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MISTY HARRIS

CANWEST NEWS SERVICE

Canadian scientists and theiratom-splitting comrades aroundthe world are gearing up for the15th annual Ig Nobel Prize cere-mony, sort of an MTV Awardsfor the science community thathonours imaginative academicachievements that “make peoplelaugh, and then make themthink.”

This year’s event, which takesplace Oct. 6 at Harvard Universi-ty, will include an opera based onthe concept of infinity, a win-a-date-with-a-Nobel-Laureate con-test, and a 24/7 lecture series inwhich top thinkers explain theirsubjects first in 24 seconds, thenin just seven words.

“The Ig Nobel Prizes bring sci-entists down off their pedestalsand help the public understandthat they’re real people,” said Al-bert Teich, director of scienceand policy programs for theAmerican Association for theAdvancement of Science.

“Even though they’re intimatewith black holes or really under-

stand how genes work or knowhow to give enemas to mosqui-toes, they can also laugh at them-selves.”

Marc Abrahams, whose bookThe Ig Nobel Prizes 2 comes outthis week, said his goal in creat-ing the awards was to “temptpeople to be a little more curiousabout things they would normal-ly stay away from.”

Take, for example, the re-search interests of this year’sguest speaker. Kees Moeliker, aDutch ornithologist, won the IgNobel in 2003 for documentingthe first scientifically recordedcase of homosexual necrophiliain the mallard duck.

“Every once in a while, therewould be someone who had donesomething that just smacked youin the head in such an odd waythat it seemed a shame the worldwould probably never pay atten-tion to it,” Abrahams said. “Thatwas the idea behind theseprizes.”

Although this year’s 10 hon-ourees remain secret, Abrahamsrevealed they hail from “slightlymore than four continents,”

with one boasting a “strongCanadian connection.”

Previous Ig winners associat-ed with Canadian institutionsinclude Ramesh Balasubrama-niam, a professor at the school ofhuman kinetics at the Universi-ty of Ottawa, for his research in-to hula-hooping dynamics; PeterBarss, formerly of McGill, forhis medical report entitled In-juries Due to Falling Coconuts;and B.C. scientists Ben Wilsonand Lawrence Dill for theiranalysis of fish flatulence.

“I was absolutely delighted (towin),” recalled Dill, a professorof behavioural ecology at SimonFraser University.

Colin Cameron, an electro-chemist with Defence Researchand Development Canada, jok-ingly said he plans to win hisown Ig one day by genetically en-gineering a lobster that doublesas a bicycle pump.

“Everyone is out doing stufflike figuring out nuclear fusion,curing cancer, feeding theworld’s hungry and so on,”Cameron said. “While thosefolks bumble away in their over-crowded science wasteland, wetruly trendy scientists work onimportant things, such as thecomb over.”

Researchers with imaginative achievementshonoured at 15th annual Harvard ceremony

Scientists step off pedestalfor Ig Nobel Awards

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. – NASAhopes to return astronauts to themoon by 2018, nearly a half-centu-ry after men last walked the lu-nar surface, by using a distinctlyretro combination of space shut-tle and Apollo rocket parts.

The space agency presented itslunar exploration plan to theWhite House on Wednesday andon Capitol Hill on Friday. An an-nouncement is set for today atNASA headquarters in Washing-ton.

The fact that this successor tothe soon-to-be-retired shuttle re-lies so heavily on old-time equip-

ment, rather than sporting fancyfuturistic designs, “makes goodtechnological and managementsense,” said John Logsdon, direc-tor of George Washington Uni-versity’s space policy institute.

“The emphasis is on achievinggoals rather than elegance,” saidLogsdon, who along with othermembers of the Columbia Acci-dent Investigation Board urgedNASA to move beyond the risky,aging shuttles as soon as possible.

“It has several elements to it.One is to say that the people whodid Apollo were pretty smart,”Logsdon said Friday.

The crew exploration vehicle’sfirst manned trip will be to low-

Earth orbit, probably no earlierthan 2012, leaving up to a two-yeargap between the last shuttle flightand the debut of its successor.

In January 2004, just fivemonths after the Columbia acci-dent board’s report, PresidentGeorge W. Bush called for the re-tirement of the space shuttles by2010 and the creation of the crewexploration vehicle for ferryingastronauts to the internationalspace station and ultimately tothe moon and Mars.

His main overriding goal: toland astronauts on the moon by2020.

OOnn tthhee NNeett:: www.nasa.gov

NASA plans to revisit the moon by 2018