1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 4 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: are you? So today we are going to continue and 5 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:28,080 Speaker 1: conclude our journey through past winners of the IG Nobel 6 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 1: Prize so far, and a quick reminder on what this 7 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: is all about. Over the last few weeks, I've done 8 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:38,240 Speaker 1: two other episodes about this, but you know, the Nobel 9 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: Prize is all about celebrating human achievements that generally benefit 10 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: all of humanity in some way. That's the idea behind 11 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,880 Speaker 1: those The ig Nobel Prize launched out of a satirical 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: science journal, and they continue on today but as an 13 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: offshoot of a different satirical science journal. To learn all 14 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: about that, just find the first part of this series, 15 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 1: and they acknowledge projects and people who have achieved something 16 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,320 Speaker 1: perhaps maybe at least on the surface, a little less 17 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: lofty than something that benefits all of humankind. The general 18 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,679 Speaker 1: description is that the ignobl is for something that first 19 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,319 Speaker 1: makes you laugh then makes you think. Some of the 20 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 1: awards celebrate the absurd, some of them are actually more 21 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 1: of a way to cast shade at people and projects 22 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: that probably deserve it. Now in the line of Ignobel 23 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: Prize as we are up to the year twenty thirteen, 24 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: and that year there was really only one Ignobel Prize 25 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: that was awarded for a category that relates to tech, 26 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,279 Speaker 1: because they give them out for all sorts of different 27 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: categories and technology doesn't factor into all of them. In fact, 28 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 1: I'm only talking about a very small number of prize 29 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: winners overall, because lots of awards went out to all 30 00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:01,440 Speaker 1: sorts of wacky and weird scientific endeavors. This year it 31 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: was for the field of safety engineering and the award 32 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:10,519 Speaker 1: went to Gustano Pizzo and the patent that he received, 33 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:14,920 Speaker 1: which was for an anti hijacking system for aircraft. This 34 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,799 Speaker 1: was not a new patent. I should add the Ignobel 35 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: Prize doesn't necessarily celebrate something that happened in that year. 36 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:27,839 Speaker 1: Sometimes someone will uncover, you know, a ridiculous thing from 37 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:30,919 Speaker 1: years and years ago, and then they'll award the Ignobel 38 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,800 Speaker 1: Prize well after the event happened. But the same thing 39 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:36,799 Speaker 1: is true about the Nobel Prize. So I think it's 40 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 1: fine anyway. Bitso's initial filing for this patent dated all 41 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,359 Speaker 1: the way back to November second, nineteen seventy two, and 42 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: remember the prize went out in twenty thirteen. The Patent 43 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: Office actually granted his patent on May twenty first, nineteen 44 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,680 Speaker 1: seventy four. So this wasn't just a patent application. The 45 00:02:55,800 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: US Patent Office actually approved the patent. Now you have 46 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: to understand why was there a patent for an anti 47 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: hijacking device in the first place. Well, in the late 48 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and into the early nineteen seventies and beyond, 49 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: actually there were several instances of planes being hijacked or 50 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 1: attempts at people hijacking planes. There were several that involved 51 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:23,919 Speaker 1: people hijacking a plane in order to travel to Cuba, 52 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:26,760 Speaker 1: with the phrase take this plane to Cuba becoming something 53 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 1: of a meme back in the day. You'll occasionally hear 54 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: that in comedy sketches. I remember there was a comedy 55 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: sketch where a hijacker is not able to get onto 56 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:38,520 Speaker 1: a plane, and so it gets on a bus and says, 57 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: take this bus to Cuba. The infamous case of dB 58 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:45,840 Speaker 1: Cooper happened in nineteen seventy one. Now, if you don't 59 00:03:45,880 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: know about the dB Cooper case just to do a 60 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,560 Speaker 1: web search on D. B. Cooper to read up a 61 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: one of the more outlandish acts of thievery in US history. 62 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: But let's get back to this invent. So what was 63 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: Gustano's solution toward stopping a hijacker from taking over a plane? Well, 64 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: according to the patent quote, a partition or barrier located 65 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:16,440 Speaker 1: immediately aft of the pilot's cabin is adapted to be raised, 66 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:23,040 Speaker 1: dividing the aft section longitudinally into port and starboard areas, 67 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:27,560 Speaker 1: the floors of which are dropped on command to lower 68 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: the hijacker into a capsule in the belly of the plane. 69 00:04:31,880 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 1: The capsule is releasable through opened bombay doors, having attached 70 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:42,279 Speaker 1: there too a parachute for safely returning the hijacker within 71 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:48,279 Speaker 1: the capsule to earth end quote. So, imagine that you've 72 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: got X ray glasses on, and you're standing in the 73 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: aisle of the plane, and you're looking toward the cockpit. 