Russian scientists have been nominated for Ig Nobel Prize only twice for 20 years, and again this year’s nominations aren’t a hit for our researchers.
      
      Scientists have a good sense of humour, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to choose such improbable topics for their research. This sense of humor should definitely be encouraged, and this is what Ig Nobel Prize does.
      
      This year the Ig Nobel Prize went to New Zealanders “for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes”; to Britons “or confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain”; to joint think-tank form UK and Mexico “for perfecting a method to collect whale snot, using a remote-control helicopter”, and to many other eminent researchers.
      
      Russians had won the Prize only twice: in 1992 Yuri Struchkov for the 948 scientific papers he published between the years 1981 and 1990, averaging more than one every 3.9 days; and Gazprom with a group of the other large companies “for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world”. Andre Geim, who is also a Nobel Prize laureate 2010, was nominated for Ig Nobel in 2000 for using a magnet to levilate a frog, can also count, but he is now a British citizen.
      
      Go ahead, Russians, your country really needs this prize!
      
      Source: Improbable Research