AIR & Ignobel Prizes

Featured
Interview: Spaß-Nobelpreise 2025 🏆 in Harvard
Interview: Spaß-Nobelpreise 2025 🏆 in Harvard
Lacht da einer?
Lacht da einer?

Streit zwischen zwei Humor-Journalen

Scientific Dining: CERN Main Eatery & Big Bang Café
Scientific Dining: CERN Main Eatery & Big Bang Café

Besuch im CERN-Restaurant

Warum Nacktbilder zu Gedächtnislücken führen
Warum Nacktbilder zu Gedächtnislücken führen

Die verrücktesten Erkenntnisse vom Spaß-Nobelpreis.

Kartoffelchips im Windkanal
Kartoffelchips im Windkanal

Wenn es um Konkurrenz geht, verläßt auch wissenschaftliche Spaßvögel der Humor.

Forschung im Zeichen der Ente
Forschung im Zeichen der Ente

An der Harvard-Universität wurden zum achten Mal die Ig-Nobelpreise verliehen.

Bierdeckel-Physik
Bierdeckel-Physik

Wie fliegen Bierdeckel und warum? Und wie bzw. warum oft nicht? Und wie weit? Das endcoole Physiker-Dream-Team aus Johann Ostmeyer (Strahlen- und Kernphysik ), Christoph Schürmann (Radioastronomie ) und Carsten Urbach (Theoretische Physik ) von der Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn hat es errechnet und getestet.

Lachende Wissenschaft: Aus den Geheimarchiven des Spaß-Nobelpreises
Lachende Wissenschaft: Aus den Geheimarchiven des Spaß-Nobelpreises

Die Welt ist voll überraschender Phänomene. Oder wussten Sie zum Beispiel, warum schnarchende Studentinnen schlechtere Klausuren schreiben? Schafe keinen Hundekot riechen mögen?

Warum Tätowierte mehr Sex haben: und andere neue Erkenntnisse vom Spaß-Nobelpreis
Warum Tätowierte mehr Sex haben: und andere neue Erkenntnisse vom Spaß-Nobelpreis

Wissen Sie, warum Tätowierte mehr Sex haben als Menschen ohne Tattoos? Wie viele Fotos nötig sind, damit bei einem Gruppenbild keiner blinzelt? Oder ob man in Schleim genauso schnell schwimmen kann wie in Wasser?

Warum man Spaghetti nicht durch zwei teilen kann: und andere neue Erkenntnisse vom Spaß-Nobelpreis
Warum man Spaghetti nicht durch zwei teilen kann: und andere neue Erkenntnisse vom Spaß-Nobelpreis

Wissen Sie, warum rohe Spaghetti meist in drei, vier oder fünf Teile brechen, aber fast nie in zwei? Oder ob man in Schleim genauso schnell schwimmen kann wie in Wasser?

Ig Nobel Night in Berlin 2019
Ig Nobel Night in Berlin 2019

Marc Abrahams, mastermind of the Annals of Improbable Research & the IgNobel Prizes and forensic biologist Mark Benecke host an improbable evening at Tempodrom in Berlin

Mein Preis-Favorit: Der Ig-Nobelpreis
Mein Preis-Favorit: Der Ig-Nobelpreis

Den Nobelpreis kennt jeder, den Ig-Nobelpreis nicht. Wer mag, kann einmal im Jahr, kurz bevor die echten Nobelpreise vergeben werden,

1998-12 AIR: Solution for the Chicken/Egg Problem by use of Toothpaste Arithmetic

Some science problems are eternal, and others nearly so. Pierre de Fermat's famous mathematical poser, for example, appeared in 1619, and lurked for 374 years before someone found a way to solve it. An even harder question has been wlth us practically forever:
"Which came first - the chicken or the egg?" Now, thanks to a simple discovery, I have cracked this heretofore maddening problem.

File-Lint_ball_3_benecke_PB189867.JPG
2011-07 AIR: Criminal Investigator on Lint

Lint balls from navels (navel fluff, belly button fluff) won an Ig Nobel Prize in 2002 for Karl Kruszelnicki. Dr. Kruszelnicki worked on observations reported in a survey of 4799 lint-collecting people, rather than on tons (I use that word here metaphorically) of individual balls from a single person.

I am a forensic investigator, with a new (to me, I mean) interest in lint. I mentioned this during a radio program. A few weeks later, a young couple (Elisabeth and Jan from Dresden) approached me after a public lecture and handed me a full collection of lint balls collected exclusively from their own navels. This allowed me to examine 167 lint balls from two persons instead of many different lint balls from a large number of people.

