So this years Ig-Noble awards were handed out earlier this month at Harvard University. These are awards for the more goofier research papers published and try to mimic the more prestigious Nobel Prizes.
improbable.com/ig
Here's the full list, from the link above:
Anthropology: Tomas Pesson, Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc, and Elainie Madsen, Lund University
"Spontaneous Cross-Species Imitation in Interaction Between Chimpanzees and Zoo Visitors
Biology: Paul Becher, Sebastian Lebreton, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenstrom, Felipe Borrero-Echeverry, Marie Bengtsson, Volker Jorger and Peter Witzgall
"The Scent of the Fly"
Chemistry: Paula Romão, Adília Alarcão and the late César Viana, Regional Government of the Azores
"Human Saliva as a Cleaning Agent for Dirty Surfaces"
Economics: Lindie Hanyu Liang, Douglas Brown, Huiwen Lian, Samuel Hanig, D. Lance Ferris and Lisa Keeping
"Righting a Wrong: Retaliation on a Voodoo Doll Symbolizing an Abusive Supervisor Restores Justice"
Literature: Thea Blackler, Rafael Gomez, Vesna Popovic and M. Helen Thompson, Queensland University of Technology
"Life Is Too Short to RTFM: How Users Relate to Documentation and Excess Features in Consumer Products"
Medical Education: Akira Horiuchi, Showa Inan General Hospital
"Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy"
Medicine: Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, Michigan State University
"Validation of a Functional Pyelocalyceal Renal Model for the Evaluation of Renal Calculi Passage While Riding a Roller Coaster"
Nutrition: James Cole, University of Brighton
"Assessing the Calorific Significance of Episodes of Human Cannibalism in the Paleolithic"
Peace: Francisco Alonso, Cristina Esteban, Andrea Serge, Maria-Luisa Ballestar, Jaime Sanmartin, Constanza Calatayud and Beatriz Alamar, University of Valencia
"Shouting and Cursing While Driving: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment"
Reproductive Medicine: John Barry, Bruce Blank and Michel Boileau
"Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring With Stamps"
improbable.com/ig/winners
The interesting thing is this, the authors of these papers all flock to the award ceremony, even though their papers are kind of being made fun of. I guess all of them have a sense of humour.
And honestly, the Nutrition paper seems legit to me.