Spanish scientists win prize for their proposal: making sausages out of baby poo

Delicious!

Raquel Rubio, Anna Jofré, Belén Martín, Teresa Aymerich and Margarita Garriga were awarded the 2014 IgNobel prize, in its 24^th edition, for their study titled ‘Characterisation of the isolated lactic acid bacterium from babies’ excrement as a potential cultivation medium for pro-biotic foodstuff in the form of sausages’.

The IgNobel Prize, also known as the Anti-Nobel, is an annual event at Harvard University.  Handed out by real Nobel Prize winners, the awards go to scientists who ‘firstly, make people laugh and then make them think’, according to a press release.

The Physics prize this year was taken by a team of four Japanese scientists, Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima y Rina Sakai for measuring the amount of friction between the shoe and a banana skin, and between it and the floor when it is stepped on.

The ceremony, held last week at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and organised by the scientific humour magazine ‘Annals of Improbable Research’ made awards in ten different categories, some of which studies were not presented by their authors. The IgNobels are presented not only to people but also to businesses and governments.

Other prizes this year:

• (Neuroscience) Researchers from Canada and China for ‘trying to understand what happens in the minds of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast’
• (Arctic Science) Scientists from Norway and Germany for studying the reactions of reindeer when observing humans dressed as polar bears.
• (Psychology)  A team from Australia, the UK and the US for ‘collecting evidence that people who generally stay up late are, on average, more narcissistic, manipulative and psychopathic than those who get up early in the morning’.
• (Public Health) Researchers from Check, Japan, the US and India for trying to find out if having a cat is dangerous for human beings.

Just thought you should know…