用冷冻便便制成刀、自恋者眉毛研究……搞笑诺贝尔奖又来了

2020搞笑诺贝尔奖近日揭晓，来自美国的一名人类学家因制作和测试用冷冻人类粪便制成的刀具而获得了材料科学奖。来看看还有哪些无厘头的搞笑研究吧。

The annals of science brim with researchers who pushed the boundaries of sense and good taste in a quest for knowledge. With the unveiling of the 30th annual Ig Nobel awards, another case shall be added.

每年的搞笑诺贝尔奖都在追求知识的过程中不断拓展感官和品味的边界。随着第30届年度搞笑诺贝尔奖揭晓，我们又将看到更多刷新认知的成果了。

To test the validity of a story in a work of ethnographic literature, Metin Eren, an anthropologist at Kent State University in Ohio, made a knife from his frozen faeces.

为了测试一部人种学著作中一个故事的真实性，美国俄亥俄州肯特州立大学的人类学家梅廷·埃伦用自己冷冻的大便做了一把刀。

ethnographic [ɪeθnɪɪɡræfɪk]: adj. 人种志的；民族志学的

"It’s an honour to be recognised,” Eren said, before the ceremony in which he was honoured for his work on Thursday. “I’ve followed the Ig Nobels my entire life. It’s a dream come true. Really.”

“被认可是一种荣誉，”获奖者埃伦在9月17日举行搞笑诺贝尔颁奖礼前表示，“我一生都在追求搞笑诺贝尔奖。梦想成真了。真的。”

Not to be mistaken for the more prestigious – and lucrative – Nobel prizes, to be doled out in Scandinavia next month, the Ig Nobels celebrate research that “first makes people laugh, and then makes them think”.

不要把搞笑诺贝尔奖误认为声望更高、奖金更丰厚的诺贝尔奖，后者将于下个月在斯堪的纳维亚（瑞典）举行。搞笑诺贝尔奖推崇的是“先让人们笑，然后又让人们思考的”研究。

In a ceremony held online, rather than at Harvard University as usual, 10 awards were handed out for notable achievements in physics, psychology, economics, medicine and more. In lieu of a handsome windfall and medal, the winners received a paper cube and a £10tn dollar bill from Zimbabwe.

今年的搞笑诺贝尔奖颁奖礼在网上举行，而不像往年一样在哈佛大学举行。今年为物理学、心理学、经济学、医药学等领域的显著成就颁发了10个奖项。搞笑诺贝尔奖得主获得的不是一大笔奖金和奖章，而是一个纸做的奖杯和10万亿津巴布韦币（相当于人民币2毛钱）。

In lieu of: 代替

This year’s awards included a physics prize for work that recorded the shapes earthworms adopt when vibrated at high frequency. The peace prize honoured the governments of India and Pakistan for having their diplomats ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night and run away before anyone answered.

今年搞笑诺贝尔奖的物理学奖颁发给了一项记录蚯蚓在高频颤动时的形状的研究。和平奖颁给了印度和巴基斯坦政府，他们让各自的外交官在午夜按响对方的门铃，然后在有人开门前跑掉。

Chris Watkins, a psychologist at the University of Abertay in UK, shared the economics prize. His research found that french kissing was more common between partners in areas of high income inequality.

英国阿伯泰大学的心理学家克里斯·沃特金斯和他人共同获得了经济学奖。他的研究发现，法式接吻在收入差距大的地区伴侣之间更常见。

The psychology prize went to researchers who discovered a way to identify narcissists from their eyebrows. “It’s exciting, it’s a fun award,” said Miranda Giacomin, who worked on the study at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada. Her work built on research that found people could sometimes spot narcissists from their facial features. The eyebrows, Giacomin suggests, are key.

心理学奖颁给了发现用眉毛就能识别自恋者的研究人员。开展这一研究的加拿大亚伯达省麦科文大学的米兰达·贾科明表示：“真令人兴奋，这个奖很有趣。”她的成果基于一项研究，该研究发现，人们有时可以通过面部表情识别自恋者。贾科明指出，眉毛是关键。

Richard Vetter, a retired researcher at the University of California, Riverside, claimed the entomology prize for gathering case studies on arachnophobia among insect experts. He concluded that fear of spiders from an early age was not overcome by a career handling insects.

加利福尼亚大学河滨分校的退休研究人员理查德·维特尔获得了昆虫学奖，他对昆虫学家害怕蜘蛛的案例研究进行了归纳总结。结论是，从小对蜘蛛的恐惧心理并不会因为职业与昆虫打交道而被克服。

Yet another gong went to Dutch and Belgian researchers for laying out the diagnosis for misophonia – the distress experienced on hearing another person chew – and showing that talking therapy helps treat it.

同样获得搞笑诺贝尔奖的还有荷兰和比利时的研究人员，他们指出了恐音症（症状是听到别人咀嚼声会感到痛苦）的治疗方法，并表明谈话疗法有助于治愈恐音症。

misophonia: n. 恐音症

"It was a humorous rallying cry for evidence and fact checking,” Eren said of the unfunded work. “It’s a great story of human ingenuity, but we need to question and get evidence for everything that supports stances we hold dear to our heart, especially in these dark days.”

在谈及没有钱的搞笑诺贝尔奖时，埃伦表示：“这是一个呼吁证据和核实的幽默集会。这是一个关于人类创造力的伟大故事，但我们需要提出问题并搜集到所有能支持我们坚守立场的证据，尤其在这样的黑暗时刻。”