Congratulations to Whitney Laboratory and Department of Biology Professor Dr. James Liao for winning the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics at a ceremony at MIT! Ten new Ig Nobel winners (https://improbable.com/ig/winners/) were introduced. Each winner (or winning team) has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. Prize winners are selected from over 10,000 nominations each year.
Dr. Liao accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”
https://youtu.be/ukBwV9Lap2A?si=hktDuTqF5tWz3fsq&t=2483
The 2024 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded at the 34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, on Thursday evening, September 12, 2024, at MIT (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After four pandemic-years in which the ceremony happened only online, this resumed the tradition of doing it with everyone together in a big room with an audience. The ceremony, as per tradition, also was webcast. We produced the ceremony in collaboration with the MIT Press