WEBVTT - The Ig Nobel Awards Make You Laugh…Then Think 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:04.720 Now really. 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:11.360 Really now really hello, and welcome to really know Really 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.440 with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who humbly suggests that 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.320 not subscribing to our show is a terribly ignoble thing 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.800 to do. And speaking of Ignobel, we've all heard of 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.239 the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Literature, Science and 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:26.439 Medicine Prize as well. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.480 This episode has absolutely nothing to do with any of that. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.199 But if you come up with an idea that is 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.600 an unusual or trivial or bizarre achievement in scientific research, 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.640 well then we have an award for you. It's called 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.960 the ig Nobel Prize, and anyone can win it if 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.920 their idea makes you laugh and then makes you think really, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.280 no really. The prize was created by today's guest Mark Abrahams, 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.600 who has awarded it annually since nineteen ninety one, and 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.639 the awards are handed out by genuine Nobel laureates as 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.040 they honor and celebrate the unusual, the creative, and the imaginative. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.440 To be prepared to learn about woodpeckers and concussions, an 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.920 unusual childbirth device, and the importance of fish farts. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.600 You heard me write, folks, fish farts. Here's Jason and Peter. 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:16.880 So this was one. This was you brought this to 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.640 my I did not know that this was the thing. 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:20.880 I did not know it was the thing either. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.479 Now we all know that if you if you come 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.679 up with something brilliant genius, especially in science, mathematic, literature, 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.520 the art, there's a very prestigious award called. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:31.679 The Nobel Awards. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:34.640 I did not know that if you come up with 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:39.480 something that is just upside down, inside out, backwards, nuts, 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:44.440 out of its mind, strange, odd, seemingly funny, there's also 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.800 a no war called the ig Nobel Awards. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.920 And that's our really, no, really, there's an award and 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.400 the premise for the award is if it makes you laugh. 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.800 First makes you laugh, and that makes you think it makes. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.280 You which is really and I want to ask our 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.000 guest about that, as far as do most awards and 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.880 do most scientific breakthroughs come where everybody goes, that's frigging genius, 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:09.880 right right, jet Goo, like the guy's wife goes. 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:12.040 You gotta tell everybody who did they go? 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.840 You're out of your mind and it takes time. So 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:19.120 our guest is Mark Abraham's who created this yearly award 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:23.640 actually ten awards every year. He's also the editor and 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:28.560 publisher and does everything for the Annals of Improbable Research, 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:29.840 which comes out Is that bi monthly? 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:30.280 Still more? 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:33.880 You know, that's a confusing word. I've been doing this 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.560 for a long time. I'm still not sure what buying means. 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:37.880 It comes out every two months? 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:42.200 Oh, every two months? Every two months? Is it scept annual? 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:43.120 Is that what it is? 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:44.720 And I got it six times a year? 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.240 Yeah? First of all, Mark, how did you get let's say, hi? 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.600 And how did you get involved in the six Welcome 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.919 to You thought what you were doing it was ignoble. Hi, Hi, 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:54.760 how are you there? 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.840 Back in nineteen ninety I was doing very different stuff, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.359 and I, since I was a little kid, used to 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.800 collect odd things and write about them and other stuff. 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.200 I decided to see if I could get something published 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.200 if I sent it into a magazine. So I sent 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.440 a bunch of stuff to a magazine and then a 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.200 few weeks later we got a phone call from a 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.200 man who said, Hi, I'm the publisher of the magazine. 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:23.280 Got your articles? Would you be the editor of the magazine. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.400 But this is how I became the editor a science magazine. 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.240 I'm laughing only because I'm going, what what when you're 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.760 a letter? Article arrived, the guy was gone. Thank god, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:44.040 somebody finally contributed. We've had nothing. We got one guy 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.040 immediately knock him up the food chain already. 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:51.920 Yeah, it was. It was a glorious thing all around. 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:54.640 So I started doing that on top of what I 0:03:54.720 --> 0:04:00.240 was doing, and suddenly was meeting all kinds of scientists, inventors, 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:04.560 all kinds of people who've done all kinds of unthinkable things. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.760 A lot of them were very very funny things, but 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.080 also really obscure. And I kept thinking, most of these 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.839 people are going to live their whole life something, They're 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.880 going to die and nobody will ever know they did 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:21.160 these things, and that's wrong. Somebody should do something. I realized, well, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.719 we can do something small. So we started this little 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.640 thing nineteen ninety one. And it's a long story, which 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.400 is not interesting. Why we called it the Ignobel Prizes. