Does alcohol boost Foreign language fluids? Do Western African Lizards have the preferred pizza dressing? And can I paint a cow with zebra stripes help refuse to bite fly? These and other unusual research issues were honored tonight in the virtual ceremony to publish 2025 recipients of the annual Ig Nobel Prize. Yes, again it is the time of the year, when it comes to serious and stupid Converge to science.
Founded in 1991, IG Nobels is a well-intentioned parody of Nobel Prize; They honor “the achievements that first laugh and then make them think.” The solemn campomatic prizes contains miniature operas, scientific demonstrations and lectures 24/7 in which experts must explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds, and others in just seven words.
Speaking for acceptance are limited to 60 seconds. And as the motto implies, research that honors can look ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn’t mean it was deprived of scientific merit. In weeks, after the ceremony, winners will also give free public conversations, which will be published on an amazing internet website.
Without further ADO, here are the winners of the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize.
Biology
Photo: Tomoki Kome et al., 2019
Quotation: Tomoki Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Say Sato, Junichi Ueda, and Katsutoshi cinema, for their experiments to find out whether the cows-painted zeba-like cows can avoid being bitten by flies.
Every dairy farmer can tell you that they bite the flies a pesticated plant for the animal herd, which is why one often sees the cows and jerk their skin – desperately trying to enchant themselves. There is an economic cost, because it causes livestock to graze and feed less, a bed for a short time and start pissing together, which increases thermal stress and risk animal injury. This results in a less milk yield for dairy cows and fewer beef yields from the feedlot cattle.
Do you know who doesn’t bite a biting fly? Zebra. Scientists have long discussed the function of a characteristic black and white pattern of zebras. Is that for camouflage? Confusing potential predators? Or is it to reject those boring flies? Tomoki to whom et al. He decided to put the latter hypothesis on the test, paint zebra railroads on the six pregnant women of Japanese black cows in the Aichi agricultural research center in Japan. They used lacquered waters to washed after a few days, so the cows could turn into three different groups: zebra stripes, only black stripes or no strips (as control).
