After our last session where we were talking about inventions, I remembered that there were international prizes that award special discoveries. They are called Ig Nobel Prizes, and apparently they, and I quote, “are given each year in early October for ten achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”. Well, this link will allow you to browse who and what for was awarded since 1991.
I have to say that I completely agree with the quote. The first thing you can do after reading the last awarded list is star laughing, or staring at your webcam wondering if there is someone on the other side who is laughing his or hers’ head off watching your expressions while reading. I can’t believe that there are people measuring the high of fleas’ jumps, or testing other uses for Coca-Cola.
Of course the second thing you can do after reading the list is star thinking. Are there people who actually waste their time on these kind of issues? Do they call themselves researchers? Does someone pay them for doing these kind of discoveries? Who decides the awarded list? Because I have an interesting research that shows that the heavier the surface you scrub the green side of your scourer is, the faster it wears out
Taking now into consideration the serious side of the question, I think there is a dangerous and wrong message hidden in these prizes, which is, by the way, quite rooted in our society: everything is fine. I mean, in order to respect every behavior, every word said by everyone, every way of earning honest money, we are losing the direction. Of course that everybody has a respectable point of view and a very important reason for doing these researches, but there is not any other higher goal to achieve? There are not bigger needs for society, in all those fields nowadays? Some ideas: a new vaccine against malaria, a system to control stock-options, new alternative energies…
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