r/Physics • u/dukwon Particle physics • Sep 09 '21

The 2021 Ig Nobel Physics Prize is awarded to Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-Min Lee, Roberto Benzi and Federico Toschi for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do not constantly collide with other pedestrians.

Ceremony broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rr8NxPDzBM

Screenshots of the physics prize announcement: https://imgur.com/a/VvrTJXu

Citation will appear here: https://www.improbable.com/2021-ceremony/winners/

254 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

58

u/dukwon Particle physics Sep 09 '21

And the 2021 Ig Nobel Kinetics Prize is awarded for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do sometimes collide with other pedestrians.

49

u/SurelyIDidThisAlread Sep 10 '21

Like a lot of IgNobel stuff, it sounds quite interesting. I'm sure people researching autonomous vehicles and warehouse robotics would love to know how humans avoid collisions, and whether there's a heuristic there that can borrow

14

u/snoodhead Sep 10 '21

I always feel a bit of shame when I hear about the the ig, because I'm always more excited to hear who won it than the regular Nobel prize.

12

u/Gil_GaLa9 Sep 10 '21

Wait what is Ig Nobel?

19

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '21 edited Sep 10 '21

It’s an award provided by one of the major US universities (Harvard maybe?) that celebrates unusual or satirical (though scientifically rigorous) research.

They award them to research groups in a variety of different fields. Some notable winners of the Ig Noble award show how cats behave like liquids in rigid containers, or why wombats poop cube-shaped excrement.

10

u/Gil_GaLa9 Sep 10 '21

Thanks for answering. Imagine getting both Nobel and Ig Nobel, like am i at the top of my field but also in free time i do stand ups

7

u/berserknetwork Graduate Sep 10 '21

Look up Andrew Geim.

1

u/Gil_GaLa9 Sep 11 '21

No way, that actually happened? Wild, ofc it's a Rrrrussian scientist

18

u/elija_snow Sep 09 '21

Elon Musk : You guys are hire immediately.

3

u/acorbe87 Sep 10 '21

yes, please, tell him :)

4

u/barvazduck Sep 10 '21

As much as ig Nobel was ridiculed, all I see are remote attendees and mask wearers in the only shared space. These days when I want to laugh at bad science, I have the r/HermanCainAward.

3

u/wazoheat Atmospheric physics Sep 10 '21

I dont see anyone being ridiculed...

-1

u/barvazduck Sep 10 '21

In popular press the ig Nobel prize winners have traditionally been portrait quite negatively.

-30

u/physicscat Sep 10 '21

This sounds kind of stupid.

47

u/Xpolonia Sep 10 '21

That's the whole point of the ig Nobel prize

24

u/LoganJFisher Graduate Sep 10 '21

"Sounds dumber than it is" is basically the motto.

8

u/INoScopedObama Sep 10 '21

Its unofficial motto is: "first makes you laugh, then makes you think!"

11

u/physicscat Sep 10 '21

Got it. Didn’t know that was a thing.