Scientists discover mammals can breathe through their anuses

Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — The world still holds galore unanswered questions. But acknowledgment to nan efforts of nan investigation teams awarded nan IG Nobel Prize connected Thursday, immoderate of these questions – which you mightiness not moreover person thought existed – now person answers.

We now cognize that galore mammals tin respire done their anuses, that location isn’t an adjacent probability that a coin will onshore connected caput aliases tails, that immoderate existent plants someway imitate nan shapes of neighboring clone integrative plants, that clone medicine which causes achy side-effects tin beryllium much effective than clone medicine without side-effects, and that galore of nan group celebrated for reaching lofty aged ages lived successful places that had bad record-keeping.

The awards – which person nary affiliation to nan Nobel Prizes – purpose to “celebrate nan unusual, grant nan imaginative – and spur people’s liking successful science, medicine, and technology” by making “people laugh, past think.”

In a two-hour ceremonial arsenic quirky arsenic nan technological achievements it was celebrating, assemblage members were welcomed to their seats by accordion music, earlier a information briefing warned them not to “sit connected anyone, unless you are a child,” not to “feed, pursuit aliases eat ducks” and to propulsion their insubstantial airplane safely. There were 2 “paper airplane deluges” during nan ceremonial successful which nan assemblage attempted to propulsion their creations – safely – astatine a target successful nan mediate of nan stage.

Among those collecting their prizes was a Japanese investigation squad led by Ryo Okabe and Takanori Takebe who discovered that mammals tin respire done their anuses. They opportunity successful their paper that this perchance offers an replacement measurement of getting oxygen into critically sick patients if ventilator and artificial lung supplies tally low, for illustration they did during nan COVID-19 pandemic.

American scientist B.F Skinner was posthumously awarded nan bid prize for his activity attempting to usage pigeons to guideline nan formation way of missiles, while a European-wide investigation squad was awarded nan probability prize for conducting 350,757 experiments to show that a coin tends to onshore connected nan aforesaid broadside it started erstwhile it is flipped.

Jacob White and Felipe Yamashita won nan botany prize for uncovering grounds that immoderate existent plants effort to mimic nan leaves of adjacent clone plants, James C. Liao won nan physics prize for demonstrating and explaining really a dormant trout swims, and a French-Chilean investigation squad won nan anatomy prize for studying whether hairsbreadth swirls successful nan aforesaid guidance connected nan heads of group successful nan bluish hemisphere arsenic successful nan confederate hemisphere.

Live demonstrations to exemplify nan experiments progressive accompanied immoderate of nan prize-giving, including erstwhile Fordyce Ely and William E. Petersen were posthumously awarded nan biology prize for exploding a insubstantial container adjacent to a feline that’s opinionated connected nan backmost of a cattle to research nan reasons for cows spewing their milk.

A Dutch-French investigation squad besides produced a unrecorded objection erstwhile they collected nan chemistry prize to explicate really they utilized chromotagraphy to abstracted drunk and sober worms.

Actual Nobel laureates presented nan prizes to nan 10 IG Nobel winners who each won a now obsolete Zimbabwean 10 trillion-dollar bill, disposable for $22 connected eBay, and a “transparent box” containing items relating to “Murphy’s Law” – nan taxable of this year’s ceremonial and nan rule that thing that tin spell incorrect will spell wrong. On that note, immoderate of nan items successful nan container were missing, presenters said, and nan container itself was “almost intolerable to open.”