Hanging 12 rhinos upside down with a crane, that's how a team of scientists at Cornell University won this year's Ig Nobel Prize. The Ig Nobel with Ig stands for "ignoble" meaning "mediocre, nothing prestigious" is a parody of the Nobel Prize, initiated in 1991 by the humorous science magazine Annals of Improbable Research.

In it, a jury of real Nobel laureates will grade and find seemingly unusual studies that "will make people laugh at first, but then make them think". That means Ig Nobel works are not useless.

Science in any form, both humorous and satirical, always has meaning or has some practical application. In the case of these hanging rhinos, scientists are trying to study better ways to transport wildlife by helicopter, in order to protect their health and preserve them.


Why does the rhinoceros upside down study deserve an Ig Nobel Prize?


The study was led by wildlife veterinarian Robin Radcliffe of Cornell University. In it, they went to Namibia, a country in South Africa, only to hang 12 rhinos upside down by crane within 10 minutes.

The purpose of this action is to check if the health of wild animals is affected in the paw-tied and upside-down position. This is how wildlife conservationists transport giant mammals by helicopter, between areas where their habitats are fragmented.

Dr. Robin said that since the helicopter was used, no one has performed a health, cardiopulmonary and venous function test of wild animals during those flights. "Namibia was the first country to take a step back and say, 'Hey, let's try and see if this is really safe for rhinos?

So his research team went here, in collaboration with Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, found 12 healthy rhinos, lifted them up with a crane and measured all of their physical stats for the day. that posture.

The end result that Dr. Robin found is that rhinos can grow banana trees like that and still be healthy. It is even better to transport them in an upside down position than in a normal upright or side-lying position.
"I think the reason is because when you let the rhinoceros lie like that, the sites that affect their blood circulation get pinched," Dr. Robin said. Tests showed that the lower lung part of the rhinoceros lying on its side was not well perfused and gas-exchanged.

"We have also seen rhinos lying on their side for too long, or especially lying flat and pressing on their sternum - their muscles will be damaged leading to muscle diseases. That's because the rhino is too heavy."

But rhinos hanging upside down do not have this problem. "His upper and lower lungs are equally perfused," Dr. Robin said. "Their legs don't suffer any pressure either, except for the feeling of a wire wrapped around them."

Pete Morkel, a wildlife doctor, said the study has implications for animal transport. And it doesn't just make sense for rhinos.

"The towing of large animals like elephants has also been approved. In the next studies that we plan to do, we will try to crane other animals such as buffalo, hippos, and maybe even giraffes too," he said.

And this Ig Nobel study could be a message to Swiss farmers who last month transported more than 10 cows by helicopter across the Alps, but kept them upright. Is it possible that the correct posture is to hang these cows upside down on 4 legs?
Other weird prizes in the Ig Nobel season 2021
In addition to research from Cornell University received the Ig Nobel Prize in the field of Transportation. This year's Ig Nobel Prize is also awarded to 9 other research works including:

The Ig Nobel Prize in Biology went to a study that analyzed the nuances of cats' meows to humans when they whined, growled, hissed, mumbled, chirped… by scientist Susanne Schötz.

The Ig Nobel Prize in Ecology was awarded to Leila Satari and colleagues for their work in genetic analysis to identify the bacterial species that inhabit the gum residue on the sidewalk in many different countries around the world.

The Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jörg Wicker and colleagues for analyzing the chemistry of the air inside movie theaters. This is to find out that audience-generated odors can become a reliable metric that predicts levels of violence, sex, antisocial behavior, drug use, and bad language in the movies they watch. see not see.

The Ig Nobel Prize in Economics went to Pavlo Blavatskyy for finding that obesity in politicians can be a good predictor of a country's corruption.

The Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine went to Olcay Cem Bulut and colleagues, for demonstrating that sexual orgasm can relieve symptoms of nasal congestion comparable to commercially available drugs.

The Ig Nobel Peace Prize went to Ethan Beseris and colleagues for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches in the face.

The Ig Nobel Prize in Physics went to Alessandro Corbetta and colleagues for conducting experiments to find out why humans when walking do not collide continuously with other pedestrians.
The Ig Nobel Kinetics Prize went to Hisashi Murakami and colleagues for a similar study that explains why pedestrians with their phones plugged in can still keep their distance and avoid other pedestrians.

The Ig Nobel Prize in Entomology went to John Mulrennan Jr and colleagues for research on cockroach control on submarines.
The reward is 10 trillion dollars ...Zimbabwe
Due to the impact of COVID-19, the 2021 Ig Nobel Prize has been awarded online. But usually in previous years, the winning scientists would be given a trip to Harvard University in the US. Here, they will be awarded medals and prizes by real Nobel laureates themselves.

Contrary to the current Nobel Prize worth more than 1 million USD, the scientists who won the Ig Nobel Prize received only a check for 10 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. It sounds like a big number, but in fact, Zimbabwe has stopped circulating its currency due to hyperinflation in the country since 2009.

At the last time that the Zimbabwean dollar was worth it, they had to print 100,000 billion dollars, but it was worth only 40 cents in the US or 9,000 VND. Thus, the USD 10 trillion of the Ig Nobel Prize has a real value of less than 1,000 VND, making it an award that is more meaningful in terms of spirit than money.

Back to Dr. Robin Radcliffe, when asked what he would do with this "huge" money, Robin said that his research team is still calling for funding everywhere, so it doesn't matter how much or how much. Any amount makes sense.

"When I first heard of the Ig Nobel Prize, I wasn't sure if it was a good or bad award. But I think the message 'it makes you laugh and then you have to think' fits very well with what we have in common. doing.

Everyone, as many people as possible, should learn about the efforts we are making to conserve wildlife, helping them escape the brink of extinction from Earth, a planet and home to all. We're both sharing."
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