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.280 So we had a name picked, a bunch of winners. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.280 I had met a lot of scientists, so I invited 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.080 a bunch of people who had Nobel Prizes to come 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.239 to this ceremony we were having, and they all said yes. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.640 I had been introduced to somebody at MIT, Massachusetts Institute 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:53.280 of Technology, who ran the museum there, who knew the 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.000 history of my magazine a lot better than I did, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.920 and told him this idea of the ceremony. He said, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.160 you have a place to hold it, No, do you 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.200 want to have it here? Sure? So we had a 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.400 nice place to have it. The Internet was really small 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.479 at that point, but we put out a notice on 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.520 the Internet saying the first annual Ignobel Prize Ceremony will 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.479 happen on whatever the date. It's free this year, but 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:18.560 you've got to have a ticket in advance, and to 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.760 get a ticket, go to MIT to some particular audience 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.520 on Tuesday afternoon at noon. Tuesday afternoon at noon, there 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.359 were more people than tickets, one hundreds of miles, so 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.039 we had the place packed. I'd also in those first 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.120 months met a lot of reporters from a lot of places. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.040 So that first night we had winners, We had Nobel 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.520 Prize winners to hand out the prize. We had more 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.480 people climbing the sides of the building than could fut inn. 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:50.960 We had reporters coming from many countries, and we kept 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.280 I think I can speak on behalf of everyone who 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.320 was there that night. We all had the feeling that 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.680 at any moment, some grown up person would walk into 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.320 the room and tell us to stop this and go home. 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:07.359 But nobody did. And the next day and after that, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:11.200 we started getting lots and lots of publicity around the world, 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.200 huge amounts, and because it happened to work so well, 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.640 you know, we got lucky that first year. The next 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.520 year we could do it on a much bigger scale, 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.600 and that just continued and continued, and the fifth year, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.760 I guess we moved it down the road two miles 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.039 from MIT to Harvard. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.400 And I know you the actual physical award changes every year. 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.279 Do you remember what the first one was? 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.280 It was, Yeah, you might have this in your memory. 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:43.240 You could go into the worst toy stores in existence 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.880 and you could buy a little plastic mirror that had 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.520 some electronics and a battery inside and if you press 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.560 the button, it would scream at you. That was the prize. 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.520 And we try to keep the same spirit every year 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.839 and designing our own prizes that we build. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.960 My favorite is the ten trillion dollar bill. 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.800 You know, there are a lot of prizes that give money, 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:07.599 sometimes a lot of money to the winners, and we 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:11.600 never had any money, so we never thought about it, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.080 and then one day we realize there's a way for 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.600 us to give a lot of money to the winners. 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.400 And now each winner or if it's a team, the 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:24.320 winning team gets ten trillion dollars. They get a ten 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.720 trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe, which is worth maybe four 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.840 bucks if you buy it on any day which is long. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.160 And also the person responsible creed for printing those ten 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.520 trillion dollar bills, doctor Gideon Gano, who's head of the 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:44.360 national bank in the country Zimbabwe, won an Ignobel prize 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:50.000 for doing that. In mathematics, all of these things, once 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.800 you know a little bit of the lightest bit in 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:57.440 any direction, you see really unexpected stories. He wrote a 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:01.320 book to explain to his adoring public why he did this. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.440 And at the same time he was printing bills and 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.400 actually the largest was a I think one hundred trillion 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.640 dollars face value on a single bill. The same time 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.320 he was having the government print up bills same size 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.400 with a face value of one cent. And he explained 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.360 there was a reason for doing this the large value 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:24.160 and the tiny values, said that when you're spending a 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.000 large amount of money, you still have to make change. 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.080 One of my one of my favorite physical prizes that 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.360 I saw on the website was it's simple, but it's 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.280 kind of brilliant. Is they beautifully framed sort of box, 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.680 you know, glass covered box with a hammer inside and 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.200 a Blacklis says, in case of something like in case 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.120 of emergency, break the glass, put the hammers on the inside. