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Mr Buckley’s exploding trousers and other scientific observations

Jeanne Lenzer

New York

A possible cure for narcolepsy, the peculiar case of Richard Buckley’s exploding trousers, and the curious “pitch drop experiment” were among the subjects that inspired this year’s Ig Nobel prizewinners.

The “Igs,” awarded for science that “first makes you laugh, then makes you think,” and “cannot and should not be reproduced,” were given to the winners by genuine Nobel laureates at the 15th annual Ig Nobel ceremony in Boston.

A cure for narcolepsy was offered by Gauri Nanda of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who walked off with the economics award. Ms Nanda invented Clocky, an alarm clock with wheels that runs away and hides after it goes off, ensuring that people have to get out of bed. She told the BMJ, “Someone with narcolepsy called me and said they thought it might help them.” James Watson of Massey University, New Zealand, was awarded the agricultural history award for describing the health hazards of sodium chlorate, which, in 1931, caused an outbreak of exploding trousers among farmers in rural New Zealand.

Mr Buckley, who wasn’t wearing his trousers when they exploded, witnessed a string of detonations in his pants after he had hung them to dry in front of a fire. Other men were unfortunately occupying their trousers at the time of immolation. The mystery of the exploding breeches was solved when it was learned that the farmers used sodium chlorate-which becomes violently explosive when combined with organic fibres, such as cotton or wool-as an herbicide to kill ragwort weed.

Yoshiro NakaMats of the NakaMats Innovation Institute, Tokyo, Japan, winner of the nutrition award, recorded and photographed every meal he has consumed for 34 years and counting and brought volumes of glossy pictures with him to prove it. “It takes three days for a meal to affect the brain and body,” he explained, “but everybody cannot remember what they ate three days before.”

The medicine award was given to Gregg Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing “neuticles”-prosthetic dog testicles, which are available in three sizes and three degrees of firmness and are intended to help dogs who might feel disgraced after being neutered. John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell, professors of physics at the University of Queensland, Australia, won the physics award for an experiment started in 1927 that proves that tar is not a solid at room temperature, even though it appears solid and can be smashed to bits with a hammer. The experiment, in which a congealed glob of tar was placed in a glass funnel, has been slowly dripping-at the rate of one drop every nine to 12 years.

Note: this article was taken from the British Medical Journal: these are dinky-di awards.