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John Mainstone, of Australia, who won an Ig Nobel in physics.

John Mainstone, of Australia, who won an Ig Nobel in physics.
Photo: Reuters

IT'S not quite the Nobel prize, but Australia has landed more major scientific awards.

John Mainstone, a professor at the University of Queensland, won the 2005 Ig Nobel prize in physics for an experiment in which a blob of congealed black tar has been dripping through a funnel at a rate of about one drop every nine years.

Professor Maidstone said he was elated to win the prize for the slow drip, which he shared with his late colleague, Thomas Parnell, who started the experiment in 1927 and, sadly, died after the second drop. "Obviously, I've seen a lot more now that we are into the ninth drop," said Professor Maidstone.

Craig Williams, an entomologist at James Cook University, Cairns, received the Ig Nobel prize for biology for experiments on frog odours. These began after observing that mosquitoes don't attack frogs as often as expected. He found some frogs produce secretions that repel mosquitoes.

The Ig Nobels were awarded at Harvard University on Thursday. The awards, a spoof on the Nobel prizes announced this week, are given for research that "cannot or should not be reproduced".
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Marc Abrahams, the editor of the Annals of Improbable Research and the man behind the awards, said they honoured achievements "that first make people laugh, and then make them think".

Top billing went to the award for fluid dynamics, shared by Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow, of the International University, Bremen, and Jozsef Gal, of Lorand Eotvos University, Hungary, for using "basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin" as detailed in their report Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh — Calculations on Avian Defecation.

The medicine prize went to Greg Miller, of Missouri, for his invention of Neuticles, artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which come in a range of sizes. Neuticles allow your pet to "retain his natural look and self-esteem", says the company's website.

With AGENCIES