2006 搞笑諾貝爾獎

這是從 Improbable Research 頒發出來的獎項，今年已經是第 16 年了。創設這個獎項的目的，可不同於大家耳熟的酸葡萄、芭樂等水果獎，它有宏遠的宗旨：

Our goal is to make people laugh, then make them think.

We also hope to spur people's curiosity about science, and to raise the question: How do you decide what's important and what's not, and what's real and what's not -- in science and everywhere else?

就在 2006 年諾貝爾獎慢慢揭曉同時，今年的搞笑諾貝爾獎得主 (2006 Ig® Nobel Prizes winners) 一次揭曉：

• 鳥類學：Ivan R. Schwab, of the University of California Davis, and the late Philip R.A. May of the University of California Los Angeles, 解釋為什麼啄木鳥不會頭痛。
• 營養學：Wasmia Al-Houty of Kuwait University and Faten Al-Mussalam of the Kuwait Environment Public Authority, 發現糞金龜挑食。
• 和平：Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 發明了驅趕青少年的電機械裝置，會發出大人聽不到只有青少年聽見的噪音﹔之後還利用相同的原理，做出了老師聽不到的電話鈴聲。
• 聲學：D. Lynn Halpern (of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University), Randolph Blake (of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University) and James Hillenbrand (of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University), 探討為什麼人不喜歡手指甲刮黑板的聲音。
• 數學：Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, 計算出一個團體合照中，至少要照多少張相片，才能夠找出一張沒人闔眼的好照片。
• 文學：Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University, 評估贅詞對專業術語的影響。
• 醫學：Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, 直腸馬殺雞終結不停的打嗝。
• 物理學：Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, 說明為什麼折義大利麵條通常不會只斷成兩段，而是好幾段。
• 化學：Antonio Mulet, José Javier Benedito and José Bon of the University of Valencia, Spain, and Carmen Rosselló of the University of Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 超音速對芝士質地的影響與溫度有關。
• 生物學：Bart Knols (of Wageningen Agricultural University, in Wageningen, the Netherlands; and of the National Institute for Medical Research, in Ifakara Centre, Tanzania, and of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna Austria) and Ruurd de Jong (of Wageningen Agricultural University and of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Italy), 雌性瘧蚊同樣喜歡芝士與人類的腳臭味。

laugh & then think...，為什麼我已經笑到流淚，還想不出什麼來。