Every year, scientist everywhere listen intensely to the announcement of the Nobel Prize laureates. Everybody knows this most prestigious award that is given for outstanding achievements in a handful of disciplines.

The nobel prize has a brother, or sister if you like: The Ig Noble Prize. Its focus is rather different, as you might have guessed. Awarded by Improbable Research, they are given to “Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK”. So, if you wanna know, why fingernails scratching a black board make people uneasy, why spaghetti break at more than one place when you bend them, or you wanna know how many photographs you have to take before no one is closing their eyes: Then you should check out the Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize 2006