2009年的“搞怪诺贝尔奖”颁奖典礼10月1日在哈佛大学举行，真正的诺贝尔奖获得者到场颁奖。“搞怪诺贝尔奖”是由科学幽默杂志《不可能研究年鉴》创立的，今年已经是第19届了。今年获奖的另类科学研究包括：可以迅速改装为防毒面罩的胸罩、有名字的奶牛比未起名的奶牛产奶量高、每天扳手指会否导致关节炎、空啤酒瓶和满啤酒瓶哪个打头部更安全，以及用龙舌兰酒造钻石等。

celebrated¹ at Harvard University, during which each recipient² received his or her prize from a genuine Nobel laureate." width="259" border="0" src="/upimg/091017/4_010900_1.jpg" />
Produced by a science humor magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, Ig Nobel prize ceremony event was celebrated at Harvard University, during which each recipient received his or her prize from a genuine Nobel laureate.

A man who cracked the knuckles³ of one hand -- but not the other -- for six decades, scientists who figured out why pregnant women don't topple over and chemists who made diamonds from tequila were honored on October 1 at the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony -- a tongue-in-cheek parody⁴ of the famous and august Nobels.

Produced by a science humor magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, the event was celebrated at a raucous⁵ event at Harvard University, during which each recipient received his or her prize from a genuine Nobel laureate.

As an added treat this year -- the 19th Ig Nobel -- each awardee also received a brassiere that can quickly convert into a pair of gas masks if required, an invention of the 2009 winner of the public health prize.

Dr. Donald L. Unger, 83, a Thousand Oaks allergist, was this year's medicine awardee. He traveled with his wife to Harvard to pick up his prize for his work on knuckle-cracking.

Unger's investigation⁶, which has lasted more than 60 years, was inspired by childhood warnings he'd gotten from his mother that his habit of cracking his knuckles would lead to arthritis⁷. To test this, since his teens he has been cracking the knuckles of his left hand at least twice daily but has never cracked the knuckles of his right hand (so it could serve as a control in the experiment).

"I'm looking at my fingers, and there is not the slightest sign of arthritis in either hand," said Unger, who in 1998 published his findings (conducted, he stressed, with no public funds) in the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism⁸.

Unger added that he has published scores of research papers in his profession as an allergist but none of those garnered⁹ him as much fame as the knuckle-cracking work.

"I've gotten a lot of awards and degrees, and all of a sudden I get my 15 minutes of fame out of this stupidity," he said. "But I'm happy to get any award -- I've got a blank space on my wall."

The 10 prizes included the 2009 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, given to Swiss scientists who investigated -- using human cadavers¹⁰, among other approaches -- whether it is safer to be hit over the head with a full beer bottle than an empty one.

And the veterinary medicine prize went to British researchers for their discovery that cows given names produce more milk than unnamed cows.