THE Ig Nobel awards are a wonderful send-up of science鈥檚 most prestigious prizes. Winners pay their own way to the event, held annually at Harvard University, then have to endure riotous laughter as their work is 鈥渞ecognised鈥� in public. This year鈥檚 Ig Nobels celebrate such dubious achievements as artificial testicles for dogs and an experiment to reveal whether people can swim faster in water or syrup (see Feedback).
The ceremony comes as a welcome diversion from a different event unfolding in a Pennsylvania courtroom. While the Ig Nobels are incredibly silly, they are founded on the serious idea that uninhibited curiosity is an engine of discovery. In the case of Kitzmiller et al vs Dover Area School District, the serious formalities of a court of law are being applied to a silly idea 鈥� the teaching in science classes of intelligent design, a thinly disguised version of creationism that replaces the hard road of scientific discovery with a supernatural designer.
As ridiculous as the Ig Nobels may seem, they carry a deeper message. What makes science so powerful is that it permits people to ask questions that some in authority, and even our own common sense, tell us not to bother with. Often the results are unimportant, but sometimes they change the way we see world 鈥� as evolution has. It makes sense to reward people who are courageous enough to keep asking questions, even at the expense of a little professional dignity.
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