Ig Nobel Prize

Dear friends,

Because soon we will celebrate the anniversary of Nobel's death (10 December), I want to talk
you about Nobel Prizes, but not the usual ones : I will present you the IG Nobel Prize.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October
for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The aim of the prizes is to "honour
achievements (realizări) that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name is
a play on the words ignoble ("characterized by baseness (josnicie/ticăloșie), lowness (condiție
umilă/ modestie), or meanness (sărăcie)") and the Nobel Prize.

The first Ig Nobels were created in 1991 and the Awards were presented at that time for
discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced". For example, an American selector of
seeds and prophet of propagation (Graham), was awarded in the IG Noble Prize category of
Biology for his development of a bank that accepts donations only from Nobellians and
Olympians.

In 2000, in the IG Nobels category of Computer Science, an engineer (Chris Niswander) of

Tucson, Arizona, was awarded for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is
walking across your computer keyboard. When cats walk or climb on the keyboard, they can
enter random commands and data, damage our files, and even crash (a distruge) the computer.
PawSense is a software utility that helps protect the computer from cats. It quickly detects and
blocks cat typing, and also helps train the cat to stay off the computer keyboard.

Among other winners, Peter K. Jonason from Australia was awarded with the Ig Nobel Prize
for Psychology, for the amassing evidence (dovezile strânse) that people who habitually stay
up late are, on average, more self-admiring, more manipulative, and more psychopathic than
people who habitually arise early in the morning. The research by Dr Peter Jonason, (from the
School of Social Sciences and Psychology), assessed (evaluat) the sleeping habits and
behaviour of over 250 people, finding those who were awake late into the night displayed
greater anti-social tendencies, such as narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathic
tendencies.

Every year the Awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If you didn't win a
prize — and especially if you did — better luck next year!" But I hope that the luck will not be
on Romanians side who have always been so inventive!