Winners of the 2014 Nobel Prize

The 2009 Nobel Prize winner demonstrates his invention : a bra, which, if necessary, quickly turns into a pair of face protection masks; Three Nobel laureates (from left to right) participate in the ceremony: Wolfgang Ketterle, Orhan Pamuk and Paul Krugman

September 18, 2014 at Harvard University held the regular ceremony of awarding the Nobel Prize . This prize is given for ridiculous, at first glance, scientific discoveries, which "make you laugh first, and then think." The task is to "attract attention and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology."

Seemingly funny discoveries can be of great practical importance. For example, like the Danning-Kruger effect (laureate of 2000), which explains a lot in shaping the social hierarchy of human society.

Or take this year's Nobel prize in the field of medicine. She received a group of physicians from the Detroit Medical Center. They found that in cases of certain blood clotting disorders (Glantsman's thrombosis), the tampon from slices of sliced ​​pork, such as those sold in a sandwich shop, stops the bleeding best. In pork there are some substances that improve coagulability, and a large amount of salt absorbs liquid.
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It would seem fun, funny uncle stuffing bacon bits into his nose. But such a method could someday save someone’s life by preventing fatal blood loss. [" Nasal Packing For Patients with Glanzmann Thrombasthenia ", Ian Humphreys, Sonal Saraiya, Walter Belenky and James Dworkin, Annals of Otology, Rhinology, Vol. 120, no. 11, November 2011, pp. 732-36]

The award in the field of psychology has received a study of people who wake up late in the morning. It turned out that they are prone to greater narcissism, more manipulative and psychopathic than people who regularly get up early. [" Creatures of the Night: Chronotypes and the Dark Triad Traits " by Peter K. Jonason, Amy Jones, and Minna Lyons, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 55, no. 5, 2013, pp. 538-541]

A truly unique study was conducted by a group of Czech biologists. They determined that dogs during bowel movements are arranged in accordance with the lines of the earth's magnetic field! They deserved the award in biology. [Vlastimil Hart, Petra Nováková, Erich Pascal Malkemper, Sabine Begall, Vladimír Hanzal, Miloš Ježek, Tomáš Kušta, Veronika Němcová, Jana Adámková, Kateřina Benediktová, I Hy de ar ar ar ar, ar [[ , Frontiers in Zoology, 10:80, 27 December 27, 2013]

Another dirty topic is the use of young fecal bacteria as a probiotic starter for fermented sausages (nutritional prize). This is a typical example of a discovery that sounds strange, but has great potential for practical use. [" Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Fertilizer for Fermented Sausages " Raquel Rubio, Anna Jofré, Belén Martín, Teresa Aymerich, Margarita Garriga, Food Microbiology, vol. 38, 2014, pp. 303-311]


Nobel laureates Eric Maskin and Rich Roberts try sausages made using the new Spanish technology

Professor Kiyoshi Mabuchi (Kiyoshi Mabuchi) can become the regular visitor of the Snobel Prize ceremony. He has long been engaged in the search for a biocompatible lubricant for the human body. This time, bananas are in his interest. The professor measured the frictional force between the foot and the banana skin, as well as between the skin and the floor (a prize in physics). [" Frictional Coefficient under Banana Skin " Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai, Tribology Online 7, no. 3, 2012, pp. 147-151].



It is curious that the study took a lot of bananas, so that lab assistants for a long time received free food.

Professor Kang Lee of the University of Toronto studied how people react to human faces baked on toast. It turned out that if people see a face or any other unfamiliar object, their brain area is activated, which is responsible for face recognition (a prize in neurobiology). [" Seeing Jesus in Toast: Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Face Pareidolia " Jiangang Liu, Liu Li, Lu Feng, Ling Li, Jie Tian, ​​Kang Lee, Cortex, vol. 53, April 2014, Pages 60–77]

Another unusual study conducted by Norwegian biologists. They checked whether the reindeer in the Spitsbergen archipelago are afraid of people dressed in white and resembling polar bears. [" Response Behaviors of Svalbard Reindeer to Humans and Polar Bears on Edgeøya " Eigil Reimers and Sindre Eftestøl, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, vol. 44, no. 4, 2012, pp. 483-9]



The prize in the field of art was given for the study of the level of pain experienced by people from the laser beam, if they observe beautiful painting or disgusting paintings. [" Aesthetic value of paintings influences thresholds " Marina de Tommaso, Michele Sardaro, and Paolo Livrea, Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 17, no. 4, 2008, pp. 1152-1162]

Individual words of respect are worthy of the staff of the National Institute of Statistics. In order to fit into the norms of the European Union on the growth of the national economy, they really included in the official volume of GDP the financial turnover in the areas of prostitution, drug trafficking, smuggling and other illegal operations of the shadow economy. [" European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010) " Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2013]

Three studies of the mental health of people with cats have received awards in health care. There are certain signs that communicating with a cat is associated with a risk of depression.

But there are no reasons for panic: “Perhaps the reason is the opposite: people with an increased risk of depression decide for having a cat,” explains Dr. David Hanauer from the University of Michigan Pediatrics Department. “I by no means urge cat owners to get rid of cats.” [" Changes in the personality profile of young women with latent toxoplasmosis " Jaroslav Flegr and Jan Havlicek, Folia Parasitologica, vol. 46, 1999, pp. 22-28] [" Decreased level of psychobiological factor" infected with the protozoan parasite Dopamine, ale link between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis? "Jaroslav Flegr, Marek Preiss, Jiři Klose, Jan Havlıkekhela, Marek Preiss Vitáková, and Petr Kodym, Biological Psychology, vol. 63, 2003, pp. 253–268] [" Describing the Relationship between the Electronic Health Record "; David Hanauer, Naren Ramakrishnan, Lisa Seyfried, PLoS ONE, vol. 8, no. 8, 2013, e70585]