Ig Nobels for 2008 Awarded

Forget all the depressing economic and political news.  The most important announcement of the year has been made – this year’s Ig Nobel prizes have been awarded.  Quoting Wikipedia’s nice summary:

• Archaeology: Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo and Jose Carlos Marcelino, for showing that armadillos can mix up the contents of an archaeological site.

• Biology: Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert, and Michel Franc, for discovering that fleas that live on dogs jump higher than fleas that live on cats.

• Chemistry: Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill, and Deborah Anderson, for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang for proving it is not.

• Cognitive science: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Hiroyasu Yamada, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero, Akio Ishiguro, and Ágota Tóth, for discovering that slime molds can solve puzzles.

• Economics: Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tyber, and Brent Jordan, for discovering that exotic dancers earn more when at peak fertility.

• Literature: David Sims, for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations".

• Medicine: Dan Ariely for demonstrating that expensive placebos are more effective than inexpensive placebos.

• Nutrition: Massimiliano Zampini and Charles Spence, for demonstrating that food tastes better when it sounds more appealing.

• Peace: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology and the citizens of Switzerland, for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.

• Physics: Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith, for proving that heaps of string or hair will inevitably tangle.

I wonder if that prize for medicine provides a clue for part of the mess of the health care system.  And certainly some folks will think the economic prize merits further testing.