• Question: Whats the most irrelivant science discovery ever.

    Asked by lemonsqueeze99 to Indi, Jarv, John, Ken, Vicky on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Ken Dutton-Regester

      Ken Dutton-Regester answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Hmmm, I think all scientific discoveries have some relevance. However, there is definately some quirky science out there that on the surface seems unusual and sometimes pointless. There is this great site that summarises some of the most weird articles that are published. It’s called NCBI ROFL:

      http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/category/ncbi-rofl/

    • Photo: John Prytherch

      John Prytherch answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      I think it would be one of those stories that newspapers like such as “today is the most depressing day of the year’ or ‘scientists discover the formula for the perfect jam sandwhich’.

      Normally these aren’t based on real science but have been made up by some company in order to get press attention and sell more of whatever it is they are selling.

    • Photo: Vicky Young

      Vicky Young answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Have you heard of the Nobel prize? Its like the best prize you can ever get as a scientist. Well there is also the Ig Nobel Prize which celebrates this silly type of research which can seem irrelevant but actually has some good scientific findings when you question it deeper.

      For example there was a guy Donald L. Unger from the USA who won it in 2009 for:

      ‘Investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by always cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never cracking the knuckles of his right hand — every day for more than 60 years.”

      He done this to prove his mother wrong and never got arthritis in the hand he clicked his fingers on. He then published the results of his experiment. It seems silly and maybe even made you laugh but we have never known if cracking your knuckles would hard your joints and lead to arthritis so in another way it was an awesome experiment.

      Here are some other winners:

      1. The Effect of Country Music on Suicide.
      2. Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts.
      3. A Man Who Pricked His Finger and Smelled Putrid for 5 Years
      4. The Constipated Serviceman: How common is it Among Deployed US Troop
      5. People make better decisions about some kinds of things — but worse decisions about other kinds of things‚ when they have a strong urge to urinate.

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