Artificial testicles for neutered dogs wins inventor an Ig Nobel
Gregg Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his
credit cards to mass produce his invention—prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs.What started 10 years ago with an experiment on an unwitting Rottweiler named Max has turned into a thriving mail-order business.And one night Miller’s efforts earned him a dubious yet strangely coveted honour : the Ig Nobel Prizefor
medicine.
Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a greathonour,he said.I wish they were alive to see it.The Ig Nobels,given at Harvard University by Annals of Improbable Research magazine, celebrate the humorous, creative and odd side of science ,Miller has sold more than 150,000 Neuticles, doubling his $500,000 investment.The silicone implants come in
different sizes,shapes,weights and degrees of firmness.
Although the Ig Nobels are not exactly prestigious, many recipients are ,like Miller, happy to win.
Most scientists –no matter what they’re doing , good or bad—never get attention at all.said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research.
Some, like Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide in Australia,who won the biology prize,actuallynominated their own work.I’ve been a fan of the Ig Nobels for a while, he said.Smith’s team studied and catalogued different scents emitted by more than 100 species of frogs under stress.Some smelled like cashews, while others smelled like licorice, mint or rotting fish.
He recalled getting strange looks when he’d show up at zoos asking to smell the forgs.I’ve been turned away at the gate, he said.Star Wars watching locusts and an elusive alarm clock also loomed large at the 15th annual Ig Nobels prizes that honour the flippans side of scientific genius.Four Nobel laureates were at Harvard University to present the awards,which included a compelling study on avian defecation:Pressures produced when penguins pooh.
Founded in 1991 by Science Magazine editor Marc Abrahams ,the Ig Nobels are awarded for scientific achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced .This year’s 10 Igs went to pioneers from Australia, Britain, Canada, Finland,France, Germany,Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeriaand the US.