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Fun Pineapple prizes popularize science
By Xu Wenwen |
April 9, 2013, Tuesday
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CHINA'S answer to the American Ig Nobel Prizes - the second annual Pineapple Science Prize - has been awarded to clever, amusing and silly ideas that popularize science.
The award-winning inventions and ideas include the discovery that Chinese identify bosses' faces faster than Americans and Europeans and the invention of a "snot collector" to collect nasal mucous.
The awards were handed out on Sunday in Hangzhou.
Other winners include the creation of a mathematical model to help men pursue women and the creation of a robot controlled by a monkey's brain.
The awards were initiated by Jia Xiaohua, founder of Guoker.com, a three-year-old social network website for science fans. He says he was eating a pineapple when the idea of the award first came to him.
The Pineapple awards were inspired by the Ig Nobel Prizes, an American parody of the Nobel Prizes that are awarded each year for 10 bizarre or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prize is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think." The awards are frequently mocking, satirical and critical of wasted time, energy and resources.
The Pineapple Science Prize is also supposed to make people laugh but there's no criticism - it's all about popularizing science.
The prizes were awarded in math, biology and medicine, psychology, physiology, physics, chemistry, invention and imagination, and two grand prizes for scientific achievements with wide social impact.
"We hope the prize can make people respect science and scientists," said Li Ruihong, director of the Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum.
The prize organized by the Zhejiang Association of Science and Technology, the Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum and Guokr.com.
Winning projects are supposed to be imaginative, interesting and thought-provoking. Most of the entrants are university students and teachers.
The jury consists of 16 scientists, who ensure the science is sound, and 23 artists, writers, musicians and actors who decide whether the projects are interesting enough to capture the public imagination.
At the awards ceremony, Professor Wei Xiaoyong, the dean of computer science at Sichuan University, demonstrated that breaking a brick with bare hands is not high-level kung fu, but a simple matter of physics. His demonstration video spread widely on the Internet and he was awarded the Pineapple Me Prize for social impact.
He is also famous for developing facial recognition software to call the roll of his students in class.
"The meaning of these inventions is not to show off, but to intrigue students," said Wei.
Han Shihui and Ma Yina from the psychology department of Peking University conducted research and found out Chinese people are faster in identifying their bosses' faces than Europeans and Americans.
Zhao Yinlong doesn't like to blow his nose when he is sick, so he developed a combination nose plug and pump to collect mucous.
This is the second year the Pineapples have been awarded. Last year's winners included the finding that counting money can relieve pain and the chemistry explaining why chicken soup in a pottery pot tastes better.
The event this year featured a science fair and exhibition, including sales of 3D printers. Israeli scientist Dan Schectman, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, took part in a forum.
A month before the awards are handed out, the organizing committee delivers interesting science lectures to elementary, middle, high school and university students.
"Science can be fun and not always serious, and the prize helps bring science to the hearts of ordinary people," Schectman told Shanghai Daily.
At the science fair, popular 3D printers delivered ingenious and intricate items, such as complicated machine components and small, lifelike mannikins.
IPaper Art Studio from Guangzhou exhibited and demonstrated paper sculptures - from insects and animals to robots and cartoon warriors - all made by folding a single piece of paper.
"Science, though obscure, should be spread to the masses eventually, and the prize helps," said Chen Longbiao, a PhD from Zhejiang University, who showed Near Field communication technology at the fair. By touching a phone to a computer, photos can be shared in seconds at the two terminals.
Pineapples Prize:
Chemistry: Male parrot's courtship weapon
Imagination: Science fiction "Three Bodies" (trilogy)
Invention: "Snot" (mucous) collector"
Math: A mathematical courtship model for men; a robot dancing at the Spring Festival gala
Medicine and biology: Research into the Y chromosome yielding clues to the heredity and descendants of of Emperor Cao Cao.
Also: Observing a seagull's "gestation period" for 300 days (the actual gestation period is around 26 days)
Physics: Robotic hands controlled by a monkey's brain; also standard for grading the smoothness of a wig
Psychology: Chinese identify bosses' face faster than Europeans and Americans
Pineapple You Prize (satire): 12306.cn - China's official rail ticket sales website. The site is so busy and slow that Internet users create software and plug-ins to help people buy tickets quickly.