74 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: You would see that beneath the floor right in front 75 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: of the cockpit there are first there's a partitioned wall 76 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: that can come straight up out of the floor and 77 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:10,039 Speaker 1: thus cut the cockpit into left and right halves, or 78 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:13,880 Speaker 1: the aisle into left and right halves. On that left 79 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: and right half, you would see underneath the floor there'd 80 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:19,279 Speaker 1: be a couple of capsules. The patents sketch actually showed 81 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,600 Speaker 1: them as nets as opposed to capsules, and the floor 82 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:26,080 Speaker 1: itself is just a trap door. So his invention was 83 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:29,640 Speaker 1: a cartoonish trap door built into the body of a plane, 84 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: two trap doors actually, and it would be hijacker would 85 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:36,400 Speaker 1: presumably fall through the trap door into the net or 86 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,960 Speaker 1: capsule below. The plane would then open up doors below 87 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: the capsule so on the bottom side of the plane 88 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: to eject the hijacker, and a parachute would deploy so 89 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:49,919 Speaker 1: that authorities would be able to retrieve. Then ne're do 90 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: well once they landed on the ground. The other part 91 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: of the invention that dividing wall that would move into 92 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: place and bisect the area behind the cockpit. That would 93 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: serve both to nudge the hijacker in the right position, 94 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: because you know, this invention only works if the hijacker's 95 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:07,800 Speaker 1: actually standing on top of the trap door. I'm reminded 96 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: again of comedy sketches where a villain wants to throw 97 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,040 Speaker 1: a switch and open a trap door under someone, only 98 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: they're not standing on the trap door, so the villain 99 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:19,840 Speaker 1: keeps on like suggesting, why don't you move just a 100 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:22,159 Speaker 1: little bit more to the right. It feels kind of 101 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:24,839 Speaker 1: like that. It also would serve as a barrier to 102 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:28,120 Speaker 1: prevent hijackers from opening the cockpit door right. It almost 103 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: sects like like an obstacle that way, because it would 104 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: come up right up against the door and keep the 105 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 1: door secure, and thus the hijackers would not be able 106 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: to gain access to the pilots. I don't know why 107 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: companies like Boeing and Airbust didn't go to the trouble 108 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: of building trap doors and bomb bay doors on commercial 109 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:50,680 Speaker 1: passenger jets. Clearly this was worthy of an Ignobel prize. 110 00:06:51,320 --> 00:06:54,800 Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, the Ignobel Prize for Art went to 111 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:58,800 Speaker 1: a project that includes lasers, Which is why I'm mentioning 112 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:02,159 Speaker 1: it in this episode because, as it turns out, this 113 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:05,200 Speaker 1: really isn't that much about tech at all, but lasers 114 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: do play a part, and I love lasers, so tech 115 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: was really just a way to facilitate part of this experiment. 116 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: So the winners of the prize were Marina di Tomasso, 117 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: Michelle Sadaro, and Paolo Livrea for their scientific paper titled 118 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: esthetic value of Paintings affects pain thresholds. So the basic 119 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: hypothesis was that your threshold for pain, or maybe your 120 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:37,560 Speaker 1: perception of pain, depends in part on circumstances that are 121 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:43,240 Speaker 1: outside of the actual incident that's causing the pain. So 122 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: in other words, if everything around you is pretty nice 123 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,760 Speaker 1: and you're kind of distracted because of how pretty everything is, 124 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:54,120 Speaker 1: then if you stub your toe, you might not perceive 125 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: it as painful as if you were in an unpleasant 126 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:01,160 Speaker 1: or scary situation. I'm kind of reminded did of doctors 127 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 1: who will distract a child before the child gets a 128 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: shot so that the child doesn't really perceive the pains 129 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: as acutely. So that's kind of what the basic hypothesis was, Well, 130 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,480 Speaker 1: how do you test that? How do you test if 131 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: someone feels pain at a different level based upon what 132 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 1: they're experiencing. So the researchers gather together a group of 133 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,280 Speaker 1: folks and they had these people look at different paintings, 134 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: and each participant was to give their opinion about which 135 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,760 Speaker 1: paintings they thought were beautiful and which ones they thought 136 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: were unpleasant or ugly. So that's the first step, you know, 137 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: and they would the researchers would write down, okay, you know, 138 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:51,079 Speaker 1: subject A thinks paintings one, five, nine, twelve, sixteen, and 139 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: twenty are all pretty and all the rest are ugly, 140 00:08:54,120 --> 00:08:57,040 Speaker 1: and they would just keep those as two separate groups 141 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:01,680 Speaker 1: for the second part of the experiment. And the second 142 00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:05,079 Speaker 1: part was they had the participants stare at the paintings 143 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:09,480 Speaker 1: they found beautiful and then they hit the back of 144 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:12,600 Speaker 1: their hand with a laser, a laser that was strong 145 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:18,000 Speaker 1: enough to create a point of pain by heating it up. 146 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: And they did the same thing with the ugly paintings, 147 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,079 Speaker 1: right or the ones that the particular subject found were ugly. 148 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: And at the end they said, so how bad it 149 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: hurt this time? So, yeah, the laser was just strong 150 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:33,679 Speaker 1: enough to heat that tiny point on the back of 151 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: the hand without actually causing damage. It caused discomfort and 152 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: then pain, but not it wouldn't, you know, actually hurt 153 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: the person. So they asked how bad was the pain 154 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: when you were looking at the ugly paintings and how 155 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:49,120 Speaker 1: bad were was the pain when you were looking at 156 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:53,640 Speaker 1: the pretty paintings. And they concluded that quote pain may 157 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: be modulated at cortical level by the esthetic content of 158 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: the distracting stimuli end quote. So again not super tech heavy, 159 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: but it had lasers in it, so I had to 160 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: talk about it. Next up, we need to go to 161 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: twenty sixteen's Egg Nobel Prizes and the prize in chemistry 162 