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:49.640 It's just it's fantastic. 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.480 Well, everything about this, you do ten of these and 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.160 words every year. As a matter of fact, this this, 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.320 well you're get They give ten at the one and 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.680 this was the thirty fourth coming up the third congratulation 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.319 to thirty fourth award show correct. 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.200 Thirty fourth first annual. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.640 Yes, and you are the masters ceremony. So I guess 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.160 you should just rump in out. Can I give you 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:12.960 my favorite of all that I've read, and then you'll 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:14.320 go through some in Jason's favorite too? 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:14.600 Yeah? 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:16.800 Sure, My favorite It still is that they were trying 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.440 to figure out submarine noises. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.320 So yeah, can you talk to us a little bit 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:22.720 about that? 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:25.160 Sure? Be sure you want to hear it. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:26.360 I want to hear it. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.040 All right, we gave a prize this would have been 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.200 about what two thousand and two or three or four 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.120 somewhere around there. It was to two teams of scientists, 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.560 one of them in Canada and Scotland and the other 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.280 in Sweden. They'd both at the same time done the 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.280 same thing, didn't know they were both doing it, and 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.640 both of them had discovered that there were these odd 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.120 little metallic clicking sounds like click click click click click 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:56.360 click click clicklick really fast, and that that was coming 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.679 from Herring, and that it was Herring's farting. And so 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.320 they speculate that this might be a way that Herring's 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.760 communicate with each other. That's why we gave them the prize, 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.600 and they met each other, these two teams for the 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.920 first time after Superman. 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.160 Your mother's name is, My mother's name is. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.680 But the best part of the story we didn't learn 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.800 until about fifteen or so years later. One of the 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.839 Swedish scientists who had done this told me the other 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.120 side of the story. He said, this was top secret, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.280 so nobody. We could not talk about this until recently. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.600 But it's been enough time that we can talk about it. 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:39.000 But the public doesn't know the other team. They were 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.360 researching Herring. That's why they heard this. We weren't trying 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.840 to do any research on herring. We didn't do that. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.920 We did it because the Swedish government, the Prime Minister, 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.640 asked us to do some research. Because this was about 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.800 thirty or so years ago. The Prime minster of Sweden 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.959 was very angry because the Soviet Union at that time 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.560 had sent a submarine that got washed up on the 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.720 rocks and got stranded, and he was convinced that they 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.880 kept sending submarines to spy on them. And he kept 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.280 getting up in public and announcing that there are more 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:14.199 submarines and we've got further evidence, and they're hidden underwater, 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.839 but the evidence always dissolved, and he was getting really 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.520 embarrassed and frustrated. So he directed the Swedish Navy to 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.280 get a bunch of the best scientists in Sweden to 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.800 under top secrecy do research on all aspects of this. 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:35.680 They put microphones underwater in Stockholm Harbor. Stockholm's the capital 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.600 of the country, and they heard these clicking sounds, these 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.440 metallic clicking sounds, which the Navy decided obviously submarines. We 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.480 got the proof, they told the Prime Minister, who said, 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:48.880 I'm going to get up and announce it, and he 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.240 double checked with all the scientists who said yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.920 except for these fish biologists who listened to it for 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.040 about a minute and said, that's not a submarine. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:58.040 That's fish. 0:11:58.040 --> 0:11:59.800 And you give us, give us a couple of days, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.079 tell you exactly what kind of fish. And they pretty 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.600 quickly discovered it's herrings. They could do it, they could 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.040 take you know, even a dead herring, put it underwater 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:12.680 in a fish tank, squeeze it. And the Prime Minister 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.160 did not want to hear that. He said, no, it's submarines. 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.040 I am going to announce this. So the best part 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:20.920 of the story to me is what happened next these 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:25.200 two science these two biologists, these two scientists. Sweden said 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:27.280 go ahead if you want, but if you do that, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:29.560 we're going to get up and tell the public that no, 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.720 we've got the evidence that it's herring's parting. And the 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.719 Prime Minister back down and never made an announcement. 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.240 One of mine that I was particularly dre onto. I 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.520 guess because I want to know. I just I want 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.920 to know the inception transmission of gonea rhea through an 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:48.959 inflatable doll. 