Bildschirmfoto 2021-09-10 um 15.31.45.png
2005-10 AIR:Exploading Toads

Earlier this year, news reports described a sudden plague of exploding toads in Hamburg, Germany. The reports carried conflicting descriptions and speculation from scientists, governmental officials, passersby, and other authorities -- some said these were spontaneous explosions, some attributed them to attacks by killer crows, some to bacterial or viral action.

Others advanced still more exotic theories. The public was left with a confused notion as to what exactly had happened, and how and why. To make sense of the reports, we assembled an international "dream team" -- three extraordinarily curious, determined scientists, each of whom has a deep background in one or more elements of the apparent story. Their assignment: to try to discover the truth about the exploding toads of Hamburg.

Bildschirmfoto 2021-09-10 um 15.28.43.png
2005-09-25 Mark Benecke: Nematoden und Hieroglyphen
Bildschirmfoto 2021-09-10 um 15.26.42.png
2004-08-AIR: The Search for Tycho Brahe's Nose

In 1572, as a Student at the University of Copenhagen, Brahe observed a very bright star. He proved that it was a Supernova located outside our solar system. Brahe's later observations of the orbits of Cassiopeia and of a comet made clear that those objects, too, were located more distantly than our moon. All this meant that - contrary to what many people believed - the heavens were changeable, not immutable Šs Aristotle had long ago postulated. Still, Brahe avoided painting a heliocentric view of the universe; he described the earth, rather than the sun, as being at the center of all things heavenly.

Bildschirmfoto 2021-09-10 um 15.21.30.png
2003 AIR: Hitler´s Skull & Teeth

I am a true nerd I guess: Spectacles, checkered pattern shirt, no radio, no TV — a forensic entomologist by profession. So when National Geographic Channel called and asked the allegedly "most famous forensic biologist on earth" (my editorial house's claim, definitely not mine) to join into an investigation on the remains of Adolf Hitler, I nerdily thought it just a theoretical enterprise, and said yes. As with many people born in Germany long after World War II, I, to a large extent, regarded Hitler as a very bad, extremely cruel joke against mankind. I had never quite thought of Hitler as a real, physically present person. I have no fascination of any sort with the guy. Just look at him (see Figure 1) — he was a jerk amongst jerks.

Bildschirmfoto 2021-09-10 um 15.15.42.png
2001-09/10 AIR: Happyface Spiders

I am a forensic entomologist. Every forensic scientist's basic mantra is: Everything is possible. My professional experience leads me to believe that there is one place on earth where more than just everything is possible -- that place is Hawai'i. On this remote part of the U.S. lives a bug that directly contradicts all assumptions modern people might hold concerning eight-legged critters: that spiders are hairy, ugly and frightening. This kind of spider is anything but.

2001-07/08 AIR: Scientific Dining

Mostly Special Agents, and Special Agents-To-Be are served a choice of meals that some good restaurants would dream of. However, the basic impression of all people that were approached by the author, was that "the food here was better in earlier times", that the meals were "well, so-and-so", or that the food was "jeeeez, yucky". Being asked what had been better at earlier times, the Famous Steak And Wine Evening was mentioned by older agents. Noone could recall, however, in which year exactly those evenings stopped, or on which day of the week the event had taken place. (Further investigation with veteran eaters narrowed it down to Wednesday or Thursday). Another disturbing comment of an eating agent was: "It's good that I was single when I first came to the Academy. If not, I would have driven home every night just for dinner."

Bildschirmfoto 2021-09-10 um 15.18.33.png
2000-05 AiR: Bomby The Bombardier Beetle Review

As a person unvoluntarily dealing with the borders of human behavior, I am used to all sorts of statements that seem to be weird in the beginning only to become resonable after digesting them further. I got to know, and to understand people of every possible color of skin, sexual preference, mother tongue, people who mutilate themselves for the purpose of self-expression, serial killers, cops, drug users, not to mention computer nerds (like my brother), and oddballish scientists (like myself).

expl_toads_air_lj_2005.png
Dr. Mark Benecke, Mitglied des Spaß-Nobelpreis-Komitees, im Interview

Dr. Mark Benecke, Mitglied des Spaß-Nobelpreis-Komitees, im Interview

Interview mit Dr. Mark Benecke

Frauenzimmer.de: Lieber Herr Dr. Benecke, Sie wurden schon als „Der Herr der Maden" bezeichnet. Wie sind Sie zur forensischen Entomologie (die Insektenkunde im Dienst der Gerichtsmedizin) gekommen?