Under the theme "Habits" (habits), a large number of researchers have again been attracted to research of the slightly more odd kind. Research that - according to accepted criteria - "should first attract laughter, then reflection".

This year, the so-called Ig Nobel Prize was awarded in ten categories where this year's chemistry prize went to four Japanese researchers at Hokkaido University who have found out how much saliva an average five-year-old child produces per day (half a liter).

The humor prize in anatomy goes to two French researchers who have investigated whether there is any temperature difference between the man's right and left testicles. The researchers, working at the Université de Toulouse, performed three studies that included both naked and dressed postal officials as well as bus drivers.

Naked officials

A little depending on whether the man is dressed or not, and whether he sits down or stands up, there is still a significant temperature difference in that the left testicle is clearly warmer than the right one, the researchers note. What this is due to, however, is not known, although the researchers in the acclaimed article, published in Human Reproduction, speculate that it may have something to do with the position of the penis, as previous research has shown that it is located in 89 percent of cases. left.

Award winners include the Italian Silvano Gallus, who received this year's Medicine Award for his discovery that pizza is good for health - if eaten in Italy.

Previous US research has shown that pizza eating increases the risk of illness and premature death. But according to Gallus, this association of everything to judge is not on the pizza itself, but on the fact that people who eat a lot of pizza in the United States have a lifestyle otherwise that increases the risk of, for example, heart attack and cancer. In Italy, on the other hand, pizza eaters seem to be somewhat healthier than others, probably because pizza in Italy is a sign that the person is eating more Mediterranean food than others, a diet that you already know is good for health.

Play with words

The Ig Nobel Prize has been awarded at Harvard University in the US every year since 1991. The name is a pun and comes from the English ignoble, which means noble, and the name Nobel after Alfred Nobel. Award winners are honored at a ceremony at the Sanders Theater where they receive the $ 10,000 billion award. However, since it is about the extremely inflation-hit Zimbabwean dollar, the sum is difficult to put into practice.

Award winners' speeches may not exceed one minute. Otherwise, an eight-year-old girl, standing next to "burst out, I'm bored" bursts in until the award winner stops talking.