The scientists who researched these questions are among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes – an accolade that has no affiliation to the Nobel Prizes – which aim to “celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.”Rice University graduate student Faye Yap with a dead wolf spider for use as a necrobotic gripper. Brandon Martin/Rice UniversityThe Ig Nobel Prize’s 33rd ceremony took place virtually on Thursday night, with prizes awarded by “genuine, genuinely bemused” Nobel laureates over Zoom. Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz won the coveted Chemistry and Geology Prize for his research into why many scientists like to lick rocks. The Medicine Prize was awarded for research into how many nose hairs are in each of a person’s nostrils. The researchers will have the opportunity to meet one another at a companion Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November.

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Persons: Faye Yap, Brandon Martin, Jan Zalasiewicz, Zalasiewicz, ”, urologist Seung, Homei, Hiromi Nakamura, Stanley Milgram, Leonard Bickman, Lawrence Berkowitz Organizations: London CNN, ” Rice University, Rice University, Ig, Zimbabwe, Rice University in Texas, Mechanical, Communication, Public Locations: United States, United Kingdom, China, Cambridge , Massachusetts