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:12,560 Speaker 1: that year covers a topic that we've talked about on 163 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:17,119 Speaker 1: Old Tech Stuff podcasts, and that is Diesel Gate, aka 164 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:21,440 Speaker 1: the Volkswagen emissions scandal. All right, So, as I'm sure 165 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:23,920 Speaker 1: many of you know, in lots of places around the world, 166 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: there are laws that restrict the amount of emissions a 167 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,880 Speaker 1: vehicle can make of certain types of emissions, and if 168 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: a vehicle exceeds that limit, then it's not really legal 169 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:37,200 Speaker 1: to drive that vehicle on the roads or to sell 170 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:41,679 Speaker 1: that car in those places. So here in the United States, 171 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,240 Speaker 1: one of the emissions the Environmental Protection Agency looks out 172 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:49,559 Speaker 1: for is nitrogen oxide, and vehicles that have diesel fueled 173 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,160 Speaker 1: engines can release nitrogen oxide. But as long as those 174 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:57,760 Speaker 1: emissions are under a legal limit, everything's copasetic, at least 175 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:01,839 Speaker 1: from a legal standpoint. The searchers found something curious when 176 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:05,240 Speaker 1: they were testing some Volkswagen vehicles that run on diesel. 177 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:09,440 Speaker 1: In the lab, the vehicles operated under the legal limit 178 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: for nitrogen oxide emissions. Everything's fine, But then in a 179 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:17,079 Speaker 1: live road test, some researchers found that two Volkswagen vehicles 180 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:21,720 Speaker 1: running on diesel were actually exceeding the accepted levels of 181 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 1: nitrogen oxide emissions. A further investigation found that Volkswagen had 182 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: installed software in their diesel powered vehicles, and that software 183 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: would detect when a car was put into emissions testing 184 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:40,200 Speaker 1: in a lab and would essentially throttle the vehicle's performance 185 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: so that nitrogen oxide emissions would be below normal. But 186 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:46,960 Speaker 1: if you were outside of a testing environment, when you 187 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:50,280 Speaker 1: were actually using the car for its intended purpose to 188 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: take you from place to place, it would switch to 189 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:56,440 Speaker 1: normal operations, and that meant the engine would be generating 190 00:11:56,440 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 1: more power, but also you would get more nitrogen oxide emissions. Essentially, 191 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:06,120 Speaker 1: Volkswagen was cheating on an environmental test and this was 192 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:11,120 Speaker 1: a huge scandal, and it led to recalls and fines 193 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:14,520 Speaker 1: and plenty of other costs. And these were not puny 194 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:18,160 Speaker 1: little fines either. In the United States alone, the estimation 195 00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:23,160 Speaker 1: was around twenty five billion with a b dollars in fines. 196 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:26,200 Speaker 1: Volkswagen would later claim it cost the company more than 197 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: thirty one billion euro. So clearly this is a case 198 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:34,280 Speaker 1: of throwing some shade on an Ignobel winner. The prize 199 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,280 Speaker 1: said it went to Volkswagen quote for solving the problem 200 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: of excessive automobile pollution emissions by automatically electro mechanically producing 201 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:47,800 Speaker 1: fewer emissions whenever the cars are being tested. End quote. Okay, 202 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, 203 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: we've got some more Ignobel Prize winners to talk about. 204 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:05,560 Speaker 1: All right, we're back, and we're up to twenty seventeen. 205 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 1: We actually have a couple of entrees that Merritt mentioned 206 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,319 Speaker 1: on a technology podcast, although the second one is well, 207 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:13,800 Speaker 1: it's going to be a challenge for me not to 208 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:18,080 Speaker 1: make some jokes. Remember, Jonathan, this is a serious business. Okay, 209 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: all right, we'll start with the easy one first, and 210 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:24,960 Speaker 1: this one went to a brain activity study that used 211 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: fMRI analysis to study a version, particularly in the form 212 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:33,400 Speaker 1: of food disgusted. And as the researchers point out in 213 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:38,320 Speaker 1: the abstract of their paper, some people are disgusted by cheese, 214 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:42,480 Speaker 1: and so in their paper, quote, the neural bases of 215 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:46,840 Speaker 1: disgust for cheese end quote. The researchers describe how they 216 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:51,199 Speaker 1: found out that, based on fMRI data, a higher percentage 217 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:54,280 Speaker 1: of people are disgusted by cheese than by other types 218 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,000 Speaker 1: of food, So that's why they chose cheese out of 219 00:13:57,040 --> 00:14:00,640 Speaker 1: everything else. More importantly, they say that those who have 220 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:03,840 Speaker 1: no desire to eat cheese, or perhaps even an outright 221 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:07,840 Speaker 1: aversion to eating cheese, they observed more activity in the 222 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:11,079 Speaker 1: basal ganglia, which I could have sworn was a nightclub 223 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:15,439 Speaker 1: I once walked past in San Diego. So the researchers 224 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: were studying how the brain reacts when someone feels discussed. Essentially, 225 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:23,560 Speaker 1: and I will remind y'all that one of the earlier 226 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: Ignobel prizes went to some researchers who showed that equipment 227 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:30,160 Speaker 1: meant to study brain activity and the statistical analysis that's 228 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:34,720 Speaker 1: used along with it, which primarily focuses on fMRI machines. 229 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:40,040 Speaker 1: Those machines are extremely sensitive and the statistical methods are 230 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:45,359 Speaker 1: extremely it's easy to insert errors, either intentionally or otherwise. 231 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:50,760 Speaker 1: Talked about this with David Eagleman recently, and they showed 232 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,960 Speaker 1: that by showing that the fMRI study could be done 233 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:59,280 Speaker 1: to apparently measure brain activity in a dead salmon, which 234 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: is clearly impossible, right, And the reason I bring that 235 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:07,600 Speaker 1: up is I now, I'm always worried that perhaps any 236 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:13,040 Speaker 1: study that uses FMRII fails to follow very strict controls. 