Pineapple Me Prize: Demonstrating breaking a brick with bare hands (lever principle and theorem of impulse)
The award-winning inventions and ideas include the discovery that Chinese identify bosses' faces faster than Americans and Europeans and the invention of a "snot collector" to collect nasal mucous.
The awards were handed out on Sunday in Hangzhou.
Other winners include the creation of a mathematical model to help men pursue women and the creation of a robot controlled by a monkey's brain.
The awards were initiated by Jia Xiaohua, founder of Guoker.com, a three-year-old social network website for science fans. He says he was eating a pineapple when the idea of the award first came to him.
The Pineapple awards were inspired by the Ig Nobel Prizes, an American parody of the Nobel Prizes that are awarded each year for 10 bizarre or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prize is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think." The awards are frequently mocking, satirical and critical of wasted time, energy and resources.
The Pineapple Science Prize is also supposed to make people laugh but there's no criticism - it's all about popularizing science.
The prizes were awarded in math, biology and medicine, psychology, physiology, physics, chemistry, invention and imagination, and two grand prizes for scientific achievements with wide social impact.
"We hope the prize can make people respect science and scientists," said Li Ruihong, director of the Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum.
The prize organized by the Zhejiang Association of Science and Technology, the Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum and Guokr.com.
Winning projects are supposed to be imaginative, interesting and thought-provoking. Most of the entrants are university students and teachers.
The jury consists of 16 scientists, who ensure the science is sound, and 23 artists, writers, musicians and actors who decide whether the projects are interesting enough to capture the public imagination.
At the awards ceremony, Professor Wei Xiaoyong, the dean of computer science at Sichuan University, demonstrated that breaking a brick with bare hands is not high-level kung fu, but a simple matter of physics. His demonstration video spread widely on the Internet and he was awarded the Pineapple Me Prize for social impact.
He is also famous for developing facial recognition software to call the roll of his students in class.
"The meaning of these inventions is not to show off, but to intrigue students," said Wei.
Han Shihui and Ma Yina from the psychology department of Peking University conducted research and found out Chinese people are faster in identifying their bosses' faces than Europeans and Americans.
Zhao Yinlong doesn't like to blow his nose when he is sick, so he developed a combination nose plug and pump to collect mucous.
This is the second year the Pineapples have been awarded. Last year's winners included the finding that counting money can relieve pain and the chemistry explaining why chicken soup in a pottery pot tastes better.
The event this year featured a science fair and exhibition, including sales of 3D printers. Israeli scientist Dan Schectman, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, took part in a forum.
A month before the awards are handed out, the organizing committee delivers interesting science lectures to elementary, middle, high school and university students.
"Science can be fun and not always serious, and the prize helps bring science to the hearts of ordinary people," Schectman told Shanghai Daily.
At the science fair, popular 3D printers delivered ingenious and intricate items, such as complicated machine components and small, lifelike mannikins.
IPaper Art Studio from Guangzhou exhibited and demonstrated paper sculptures - from insects and animals to robots and cartoon warriors - all made by folding a single piece of paper.
"Science, though obscure, should be spread to the masses eventually, and the prize helps," said Chen Longbiao, a PhD from Zhejiang University, who showed Near Field communication technology at the fair. By touching a phone to a computer, photos can be shared in seconds at the two terminals.
Pineapples Prize:
Chemistry: Male parrot's courtship weapon
Imagination: Science fiction "Three Bodies" (trilogy)
Invention: "Snot" (mucous) collector"
Math: A mathematical courtship model for men; a robot dancing at the Spring Festival gala
Medicine and biology: Research into the Y chromosome yielding clues to the heredity and descendants of of Emperor Cao Cao.
Also: Observing a seagull's "gestation period" for 300 days (the actual gestation period is around 26 days)
Physics: Robotic hands controlled by a monkey's brain; also standard for grading the smoothness of a wig
Psychology: Chinese identify bosses' face faster than Europeans and Americans
Pineapple You Prize (satire): 12306.cn - China's official rail ticket sales website. The site is so busy and slow that Internet users create software and plug-ins to help people buy tickets quickly.
Pineapple Me Prize: Demonstrating breaking a brick with bare hands (lever principle and theorem of impulse)
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