郭宇

你知道石头也有性格吗？你知道什么是“伪深刻废话”吗？你知道像山羊一样生活是一种怎样的体验吗？上述问题如果都能勾起你的好奇心，不妨一起来回顾今年的搞笑诺贝尔奖，看看科学家们是怎样用搞笑的方式来认真地搞科研。Investigations into rats wearing pants， the personalities of rocks and the truthfulness of 1，000 liars won Ig Nobel prizes on Thursday night at Harvard， where Nobel-winning scientists gathered to honor the strangest research of the year.

The ceremony， now in its 26th year， delivered a $10tn Zimbabwean bill （about 40 cents in US money） to winners. Those who traveled to Boston received their prizes from Nobel laureates： chemist Dudley Herschbach1）， economist Eric Maskin2）， Dr. Richard Roberts3） and physicist Roy Glauber4）.

As in past years， the tone of the awards show vacillated5） from gleeful absurdism to satire to genuine wonder at the lengths to which scientists will let their curiosity lead them.

研究穿着裤子的老鼠、探究石头的性格、发现1000个撒谎者的真话等课题赢得了周四晚（编注：英文原文发表于2016年9月23日）在哈佛大学颁发的搞笑诺贝尔奖。在这里，几位获得过诺贝尔奖的科学家齐聚一堂，为本年度最古怪的科学研究颁奖。

今年的搞笑诺贝尔奖颁奖典礼是第26届，典礼向获奖者颁发了一张面值高达十万亿津巴布韦元的纸币（约合40美分）。获奖者们前往波士顿，从诺贝尔奖得主手中接过奖品，这些诺奖得主分别是：化学家达德利·赫施巴赫、经济学家埃里克·马斯金、医学家理查德·罗伯茨和物理学家罗伊·格劳伯。

在过去的几年里，搞笑诺贝尔奖的基调不断摇摆，有时荒诞好笑，有时又充满讽刺意味，有时又为科学家们愿意在好奇心的驱使下长期研究这些问题而由衷惊叹。

Reproduction Prize 生殖学奖

Egyptian urologist6） Ahmed Shafik wanted to know the toll that trousers might take on male rats. He made murine7） trousers—covering the animals hind legs with a hole for the tail—in various cloths： 100% polyester8）， 50/50% polyester/cotton， all cotton and all wool.

Rats that wore polyester showed “significantly lower” rates of sexual activity， Shafik found， perhaps because of the electrostatic charges created by the material. Cotton- and wool-wearing rats were relatively normal.

Economics Prize 经济学奖

Mark Avis， Sarah Forbes and Shelagh Ferguson， a team from New Zealand and the UK， won the prize in economics for a study of the personalities of rocks. The trio studied a concept called “brand personality9），” or the “set of human characteristics associated with the brand”—for example wholesomeness， youth， intelligence and sophistication—by putting pictures of rocks in front of 225 Kiwi10） students.

The students then decided which of 42 traits， 15 facets and five factors to apply to the rocks in question. One， Rock G， was variously described as “a big New York type businessman， rich， smooth， maybe a little shady11）” and “carries a black brief case， slick hair， quick thinker and quicker talker. Not a good dude though.”

Rock I was described by one student as “a gypsy or a traveller， a hippie” and by another as “liberal， attractive and female， I saw a young person， maybe mid-30s， who was very attractive when she was younger/possibly a model. Has her own way of thinking， with a somewhat grounded confidence， enjoys organic food.”

埃及泌尿科专家艾哈迈德·沙菲克想知道穿裤子会给公鼠带来哪些不良影响，于是制作了一些适合老鼠穿的裤子。这些裤子可以遮住老鼠的后腿，并给尾巴留了一个小孔，其面料各不相同：有100%涤纶的、50/50%涤棉的、纯棉的和纯羊毛的。

沙菲克发现，穿涤纶裤子的老鼠表现出了“明显更低的”性行为频率，这或许是由涤纶材料产生的静电荷所致。……