After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure.

The team is among 10 recognised in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. They are not to be confused with the more lucrative and career-changing Nobel prizes to be handed out in Scandinavia next month.

  • Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    6 months ago

    Other work honoured on the night included US research to house pigeons in missiles to help guide them to their targets; UK investigations which found that claims of extreme old age tend to come from areas that have short average lifespans and and a historical lack of birth certificates, and a French study which found that scalp hair tends to whorl in a clockwise direction, though less so in the southern hemisphere.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
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    6 months ago

    Next up: learning how politicians talk out of their anuses and how to stop it?

    • paddirn
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      6 months ago

      I don’t know, I can breathe out using my butt, but I’m so straight nothing goes in my butt, not even air.

    • WaterSword@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 months ago

      The Ig in the Ig Nobel prize stands for nothing. It’s supposed to reference the word ignobel. The Ig Nobel prize is a parody of the actual Nobel Prize