237 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: There's no reason to suggest that that's the case here, because, 238 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: as David pointed out, it is entirely possible to get strong, valid, 239 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: reliable results with fMRI, but you have to be very careful, 240 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:33,400 Speaker 1: which is true about all science. But we can often 241 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,440 Speaker 1: just assume that everyone did everything correctly, and then next 242 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:40,040 Speaker 1: thing you know, you find out that the conclusions you 243 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: have drawn aren't based on anything anyway. The whole study 244 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,480 Speaker 1: was a pretty amusing way to measure disgust, but it 245 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 1: wouldn't work on me because I love cheese. Still, I 246 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: thought it was interesting. They thought, we need to figure 247 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:58,040 Speaker 1: out disgust, But we need to figure out how people 248 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:02,120 Speaker 1: experience disgusted in the brain without introducing something that is 249 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 1: genuinely upsetting or dangerous. Right. We don't want to cause 250 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:14,800 Speaker 1: psychological harm by presenting something that's disgusting and disturbing. So 251 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 1: where do we find an item that can create the 252 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:23,000 Speaker 1: feeling of disgust without it actually causing harm and cheese 253 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:25,760 Speaker 1: was what they settled on, and I just think that's great. 254 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: And now for the other twenty seventeen prize, this one 255 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,280 Speaker 1: was awarded in the field of obstetrics, and it went 256 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: to researchers who published a paper titled and I Am 257 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:42,440 Speaker 1: not making this up Fetal facial expression in response to 258 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:47,160 Speaker 1: intra vaginal music emission. So, in other words, the study 259 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:49,560 Speaker 1: looked at how a fetus reacts in the form of 260 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: the fetus's facial expression when the fetus encountered music coming 261 00:16:54,040 --> 00:17:00,800 Speaker 1: from inside the mother's vagina. Holy cats, y'all, Oh many jokes. 262 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:03,960 Speaker 1: I mean, the music is coming from inside the vagina 263 00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: is just one of them. But I will do my 264 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:10,920 Speaker 1: best to stop myself from reverting to a juvenile sense 265 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:16,400 Speaker 1: of humor. So the study compared fetal responses to music 266 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 1: that was played through quote emitters placed on the mother's 267 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,199 Speaker 1: abdomen end quote which I'm guessing is kind of like, 268 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:26,719 Speaker 1: you know, having a couple of little speakers that are 269 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 1: attached to whatever the music device is and putting the 270 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,680 Speaker 1: speakers sort of face down on the mother's abdomen and 271 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,080 Speaker 1: then the baby can listen to music that was sort 272 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:42,640 Speaker 1: of the control group, and the other was applying musical 273 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:48,679 Speaker 1: stimuli intravationally. Now I only read the abstract of this paper. 274 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,159 Speaker 1: I did not pay to get access to the full paper, 275 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:56,359 Speaker 1: so I am not exactly sure how they did that. 276 00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: I wasn't really brave enough to read the full study, 277 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:04,360 Speaker 1: if I'm being totally honest. But I imagine that however 278 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: they did it didn't involve John Cusack in a boombox. 279 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:13,560 Speaker 1: The researchers then used ultrasound and they captured images of 280 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: the fetus, and they looked for facial movements such as 281 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:21,679 Speaker 1: mouthing and tonguing, and they observed that a fetus that 282 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:25,840 Speaker 1: was older than sixteen weeks typically did seem to react 283 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: more to the intravaginal music stimulation than that that was 284 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:34,639 Speaker 1: coming from outside the mother. And you might be thinking, 285 00:18:35,359 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: why even study this, Well, the researchers actually had a 286 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:41,440 Speaker 1: couple of good reasons for it. For one, they found 287 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:43,600 Speaker 1: that most of the fetuses that they tested this with 288 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:47,679 Speaker 1: reacted to the intravaginal music more than the alternatives, and 289 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,320 Speaker 1: this in turn suggested that the neural pathways associated with 290 00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 1: hearing and motor responses that are connected to hearing form 291 00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:59,199 Speaker 1: earlier than perhaps we previously believed. So it gives us 292 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:03,119 Speaker 1: more information on the actual development of a fetus in 293 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,480 Speaker 1: the womb, and that by knowing this we could potentially 294 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:10,760 Speaker 1: develop new methods for things like prenatal hearing screening, among 295 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: other things. So again, on the surface level, the study 296 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:18,879 Speaker 1: sounds at least a little bit bizarre, but through that 297 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:21,800 Speaker 1: bizarre study, we learned things that potentially could have a 298 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:26,040 Speaker 1: significant impact on people in the future. All right up 299 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,760 Speaker 1: to twenty eighteen, we got our second Ignobel Prize awarded 300 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:34,560 Speaker 1: to researchers who found a medical application for roller coasters. Now, 301 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:36,640 Speaker 1: if you've listened to the other episodes I've done about 302 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:39,320 Speaker 1: the prizes, you might remember that way back in twenty ten, 303 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:43,399 Speaker 1: some researchers looked at how positive forms of stress, you know, 304 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:46,359 Speaker 1: like thrilling kinds of stress use stress, in other words, 305 00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:50,119 Speaker 1: can help alleviate symptoms of asthma. Well, in twenty eighteen, 306 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:52,399 Speaker 1: we had a related idea, except this time it was 307 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: the use of roller coasters as part of an effort 308 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:58,920 Speaker 1: to help patients pass a kidney stone. Y'all, I've had 309 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: kidney stones twe and it was agonizing both times, and 310 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:04,920 Speaker 1: I can't