And here we thought Bill Nye, the Science Guy was the only weird one.
From Wired News/Science/Discoveries:
Strange Science
Since 1991, dozens of scientists have won the widely coveted IgNobel awards, which recognize extraordinary accomplishments that somehow escape the notice of those oh-so-serious Nobel people. The Annals of Improbable Research, the journal of the IgNobels, last month went digital. In honor of this achievement, which comes only a few short decades after the invention of the internet, Wired News highlights several of our favorite IgNobel winners.
In 1927, a researcher in Australia decided it would be useful to illustrate the “fluidity and the very high viscosity of pitch.” So he heated up a blob of pitch — a thick substance used for things like waterproofing — and waited for it to solidify in a sealed funnel. Then he opened up the funnel so the pitch could leak out. The pitch has been taking its own sweet time. A grand total of seven drops fell between 1927 and 1995, when an eighth drop was reported to be “well developed.” One slowly falling drop is shown in the photo.
IgNobel Winner: 2005 (Physics)
More details here.
Photo: University of Queensland
The article continues, via link clicking, to showcase 10 other odd experimentations and observations that won the Ig Noble Awards. They also link to an earlier article about the awards.
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