Ig Nobel Prizes Announced Tonight
Around the same time as the Nobel Prizes are announced - the lesser known Ig Nobel prizes are awarded. The Ig Nobel prizes are bestowed on scientists who research unusual and improbable topics. Unlike the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel has award categories for both Biology and Agriculture.
The 2005 award for Biology went to Benjamin Smith, Michael Tyler, Brian Williams of the University of Adelaide, Australia; Craig Williams of James Cook University and the University of South Australia; and Yoji Hayasaka of the Australian Wine Research Institute "for painstakingly smelling and cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.
REFERENCES: "A Survey of Frog Odorous Secretions, Their Possible Functions and Phylogenetic Significance," Benjamin P.C. Smith, Craig R. Williams, Michael J. Tyler, and Brian D. Williams, Applied Herpetology, vol. 2, no. 1-2, February 1, 2004, pp. 47-82. and "Chemical and Olfactory Characterization of Odorous Compounds and Their Precursors in the Parotoid Gland Secretion of the Green Tree Frog, Litoria caerulea," Benjamin P.C. Smith, Michael J. Tyler, Brian D. Williams, and Yoji Hayasaka, Journal of Chemical Ecology, vol. 29, no. 9, September 2003." From the Nobel website.
entry edited to remove broken links 20 March 2007