even imagine being able to sit still long 311 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,280 Speaker 1: enough to ride to the closest amusement park, which is 312 00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:10,959 Speaker 1: about a half hour drive from where I live, and 313 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,440 Speaker 1: then make my way through the park to the closest 314 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,919 Speaker 1: suitable roller coaster to pursue this kind of treatment. But 315 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:21,080 Speaker 1: then again, when I'm in the throes of agony, perhaps 316 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: I'd consider trying it anyway, because any relief would be 317 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 1: more than welcome. The researchers, Mark Mitchell and David Wardinger 318 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:35,080 Speaker 1: published their findings in a paper has a title that 319 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:40,920 Speaker 1: includes words that I absolutely cannot pronounce, but essentially a 320 00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:46,439 Speaker 1: validation of a renal model for the evaluation of renal 321 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:50,800 Speaker 1: calculi passage while writing a roller coaster. And it almost 322 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:52,280 Speaker 1: feels like they were doing the whole thing as a 323 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:54,159 Speaker 1: gag right from the start with that kind of title, 324 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,520 Speaker 1: But it does get better. So, first off, the researcher 325 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,080 Speaker 1: has created a simulation to stand in for a patient. 326 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,919 Speaker 1: They needed to have some sort of way to measure this, 327 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,440 Speaker 1: and it would not be practical or ethical to seek 328 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,800 Speaker 1: out people who were in the midst of trying to 329 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:15,640 Speaker 1: pass a kidney stone to stand in and help out 330 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:19,680 Speaker 1: with this, so they needed something to simulate a patient 331 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,040 Speaker 1: with a kidney stone, and that makes sense to me. 332 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,280 Speaker 1: The simulations were based off actual medical cases of kidney stones, 333 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:30,760 Speaker 1: so they relied on tomography that was gathered during various 334 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: patients treatment to determine things like the size of kidney 335 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,880 Speaker 1: stones and where in the renal system they were at 336 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:43,240 Speaker 1: the time of the patient seeking treatment. So the researchers 337 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 1: would suspend the stones or calculi in other words, quote 338 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:53,560 Speaker 1: in urine in the model. End quote you. Then they 339 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 1: would take this model on a roller coaster ride. So 340 00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: you had researchers carrying the simulation of a human renal 341 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:08,200 Speaker 1: system filled with urine and kidney stones, or a simulation 342 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,360 Speaker 1: of a kidney stone onto a roller coaster, and not 343 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 1: just any roller coaster, but the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 344 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:19,440 Speaker 1: roller coaster at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. YEA, 345 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: all that happens to be one of the few roller 346 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,360 Speaker 1: coasters that my partner will go on because she does 347 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:27,400 Speaker 1: not like thrill rides and Big Thunder is just at 348 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,480 Speaker 1: her threshold for thrill rides, so I can't wait to 349 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: entertain her with trivia that the ride has also been 350 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:37,600 Speaker 1: used in a study about kidney stones with a simulated 351 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,199 Speaker 1: model of a renal system filled with p So what 352 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:45,840 Speaker 1: did the researchers actually find. Well, it all depends on 353 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:48,560 Speaker 1: where you sit, I guess, because they saw that when 354 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:51,120 Speaker 1: they took the model on rides and they sat near 355 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: the front of the train, they observed a passage rate 356 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:59,440 Speaker 1: of four times out of a total of twenty four rides, 357 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,359 Speaker 1: so they rode twenty four times, and four times of 358 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: the ride they saw that the simulated stone had passed 359 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:08,920 Speaker 1: at least a little bit further down the renal system, 360 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:10,800 Speaker 1: and the other twenty times it didn't. But when they 361 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,160 Speaker 1: rolled in the back of the roller coaster, they saw 362 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,919 Speaker 1: a passage rate of twenty three times out of thirty 363 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,480 Speaker 1: six attempts. They also saw that the passage of the 364 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:23,960 Speaker 1: calculi depended a bit on the calosseal location of the 365 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,920 Speaker 1: stone itself. And I'm sure I'm butchering the pronunciation of 366 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:30,439 Speaker 1: these things. I ran into so many medical terms and 367 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:33,480 Speaker 1: I just am not familiar with them. Anyway, think of 368 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,879 Speaker 1: the renal system as having an upper, middle, and lower section. 369 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,280 Speaker 1: The stone would pass through the upper section one hundred 370 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,200 Speaker 1: percent of the time. So if that's where they started 371 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:46,600 Speaker 1: where they put the kidney stone in the upper part 372 00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,720 Speaker 1: of the renal system. It would pass out of the 373 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,520 Speaker 1: upper system, possibly just down into the middle or lower section, 374 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,920 Speaker 1: but it did it every single time. The middle section 375 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:59,199 Speaker 1: it would pass through fifty five point six percent of 376 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,439 Speaker 1: the time, and the lower section of the renal system 377 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,520 Speaker 1: simulate a renal system forty percent of the time. I 378 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:09,399 Speaker 1: don't know if that means the model peed itself and 379 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: passed the stone while on the ride. I'd rather not know. 380 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 1: I will say knowing that some scientists carried a model 381 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:18,920 Speaker 1: filled with urine on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at least 382 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: sixty times does make me look at the ride a 383 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:26,400 Speaker 1: little differently. Now, Okay, we're going to take another quick break. 