Meandering through Science

So, because I'm a dork, I was attempting to find the answer to thorne_scratch's question on flamethrowers, and ended up happily sidelined at the Institute for Improbable Research. Improbable research is research that makes people laugh and then think, or as they aptly say for themselves:

"Our goal is to make people laugh, then make them think. We also hope to spur people's curiosity, and to raise the question: How do you decide what's important and what's not, and what'sreal and what's not — in science and everywhere else?"

These people annually have a ceremony called the "Ignoble Awards" to acknowledge the efforts put out by the research community for their investigations that meet the goal. These are by turns funny, fascinating and appalling. It's great. ( So here is my favorite research award for each year: )

Rather than spam you with more of this I'll stop now. But if you're interested in seeing the other awards in these years and/or the 9 previous years of IgNoble awards, go to: http://improbable.com/ig/winners/

Happy surfing through levitating frogs and the like! ♥