The new Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced at a ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday. The award recognizes research that “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think.”
The late Japanese researcher Unno Tokuji won the award for his 1977 study, “How to Blow the Nose — An Aerodynamic Study of the Nose Blowing.” He was a professor emeritus at Asahikawa Medical University in northern Japan’s Hokkaido region.
Unno studied various data, such as velocity, volume and time. He found that it is more effective to blow your nose on one side at a time because the blows are faster and stronger. He noted that the pressure change in the ears does not usually lead to acute ear infections.
Unno concluded that a “big and long nose blow” is better for preventing respiratory illnesses.
He follows in the footsteps of many others from Japan, which has produced winners 20 years in a row.
Prizewinners were announced for 10 fields. Other winners looked at things like, “When does a snake bite?” and “Lovably-vicious friends.” One group, which included a Japanese researcher, analyzed “A benefit of cockroach milk.”
This is the first time the event has taken place in Europe, after 35 years in the US. The founder and emcee of the ceremony, Marc Abrahams, said earlier that it was “unsafe” for the guests to visit the United States this year.