384 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,080 Speaker 1: When we come back, we've got some more Ignobel Prize 385 00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,760 Speaker 1: winners to talk about, and hopefully we're done with the 386 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: pee for now. Okay, we're back. So twenty eighteen saw 387 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,399 Speaker 1: another prize winner wasn't just about kidney stones and riding 388 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: roller coasters. The Ignobel Prize for Literature went to a 389 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,360 Speaker 1: research paper that confirms what I think most of us 390 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:02,480 Speaker 1: probably innately know or least suspect on a subconscious level. 391 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:07,840 Speaker 1: The paper is titled life is Too Short to RTFM 392 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:13,640 Speaker 1: how users relate to documentation and excess features in consumer products. So, 393 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 1: for those innocent summer children among you who do not 394 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:25,720 Speaker 1: recognize the initialism RTFM, it stands for read the freakin' manual, 395 00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: only most of the time folks will use a more 396 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:34,360 Speaker 1: vulgar F word in that one. So this paper observes 397 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:38,880 Speaker 1: that with more complex consumer products, people are less likely 398 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:41,720 Speaker 1: to bother flipping through the pages of a manual before 399 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,440 Speaker 1: trying to suss out how it works. Which, obviously that's 400 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:49,240 Speaker 1: like counterproductive, right. You've made a product that is more complicated, 401 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: the person is more likely to need instructions, and yet 402 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,280 Speaker 1: they're less likely to actually read them. And the more 403 00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:58,720 Speaker 1: complicated it gets, the less likely people are to read 404 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:03,640 Speaker 1: the manual. It seems like a paradox, right, So how 405 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:07,440 Speaker 1: do you get around this and why is it? Well, 406 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:13,000 Speaker 1: often it's because the more voluminous and convoluted instructions are, 407 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:15,520 Speaker 1: the more discouraging it is to try and read them. 408 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,680 Speaker 1: And so if instructions were written in a very straightforward way, 409 00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:24,679 Speaker 1: then perhaps people would be less disinclined to read the 410 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,680 Speaker 1: instructions when they get some new, complicated piece of equipment. 411 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,040 Speaker 1: But I'm sure y'all have all had the experience where 412 00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:33,600 Speaker 1: you get something brand new, it's got lots of different 413 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,760 Speaker 1: features and moving parts or whatever. You open up the 414 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,439 Speaker 1: instruction manual and it might be five or six pages 415 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,399 Speaker 1: before you even start getting to instructions. Everything before that 416 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,120 Speaker 1: are things like warnings and lists of parts and all 417 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,320 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and you're just like, I just 418 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:51,199 Speaker 1: want to use my thing. I just want to I 419 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,359 Speaker 1: got this brand new scientific calculator. I want to do 420 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:58,040 Speaker 1: some cool stuff. And again, while you might argue that 421 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:00,879 Speaker 1: the study simply confirms something that a lot of people 422 00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,600 Speaker 1: know or at least suspect, you could say it also 423 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:07,320 Speaker 1: sends a message to inventors and to companies. There is 424 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:13,160 Speaker 1: a challenge in writing good useful documentation. Companies will do 425 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:15,639 Speaker 1: everything they can to include in the manual all the 426 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,920 Speaker 1: stuff that could possibly go wrong, usually as a way 427 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,080 Speaker 1: to kind of shift accountability from the company to the user, 428 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,199 Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, no, we told you not to 429 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,520 Speaker 1: do that in the manual, so it's not our fault 430 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,399 Speaker 1: that you didn't read it. But for those companies that 431 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,680 Speaker 1: really want to see consumers using their products, that research 432 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,080 Speaker 1: perhaps suggests that there are ways to create manuals that 433 00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: are more engaging and less frustrating, and by extension, more 434 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:43,119 Speaker 1: useful to the end user. And of course I have 435 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:44,840 Speaker 1: seen this kind of thing. I'm sure you have to 436 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,919 Speaker 1: where you'll buy a new product and it'll come with 437 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,960 Speaker 1: two things, right, It'll come with a full manual that'll 438 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: list everything, and there'll be like a quick start manual 439 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:57,879 Speaker 1: so that you can just get things set up and 440 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,920 Speaker 1: get things going. And I think that might in part 441 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:08,119 Speaker 1: be a reaction to this particular tendency in consumers. Now 442 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,359 Speaker 1: we're in the home stretch. So in twenty nineteen, emman 443 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,879 Speaker 1: Fara Baksh received an Ignobel Prize in Engineering for his patent, 444 00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:20,160 Speaker 1: which was awarded in twenty eighteen for an quote infant 445 00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: washer and diaper changer apparatus and method end quote. Now, 446 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 1: if you're curious about this device, allow me to describe 447 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,639 Speaker 1: some of its features as laid out in the patent. 448 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:35,440 Speaker 1: It has a quote main chamber, a glass window, a seat, 449 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 1: a leg holder, a safety belt, a diaper removing arm, 450 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:46,000 Speaker 1: a sprinkler, and a dryer end quote. I also love 451 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,200 Speaker 1: the sentence from the abstract quote the main chamber is 452 00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: configured to receive an infant therein end quote. That just 453 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:57,160 Speaker 1: tickles me. But I'll say this though, the illustrations make 454 00:28:57,200 --> 00:28:59,640 Speaker 1: the device look like a cross between a microwave oven 455 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:02,760 Speaker 1: and one of those claw machines you find in amusement 456 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 1: parks in arcades. Still, the patent points out that the 457 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,920 Speaker 1: quote changing diapers is an art that many parents or 458 00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:15,400 Speaker 1: caregivers may find difficult to acquire or perform conveniently end quote. 