The Guardian: Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses

News@lemmy.world – 142 points – 2 months ago

Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses

After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure.

The team is among 10 recognised in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. They are not to be confused with the more lucrative and career-changing Nobel prizes to be handed out in Scandinavia next month.

Other work honoured on the night included US research to house pigeons in missiles to help guide them to their targets; UK investigations which found that claims of extreme old age tend to come from areas that have short average lifespans and and a historical lack of birth certificates, and a French study which found that scalp hair tends to whorl in a clockwise direction, though less so in the southern hemisphere.

Other work honoured on the night included US research to house pigeons in missiles to help guide them to their targets

"The pigeon knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't..."

and a French study which found that scalp hair tends to whorl in a clockwise direction, though less so in the southern hemisphere.

We better get the preeminent scientist, Bart Simpson, to actually confirm this.

Other work honoured on the night included US research to house pigeons in missiles to help guide them to their targets;

Bruh. That's not new and it's actually pretty fucking effective...

Pretty much everything you listed have been known for years

Next up: learning how politicians talk out of their anuses and how to stop it?

Wait, so can mammals actually breathe thru their butts?

I don’t know, I can breathe out using my butt, but I’m so straight nothing goes in my butt, not even air.

Can you drown from butt chugging!?

Pleeze b safe

What does lg stand for in the title

The Ig in the Ig Nobel prize stands for nothing. It’s supposed to reference the word ignobel. The Ig Nobel prize is a parody of the actual Nobel Prize

I don't think it does. Push the name together, switch order of two letters, and it is ignoble. The name is a riff on the Nobel Prize.