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.679 Yeah, I have questions about that. 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.439 What was was it? I can imagine a number of scenarios. 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.160 One could be somebody said, hey, there's a proliferation of 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.880 these sex toys and sex dolls, and I wonder if 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.480 it is safe and healthy to use them without protection 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.200 that we would use with a real person. Or if somebody, 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.319 you know, suddenly acquired a case of gonorrhea, as I 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.199 swear I haven't been with anything other than this sex doll, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:18.600 and had. 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.520 To then verify what was the impetus to do the study. 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:29.319 Here's the story of it. This was a doctor in Norway. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.319 So it's always the Netherlands. 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.520 The story is that there was the captain of a 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.839 ship who came in. He was the patient. He had 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:43.320 a case of gonorrhea. This was the ship had stopped 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:45.920 in Greenland. That's where the doctor and the nurse were 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:48.040 working at the time. So it's a you know, sort 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:53.480 of isolated place. Sure, and I believe that there are 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.880 laws on the books that said any medical people who 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:01.079 treat certain sexual diseases have to try to track down 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.520 where did this come from, so that they can try 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.839 to keep it from spreading. The patient did not want 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.120 to talk about it, but they really pressured him and 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.880 he told the story. The story was that he had 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.319 gone and knocked on the door of one of his 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.880 crewmen who wasn't in, so he opened the door and 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.200 he saw this inflated sex doll and it made use 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:29.800 of it, and a few days later they landed somewhere 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:32.000 and he discovered he now had a disease and he 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:33.080 went to see the doctor. 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:34.800 Oh my god. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.920 And the doctors treated it as they could treat it 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:42.960 with drugs pretty easily. They were kind of amused, and 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:48.240 they also did some research to see it's possible. Yeah, see, 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.120 you know, is there a history to this? Are there recommendations? 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.960 And discovered that this is probably the very first time 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.160 that this had ever happened, transmission of gone rhea through 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:03.440 an inflatable doll. This is a good reminder that when 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.240 you sleep with an inflatable doll, you're sleeping with everyone 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.400 who ever slept with that inflatable doll. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.360 Colonoscopies. The guy who did the research who try and 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:21.040 prevent people from exploding during a kolonosky? Is that true? 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.360 Oh yeah, tell us about this. It's all fascinating. 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.320 We've given two prizes about colonoscopies. That was the first. 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.160 They're very different from each other. Okay, there is a 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.520 history of this in the probably the nineteen fifties, but 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.040 I'm a little vague on exactly when. There was a 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:45.360 point when colonoscopies started to become almost routine. But before 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.480 that it was rare that they would be done. And 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.440 part of the reason it took a while was that 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.800 it took doctors a while to figure out how to 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.520 do this safely. Think about what has to happen there. 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.880 They want to look inside you, deep inside idea, So 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.440 they have to get something inside, and they're going to 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:05.680 do it from one end rather than the other. It's 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:10.440 a lot easier the journey from there. It's dark in there, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.520 so they need a light that they stick in there, 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.200 and it's also cramped, so they need to expand the 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.520 thing so they can see. So what they do to 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:24.920 expand it is they would put gas inside you, and 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.920 they use oxygen at the beginning, and then they would 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.000 put a light inside there. And in the fifties, every 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:37.080 light they used generated heat, so they're putting oxygen inside 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:44.000 you and then heating it. Patients, they were having patients 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.880 who explode it there happened fatally exploded some of them. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:50.880 Yes, how do you come out and tell me wife. 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:52.440 We got good news, no problems. 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:54.760 But it's. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.120 One of the things that the medical profession learned fairly 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:06.400 early in this was that you do not use pure oxygen. 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:07.639 Yeah. 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.880 So that was the first Nobel prize related to colonoscopy. 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.600 The second prize was more recent, maybe about ten years ago, 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:25.439 to a doctor in Japan who wrote about why he 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.080 did the first self colonoscopy. 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.400 Because it was Saturday and there was not much going on. 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.800 What do you mean why my sister was ill? Wow? 