459 00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:19,400 Speaker 1: And I don't doubt that for a second. If y'all 460 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:21,760 Speaker 1: are so inclined to read up on this patent, you 461 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,040 Speaker 1: can find it in a patent search. The patent number 462 00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:28,440 Speaker 1: is ten million, thirty four thousand, five hundred eighty two 463 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,840 Speaker 1: dot B two. So yeah, if you look at the picture, 464 00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,800 Speaker 1: you're supposed to lay the baby baby on a seat, 465 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,880 Speaker 1: secure the baby to the seat with a belt, and 466 00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:43,400 Speaker 1: then these robotic arms are meant to remove the diaper, 467 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,800 Speaker 1: and then the sprinkler sprays the baby cleat, and the 468 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,880 Speaker 1: dryer tries the baby. But those arms are what just y'all, 469 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: I just can't imagine using those near a baby. It's 470 00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 1: it kind of goes to like tech avery cartoon territory 471 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,880 Speaker 1: for me, all right, just a few more. In twenty 472 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:07,480 Speaker 1: twenty two, the Ignobel Prizer Engineering went to a team 473 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:10,120 Speaker 1: of researchers who studied the most efficient way for people 474 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:14,000 Speaker 1: to use their fingers when turning a knob. So this 475 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,920 Speaker 1: experiment involved thirty two volunteers. They were told to turn 476 00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: a series of knobs clockwise, and the knobs ranged in 477 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,840 Speaker 1: size from seven millimeters on the small side to thirteen 478 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,480 Speaker 1: centimeters on the large side. Now that's not that tech 479 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: oriented yet, and in fact, the researchers contextualize their work 480 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,680 Speaker 1: as a way to create good products that are useful 481 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,920 Speaker 1: to society and easy to operate. In other words, make 482 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,520 Speaker 1: sure your knobs are convenient for people to use. But 483 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:45,120 Speaker 1: I would also propose this sort of research becomes useful 484 00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,560 Speaker 1: in fields like robotics, where you might design a general 485 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 1: purpose robot that is meant to interact with different types 486 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,840 Speaker 1: of control systems that were designed for humans, and learning 487 00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:00,840 Speaker 1: how humans tend to interact with controls can help inform 488 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: roboticists when it comes to creating robots that are meant 489 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 1: to do similar things. It doesn't mean that the human 490 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: method will always be the best one, but if you're 491 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,520 Speaker 1: trying to design a robot that can interoperate in a 492 00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:16,520 Speaker 1: human environment, you have to first begin by understanding how 493 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:22,400 Speaker 1: humans move around in that human environment, and that to 494 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: me makes sense, so I think it counts for the 495 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:29,560 Speaker 1: purposes on this show. Another Ignobel prize, this one for 496 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,680 Speaker 1: safety engineering, went to a Swedish engineer named Magnus Gens. 497 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:39,640 Speaker 1: Why because years earlier Gens designed a moose crash test dummy. 498 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: And that does sound a little odd on the face 499 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 1: of it, but then consider this. Moose are very large animals, 500 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 1: but they have bodies that have varying density, and as 501 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: large and as heavy as they are, they aren't necessarily 502 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:59,320 Speaker 1: heavy enough to trigger a car's airbag system to deploy 503 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: in the event of a crash. And in some places, 504 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:06,160 Speaker 1: like say in the Northern US, in Canada, places like Sweden, 505 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,960 Speaker 1: crashes with large animal like moose or elk isn't unheard of, 506 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,160 Speaker 1: and so Jen's invention helped car companies run tests to 507 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,240 Speaker 1: create vehicles that would keep passengers safer in the unfortunate 508 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,160 Speaker 1: event of a collision with a large animal. So again, 509 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: it's one of those things that seems a bit weird 510 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,880 Speaker 1: at first, but it makes sense as you think about 511 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: it more. And in case you're curious, the dummy consisted 512 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:33,600 Speaker 1: of a metal frame with large rubber plates that were 513 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,959 Speaker 1: slung over it to represent different parts of the moose's body. 514 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:42,040 Speaker 1: Now this brings us up to twenty twenty three. So 515 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,240 Speaker 1: this year we got a couple of awards that relate 516 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,800 Speaker 1: to tech stuff, not the podcast, but you know tech 517 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: in general. For example, the award for Mechanical Engineering went 518 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:56,040 Speaker 1: to a group of researchers who purely by chance, started 519 00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:59,640 Speaker 1: to work with dead spiders. So they saw that when 520 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,640 Speaker 1: spy dye, their little legs curl inward, and that's because 521 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:10,240 Speaker 1: they have a flexer muscle that contracts the legs. But 522 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:14,320 Speaker 1: in order to extend the legs, spiders actually use hydraulic pressure. 523 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,760 Speaker 1: So when they die, there's no hydraulic pressure and the 524 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:23,040 Speaker 1: flexer muscles pull in and so all the legs curl in. 525 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,080 Speaker 1: And that means that the relaxed state for the legs 526 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,120 Speaker 1: is a gripping motion. Eureka, they said, we could use 527 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,600 Speaker 1: dead spiders to grip stuff, or rather, they could create 528 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,600 Speaker 1: a gripping mechanism that they could base off the mechanics 529 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 1: of a spider's legs and they called it a necrobotic approach. 530 00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: And yeah, I can imagine some use cases for a 531 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:51,840 Speaker 1: mechanism that remains in grip mode until activated to release something, right, 532 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,360 Speaker 1: I can think of some good uses for a gripper 533 00:33:55,920 --> 00:34:00,000 Speaker 1: that its natural state is gripping. So that's pretty cool 534 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,760 Speaker 1: and all because of dead spiders. Then there were a 535 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,160 Speaker 1: pair of Japanese researchers who are looking into how applying 536 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: electrical stimulation to the tongue can change our perception of taste. 