The Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies have been held at Harvard University every September for the last 27 years. And if you’ve been wondering whether anyone has ever won an Ig Nobel award for studying the medical uses of car batteries, I’m here to tell you that they have—and this exciting area of research resulted in two Ig Nobels being awarded in 1991. I don’t think it would be possible for me to describe this any better than the Improbable Research website does, so here is their thought-provoking post:
The Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1994, was awarded in two parts:
The first part to “Patient X,” formerly of the US Marine Corps, valiant victim of a venomous bite from his pet rattlesnake, for his determined use of electroshock therapy. At Patient X’s own insistence, automobile spark plug wires were attached to his lip, and the car engine revved to 3000 rpm for five minutes.
The second part of this Ig Nobel prize was awarded to Dr. Richard C. Dart of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center and Dr. Richard A. Gustafson of The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, for their well-grounded medical report: Failure of Electric Shock Treatment for Rattlesnake Envenomation. [Published in Annals of Emergency Medicine, vol. 20, no. 6, June 1991, pp. 659-61.]
Now, doesn’t that make you wonder what else you could use your car battery for?
I think I will stay with using the car battery to run my car !
However, I do wish Brenda all the very best. You go girl !
Arnold
Thank you, Mr. Forsyth 🙂
I love watching the Ig Nobels, but I must have missed this one – shame on me!!
I’ve never actually seen the Ig Nobels – I’ve read through every year’s awards, though. I’m really looking forward to watching them this year!