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.760 Yeah, he came from Japan over to Massachusetts, came to 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.520 the ceremony and we gave him the prize. Nobel Laureate 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.680 handed him the prize, shook his hands, and he gave 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.240 a speech, and then he did a little demonstration on stage. 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:56.760 No, no, yes, yes, Well is this like a lapeta 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:00.680 main kind of thing or was there entertainment and what 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:00.520 do you know? 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.400 Stuff coming out? This is stuff going in? 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.320 Oh my wow? Or do it? 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.520 You know what it looks like? And and if you 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.560 look at his paper in the Medical Journal, he drew 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:13.800 a little cartoon of himself so you can see what 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:14.320 it looked like. 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:17.000 He did this on the stage. 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.800 Yeah, well, not the entire procedure. We didn't have time. 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.200 How much of the procedure did he do on stage? 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.000 Just just the start, just enough so people could get 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:26.960 clear on what was going on. 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:27.720 Mark, you're. 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:31.560 You want to know why he did it? 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.960 Go ahead? Oh wow, I'm on the edge of my z. 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:36.439 How could I not all right? 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:49.800 All right? No, you want to know why he did it? 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:53.840 Oh wow, I'm on the edge of my z? How 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:54.639 could I not all right? 0:18:54.880 --> 0:19:01.560 All right? They do klonoscopies mainly because there are diseases, 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.480 cancers or the biggest one that they might be able 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.600 to catch early enough to do something about it. And 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:14.879 most of what used to be called advanced countries around 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.960 the world do that to a lot of the population now, 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.320 but not in Japan. In Japan, this is as this 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.880 doctor explained it in the paper and to us that 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:28.560 in Japan the population in general is frightened of colonoscopies, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:33.280 so it doesn't happen much there, and he wanted to 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.440 figure out why are people so scared? So he's trying 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:40.840 all sorts of stuff, including trying it on himself so 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:45.080 he could first and see what was going and then 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.840 from the publicity from this he was hoping maybe this 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.560 will get people laughing and curious and they'll start relaxing 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.520 and start having And he said, the cancer rates for 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.639 those kinds of cancer are much much higher in Japan 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:00.840 than in most other countries. So it's kind of a 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:01.440 serious thing. 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.159 So he did it to an example, So he's the 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.120 Katie couric basically. 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:06.920 On a serious note. 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.400 Though, you know, when I have a call and Oscar 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.560 me I'm I'm out, they put me out. I I 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.440 can't imagine if he's doing this, if he really did 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.639 the full procedure to himself, remaining concia. 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:22.520 I mean, it must be. 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.920 If you want, if you ask them, they won't put 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:27.320 you out. 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:28.719 It's there's not asking. 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.320 There's discomfort, but not a lot of pain. And it 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:32.640 can be interesting. 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:34.560 The folks that receive it. 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.320 Other than it's it is acknowledgment, and it is kind 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:41.040 of fun and and and perhaps in its own way 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:42.120 has become prestigious. 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.520 Is there anything in it for them other than that? 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:46.000 Does it? For instance? 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:50.080 Has has something that's won the Ignobel ever gone on 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:55.080 in some other form to become uh, I don't want 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.560 to use the word more serious science, but has it 0:20:57.720 --> 0:20:59.000 become more practical? 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:00.560 Has it actually turned out to be. 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.000 One thing to think about is all the stuff that 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.680 we get taught in schools about science, all these great 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.960 discoveries and inventions and stuff. The picture I always had 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.159 from the way I learned stuff was, you know, so 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.879 and so came up with this idea, made this discovery, 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.640 and everybody realized how great it was. That almost never happens. 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.719 You know, you know, from your own life, from your 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.960 own experience. Every time even a tiny thing, even in 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.680 your household, that you figured out that made life better. 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:33.920 You tell whoever you're living with, how do they react. 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.280 First of all, they don't want to hear it. Quite 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.520 often they'll say, oh, that's stupid or that doesn't work. 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:42.639 And this is what happens to scientists. This is what 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:44.919 their job is. You know, Nine out of ten or 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.040 more of the things they come up with, that's the 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:51.080 reaction they get. But the rare ones that do go 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.199 on to get used, especially if they turn into a 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.360 lot of money around the world, then the story changes. 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.600