537 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:17,520 Speaker 1: They wrote a paper that was titled Augmented Gestation using Electricity. 538 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,640 Speaker 1: In the paper, they say that quote, we change and 539 00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:24,839 Speaker 1: amplify the taste of soup by stimulating the tongue electrically. 540 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,360 Speaker 1: Humans can feel electric taste at the moment of electrical 541 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:36,080 Speaker 1: tongue stimulation. Electric taste includes metal taste, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness. 542 00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:39,680 Speaker 1: They claim that through this stimulation they can amplify certain 543 00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:43,360 Speaker 1: tastes and totally alter others. Whether this means you're gonna 544 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:47,000 Speaker 1: need to plug in your chopsticks or your straws in 545 00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:49,480 Speaker 1: order to charge them before you eat and drink, I 546 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:55,319 Speaker 1: can't say. And lastly, doctor Sung Min Park received the 547 00:34:55,440 --> 00:35:00,200 Speaker 1: Ignobel Prize for Public Health in twenty twenty three I 548 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: for inventing the Stanford toilet. Now I should add that 549 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:06,680 Speaker 1: Park was just one of several people who worked on 550 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:11,720 Speaker 1: this project. Doctor Sanjeev Gambier, doctor David Wan, and doctor 551 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:15,640 Speaker 1: Brian Lee also worked on it. So what's so special 552 00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:19,240 Speaker 1: about this toilet? Well, as the ig Nobel Prize committee 553 00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: put it, the Stanford toilet is quote a device that 554 00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:27,920 Speaker 1: uses a variety of technologies including a uranalysis dipstick test strip, 555 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:33,240 Speaker 1: a computer vision system for defecation analysis, an anal print 556 00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:38,920 Speaker 1: sensor paired with an identification camera, and a telecommunications link 557 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:43,160 Speaker 1: to monitor and quickly analyze the substances that humans excrete 558 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,840 Speaker 1: end quote. So it's a toilet that can perform tests 559 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:49,759 Speaker 1: on the stuff what you put in the toilet. In 560 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:55,120 Speaker 1: other words, Now, if you've ever watched Scrubs, the musical 561 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:58,839 Speaker 1: episode in particular, do you know that everything comes down 562 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:02,640 Speaker 1: to pooh. It's not totally accurate, but analyzing the stuff 563 00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:05,319 Speaker 1: we excreet can tell doctors a lot about what's going 564 00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,760 Speaker 1: on inside us and helped narrow down parameters before anyone 565 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 1: has to do some sort of like invasive exploratory surgery, 566 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,560 Speaker 1: So this toilet can check for disease markers associated with 567 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:21,120 Speaker 1: everything from certain types of cancer to irritable bowel syndrome 568 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:25,080 Speaker 1: to kidney failure. What's more, the toilet itself is a 569 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,520 Speaker 1: perfectly ordinary toilet. The team just found ways to incorporate 570 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:33,640 Speaker 1: or invent various tools that could then be fitted inside 571 00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:37,319 Speaker 1: a standard toilet and thus perform these tests. So you 572 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,239 Speaker 1: don't even have to build an entirely new toilet to 573 00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:44,480 Speaker 1: do this. You can just incorporate this technology in existing ones. 574 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:48,400 Speaker 1: And the telecommunications link means the toilet can send results 575 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,239 Speaker 1: to a secure cloud based system so that doctors can 576 00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:57,080 Speaker 1: access it and then start drawing conclusions. So doctor Park 577 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:02,399 Speaker 1: attended the Ignobel Prize Sarah Money. Often the researchers who 578 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,280 Speaker 1: win these prizes do attend, whether in person or virtually. 579 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,520 Speaker 1: I assume that doctor Park was flush with excitement. For 580 00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:12,759 Speaker 1: more potty humor, you should probably check out the Old 581 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:15,600 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff episode I did about toilets stuff you should 582 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,799 Speaker 1: knows Josh Clark was my co host for that one. 583 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:21,800 Speaker 1: So if you want to hear Josh and myself, do 584 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,920 Speaker 1: you want to hear us like make terrible toilet jokes. 585 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: That's that's the place to go. And that gets us 586 00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:30,799 Speaker 1: up to date with the Ignobel Prize winners whose work 587 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,120 Speaker 1: relied at least in part on technology. There are plenty 588 00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:37,600 Speaker 1: of other winners who did really weird stuff, but since 589 00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 1: their work wasn't really related to tech, not even like tangentially, 590 00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:44,799 Speaker 1: I skipped them. But I do recommend checking out the 591 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:48,880 Speaker 1: list of winners. Sometime occasionally it feels like someone was 592 00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:50,799 Speaker 1: asked a question by a three year old and then 593 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:53,200 Speaker 1: they decided to do a whole scientific study on the thing, 594 00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,160 Speaker 1: you know, like do people have the same number of 595 00:37:56,200 --> 00:38:00,520 Speaker 1: nosehirs in each nostril? Like huh, I don't know. Let's 596 00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,040 Speaker 1: get a whole bunch of people together and count nosehares 597 00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:05,920 Speaker 1: and figure that out. And yes, one of the Ignobel 598 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,480 Speaker 1: Prizes did go to a study that looked into that. 599 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,200 Speaker 1: All right, that's it. Thank you for joining me on 600 00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,759 Speaker 1: this three part journey through the Ignobel Prize winners that 601 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,400 Speaker 1: relate to technology. It was fun to do this. I 602 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:23,360 Speaker 1: like looking at weird scientific studies that perhaps on the 603 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:28,760 Speaker 1: surface seem completely ludicrous, but upon further reflection, you think, well, 604 00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:33,640 Speaker 1: not completely just a little kind of like me. No, 605 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,640 Speaker 1: I know, I'm totally ludicrous. It's fine. I hope you 606 00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: are all well, and I will talk to you again 607 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more 608 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 609 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,800 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.