Improbable Research

Every year we receive five thousand or more nominations for the Ig Nobel Prizes. Most are treated with strictest confidence. A few, however, are meant for public consumption. Here is one such, sent in by investigator T.J. Clarke:

I would like to nominate my friends Peter Grist and Mark Wilkinson for the Ig Nobel prize for economics.

We used to have this bet that entailed paying 10 pence to every participant every time an expletive was used. After the bet ended, the amount each participant owed doubled 3 times per week until we broke up for summer. 10 weeks passed and Peter Grist and Mark Wilkinson still have not payed, they owe around a combined ?8 444 249 301 319 680 (?8.4 quadrillion) to be split between myself and 2 others. I believe that means, because of these 2 people, I am joint richest person in the world, and they are in more debt than anyone, ever.

Thank you for considering my nomination,

Timothy J. Clarke

Are homeopathic medicines truly medicines? Officially, um, yes. Now they are. So says the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

In a ruling published on October 27, 2004, the Bureau did a flip-flop, reversing its previous opinion. Prior to October 27, the Bureau said that homeopathic medicines are, more or less, foods. But henceforth, the official classification for them is "medicaments."

(The Bureau, by the way, seems to dislike being called by its official name. The Bureau almost never calls itself "The Bureau" in public. The Bureau prefers to be called "U.S. Customs & Border Protection.")

For the manufacturers (and their attorneys), the question "Is it medicine or is it, er, food?" is a matter of money. The import duties are different for "medicaments" than for food-related items.

What about the medical worth of homeopathic medicaments? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration remains (officially, at least) confused as to whether homeopathic medicines are medicines, or foodstuffs, or perhaps some sort of lovely dream.

And how do scientists size up homeopathic medicaments? What is their take on the question? Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very few scientists feel that homeopathic medicines are medicines. That’s because most scientists fail to accept the Second Principle of Homeopathy. Here is that Second Principle: The most powerful medicines are the ones that contain no actual medicine.

(The First Principle of Homeopathy, by the way, is as colorful as the Second Principle. Here is that First Principle: Things that can kill you can cure you.)

The words to "The Atkins Diet Opera" are now on our web site, along with several photos from the mini-opera’s debut performance, which occured as part of the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. (Video of the entire mini-opera — and the entire 2004 Ig ceremony, is also online.)

Today is the day of the annual Ig Nobel broadcast on National Public Radio’s "Science Friday with Ira Flatow" program, which you can listen to either on the radio or on the Science Friday web site.

Today is a big day for
            Rub?n Serral Graci?, for two reasons. He is defending his Ph.D. thesis at
            Universiteit van Amsterdam, and he is the newest member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS).

We hope you will join us in offering our congratulations!

The purpose of this study was to examine meanings assigned by observers to an adolescent wearing an alcohol-promotional T-shirt." So begins a study published in the September issue of the Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal. Scholars had never tackled this exact question. Now they have….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.