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'Gay Bomb,' Sword Eating Win Ig-Nobels

Making enemies 'sexually irresistible to each other' lights anti-Nobels' fuse

By Lucas Laursen,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 5, 2007 6:14 PM CDT

(Newser) – The US military does some pretty cutting-edge research, but a hypothetical bomb that would make enemy troops make love to each other instead of war on the US? The proposal—along with detailed research on the effects of sword-swallowing, extracting vanilla from cowpies, and curing hamster jetlag with Viagra—yesterday won Ig Nobel Prizes for research that “that cannot, or should not, be reproduced.”

The cheeky awards, which real Nobel laureates at Harvard University have handed out since 1991, salute real—though not always down-to-earth—research. Unfortunately, the gay bomb researchers could not be tracked down. But Dan Meyer was "extremely surprised and honored" by the salute to his research, which concluded that one shouldn't swallow a sword with a sore throat.

Craig Mello, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine, left, and Roy Glauber (in hat), winner of the 2005 Nobel prize for Physics, watch as Dan Meyer, center, swallows a sword as Brian Witcombe, right, looks on during the Ig Nobel award ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday...
Craig Mello, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine, left, and Roy Glauber (in hat), winner of the 2005 Nobel prize for Physics, watch as Dan Meyer, center, swallows a sword as Brian Witcombe, right,...   (Associated Press)
Nobel Prize winners, from left, William Lipscomb (Chemistry '76), Robert Wilson (Physics '78) and Dudley Herschbach (Chemistry '86) join in song during the Ig Nobel awards ceremony in this Oct. 4, 2001 file photo in Cambridge, Mass. Each year in a spoof of the real Nobel Prize, the Ig Nobel...
Nobel Prize winners, from left, William Lipscomb (Chemistry '76), Robert Wilson (Physics '78) and Dudley Herschbach (Chemistry '86) join in song during the Ig Nobel awards ceremony in this Oct. 4, 2001...   (Associated Press)
Robert B. Laughlin, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physics, left, and Craig Mello, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine, right, laugh as they are hatched from egg costumes during the Ig Nobel award ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday Oct. 4, 2007. The annual no-rules...
Robert B. Laughlin, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Physics, left, and Craig Mello, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine, right, laugh as they are "hatched" from egg costumes during the Ig Nobel...   (Associated Press)
Two opera singers  perform in tribute to the chicken during the Ig Nobel award ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007. The annual no-rules awards ceremony, where flying paper airplanes and interrupting honored speakers are commonplace, pokes fun at bizarre and improbable achievements in real-life scientific research....
Two opera singers perform in tribute to the chicken during the Ig Nobel award ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007. The annual no-rules awards ceremony, where flying paper...   (Associated Press)
Roy Glauber, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics, left, sweeps up paper airplanes during a presentation at the Ig Nobel award ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday Oct. 4, 2007. The annual no-rules awards ceremony, where flying paper airplanes and interrupting honored speakers are commonplace, pokes fun...
Roy Glauber, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics, left, sweeps up paper airplanes during a presentation at the Ig Nobel award ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday Oct. 4, 2007....   (Associated Press)
An Ig Nobel award is presented during a ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday Oct. 4, 2007. The annual no-rules awards ceremony, where flying paper airplanes and interrupting honored speakers are commonplace, pokes fun at bizarre and improbable achievements in real-life scientific research. The Ig Nobel is an annual...
An Ig Nobel award is presented during a ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Thursday Oct. 4, 2007. The annual no-rules awards ceremony, where flying paper airplanes and interrupting honored speakers...   (Associated Press)
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