The 2006 Ig Nobel Prize winners were awarded on October 5, at the 16th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.
http://www.improbable.com/ig/2006/2006-details.html
Follow the link above for the complete list of winners. I was particularly intrigued by the pair of winners in the Medicine category and their novel cure for hiccups…
Francis M. Fesmire of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, won the 2006 Ig Nobel award for his medical case report “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage”; and Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan, and Arie Oliven of Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, also won for their subsequent medical case report also titled “Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage.”
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OK, two questions (and a few sub-questions) pop into my mind:
1. Did a professional health researcher actually think, “Hey – let’s try controlling hiccups with digital rectal massage!” — or did someone who was practising DRM at the time for some other reason (*^#?) just happen to notice that their partner’s hiccups went away around the same time? And exactly how long does DRM have to be performed before those nasty ole hiccups go away? (“Until it works, eh!”)
2. Researchers in Tennessee AND in Israel came up with this spontaneously and *independently* ? Or did Francis call Majed, Harry and Arie and Say something like, “Hey guys, guess what they’re teaching in Reflexology these days?”