelligent liquid, and for demonstrating to his satisfaction that water is able to remember events long after all trace of those events has vanished.” In 1994, US Senator Bob Glasgow, “wise writer of logical legislation,” was awarded the Chemistry prize “for sponsoring the 1989 drug control law which make it illegal to purchase beakers, flasks, test tubes, or other laboratory glassware without a permit.” If someone told me I deserved the Ig Nobel Prize, I’d be deeply flattered!

~Clever Cali 😂