The top 10 advances in science and technology this year

The Ig Nobel awards are an answer to the serious Nobel Prizes. “The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative - and spur people’s interest in science, medicine and technology.” - Marc Abrahams, editor of science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Nature called them “…arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar”. I call them brilliant.

This years winners included:Â

Maths: How many photos must be taken to almost ensure no-one in a group shot has their eyes closed, by Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes.
Ornithology: Why woodpeckers do not get headaches, by Ivan Schwab and the late Philip RA May.
Nutrition: Why dung beetles are fussy eaters, by Wasmia al-Houty and Faten al-Mussalam.
Acoustics: Why the sound of fingernails scraping on blackboards is so annoying, by D Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hillenbrand.
Medicine: The Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage, by Francis Fesmire, Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan and Arie Oliven.

Source: BBC

Previous years winners have included:

• Feeding Prozac to clams (Ig Nobel Biology Prize, 1998).
• Whether buttered toast always falls on the buttered side (Ig Nobel Physics Prize, 1996).
• The Possible Pain Experienced during Execution by Different Methods (Ig Nobel Peace Prize, 1997).
• The Relationship among Height, Penile Length, and Foot Size (Ig Nobel Statistics Prize, 1998).
• Training pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet (Ig Nobel Psychology Prize, 1995).