Bizarre Ventures Get Just Rewards

Dressed from top to toe in bright pink, Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, Mass., smiled out at a packed Sanders Theater last night. Though his neighbors may have disdained his invention, this erudite audience clearly had better taste.

Last night, Featherstone-creator of the pink plastic flamingo-was properly lauded for his contribution to humanity.

Featherstone was just one of the award recipients at last night's wacky "Sixth First Annual Ig Nobel Awards Ceremony," an event honoring those individuals whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced," according to Marc Abrahams, the master of ceremonies and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).

"The achievements speak for themselves all too eloquently," Abrahams added. Filling all 1,100 of the theater's seats, the lively audience cheered through much of the evening. Paper airplanes were as much a part of the ceremony as the dignitaries in attendance.

The evening started with a Pregame Pep Concert by Deborah Henson-Conant, a jazz harpist and Lawrence Professor of Chemistry William N. Lipscomb, who played the clarinet.

The evening also included a series of 30-second Heisenberg Certainty Lectures featuring as speakers Featherstone, Lipscomb, Karen Hopkins, creator of the "Studmuffins of Science" calendar, and a live chicken.

The musical interludes through the evening included a mini-opera titled "Lament Del Cockroach" in which Nobel laureates starred as insects and tried to woo two mezzo sopranos acting as cockroaches.

In addition, nine other Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded in such fields as art, chemistry, literature and medicine.

Two Norwegians received the prize in biology for a report on the "Effect of Ale, Garlic and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches" published in the British Medical Journal in 1994.

On a more political note, French president Jacques Chirac was awarded the peace prize for "commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima with atomic bomb tests in the Pacific." Chirac, who was not present at the event, was congratulated by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in an audio message played at the ceremony.

Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, received accolades in physics for convincingly demonstrating that toast always falls on the buttered side.

The evening's events were telecast live over the Internet (http://www.improb.com) and will be broadcast by National Public Radio and C-SPAN. Audience members said they enjoyed the nature of the evening's festivities.

"It was really cool," said Heather B. Adkins, a third-year graduate student. "It was out of control ridiculousness, but I really enjoyed it."

Students said they relished seeing Harvard's usually sober Nobel laureates--Higgins Professor of Physics Sheldon L. Glashow, Baird Professor of Science Dudley R. Herschbach and Lipscomb--take part in the ceremony.

"The [real] Nobel laureates had a great sense of humor--they made science seem like fun," said Mayssam H. Ali '98.

The ceremony was interrupted by a live auction in which plaster casts of the left foot of Lipscomb, Glashow and Herschbach sold for $11, $15 and $30 respectively.

On a more political note, French president Jacques Chirac was awarded the peace prize for "commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima with atomic bomb tests in the Pacific." Chirac, who was not present at the event, was congratulated by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in an audio message played at the ceremony.

Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, received accolades in physics for convincingly demonstrating that toast always falls on the buttered side.

The evening's events were telecast live over the Internet (http://www.improb.com) and will be broadcast by National Public Radio and C-SPAN. Audience members said they enjoyed the nature of the evening's festivities.

"It was really cool," said Heather B. Adkins, a third-year graduate student. "It was out of control ridiculousness, but I really enjoyed it."

Students said they relished seeing Harvard's usually sober Nobel laureates--Higgins Professor of Physics Sheldon L. Glashow, Baird Professor of Science Dudley R. Herschbach and Lipscomb--take part in the ceremony.

"The [real] Nobel laureates had a great sense of humor--they made science seem like fun," said Mayssam H. Ali '98.

The ceremony was interrupted by a live auction in which plaster casts of the left foot of Lipscomb, Glashow and Herschbach sold for $11, $15 and $30 respectively.