Marc Abrahams: A science award that makes you laugh, then think

Translator: Marcela Vilas Reviewer: Serv. de Norm. Lingüística U. de Santiago de Compostela

George and Charlotte Blonsky, who were

George e Charlotte Blonsky, que eran

a married couple living in the Bronx in New York City,

un matrimonio residente no Bronx en Nova York,

invented something.

inventaron algo.

They got a patent in 1965 for what they call,

Conseguiron unha patente en 1965 para o que eles denominaron

"a device to assist women in giving birth."

"un aparello para asistir a mulleres no parto."

This device consists of a large, round table

Este aparello consiste nunha gran mesa redonda

and some machinery.

e algún dispositivos mecánicos.

When the woman is ready to deliver her child,

Cando a muller está lista para dar a luz,

she lies on her back,

deitase,

she is strapped down to the table,

é amarrada á mesa,

and the table is rotated at high speed.

que se pon a xirar a gran velocidade.

The child comes flying out

O neno sae voando

(Risos)

through centrifugal force.

grazas á forza centrífuga.

(Risos)

If you look at their patent carefully,

Se mirades detidamente a súa patente,

especially if you have any engineering background or talent,

especialmente se tedes formación ou coñecementos en enxeñaría,

podedes concluír que vedes

you may decide that you see

one or two points where the design is not perfectly adequate. (Laughter)

un ou dous puntos onde o deseño non é apropiado de todo.

(Risos)

Doctor Ivan Schwab in California

O Dr. Ivan Schwach en California

é unha das persoas que foron esenciais

is one of the people, one of the main people,

who helped answer the question,

para axudar a responder a pregunta

"Why don't woodpeckers get headaches?"

"Por que aos picapaus non lles doe a cabeza?"

And it turns out the answer to that

E resulta que a resposta

is because their brains

é que os seus cerebros

are packaged inside their skulls

están colocados nos seus cranios

in a way different from the way

dun modo diferente

our brains, we being human beings,

a como os seres humanos

true, have our brains packaged.

temos empaquetados os nosos cerebros.

They, the woodpeckers, typically

Os picapaus, normalmente,

will peck, they will bang their head

petan, e baten coa cabeza

contra un toro de madeira milleiros de veces ao día. Cada día!

on a piece of wood thousands of times every day. Every day!

And as far as anyone knows,

E polo que se sabe,

that doesn't bother them in the slightest.

iso non os molesta nin un chisco.

How does this happen?

Como ocorre isto?

Their brain does not slosh around like ours does.

O seu cerebro non anda abaneando coma o noso.

Their brain is packed in very tightly,

O seu cerebro está empaquetado de forma moi axustada,

at least for blows coming right from the front.

polo menos para os golpes que veñen de fronte.

Not too many people paid attention

Non moita xente se fixou

nesta investigación ata estes últimos anos

to this research until the last few years

when, in this country especially,

cando, neste país sobre todo,

people are becoming curious about

está espertando a curiosidade

what happens to the brains of football players

co que ocorre cos cerebros dos xogadores de fútbol americano

who bang their heads repeatedly.

que petan seguido coas súas cabezas.

E o picapau quizais estea relacionado con isto.

And the woodpecker maybe relates to that.

There was a paper published

Hai un artigo publicado

in the medical journal The Lancet

na revista médica "The Lancet"

en Inglaterra hai uns anos titulado

in England a few years ago called

" A man who pricked his finger and smelled putrid for 5 years."

"Un home que picou o dedo e cheiroulle podre durante 5 anos."

Dr. Caroline Mills and her team

A Dra. Caroline Mills e o seu equipo

received this patient and didn't really know what to do about it.

atenderon este paciente e non souberon que facerlle.

The man had cut his finger,

O home cortara o dedo,

he worked processing chickens,

traballaba procesando polos,

e entón comezou a cheirar moi moi mal.

and then he started to smell really, really bad.

So bad that when he got in a room

Tan mal que cando entrou na sala

with the doctors and the nurses,

cos médicos e enfermeiras,

they couldn't stand being in the room with him.

non podían aturar estar na sala con el.

It was intolerable.

Era insoportable.

They tried every drug,

Probaron todas as medicinas,

todos os tratamentos que se lles ocorreron.

every other treatment they could think of.

After a year, he still smelled putrid.

Despois dun ano, aínda cheiraba a podre.

After two years, still smelled putrid.

Despois de dous anos, aínda cheiraba a podre.

Three years, four years, still smelled putrid.

Tres anos, catro anos, aínda cheiraba a podre.

After five years, it went away on its own.

Despois de cinco anos, o cheiro marchou el só.

It's a mystery.

É un misterio.

In New Zealand, Dr. Lianne Parkin

En Nova Zelandia, a Dra. Lianne Parkin

and her team tested an old tradition in her city.

e o seu equipo analizaron unha vella tradición da súa cidade.

They live in a city that has huge hills,

Viven nunha cidade que ten outeiros enormes,

San Francisco-grade hills.

grandes coma os de San Francisco.

And in the winter there, it gets very cold

E alí no inverno vai moito frío,

and very icy.

e hai moitas xeadas.

There are lots of injuries.

Hai moitas lesións.

A tradición que analizaron,

The tradition that they tested,

they tested by asking people

analizárona pedíndolle á xente

que ía para o traballo pola mañá,

who were on their way to work in the morning,

to stop and try something out.

que pararan e probaran algo.

Try one of two conditions.

Probar unha de dúas condicións.

The tradition is that in the winter,

A tradición é que no inverno,

nesa cidade, levas os calcetíns por fóra das botas.

in that city, you wear your socks on the outside of your boots.

And what they discovered by experiment,

E o que descubriron co experimento,

and it was quite graphic when they saw it,

e foi bastante gráfico cando o viron,

was that it's true.

é que era certo.

That if you wear your socks on the outside rather than the inside,

Que se levas os calcetíns por fóra no canto de por dentro,

é máis probable que sobrevivas e non esvares nin caias.

you're much more likely to survive and not slip and fall.

Now, I hope you will agree with me that these things

Espero que esteades de acordo comigo que estas cousas

I've just described to you,

que vos acabo de describir,

calquera delas, merecen algún tipo de premio.

each of them, deserves some kind of prize. (Laughter)

(Risos)

And that's what they got,

E conseguírono,

each of them got an Ig Nobel prize.

cada un deles ten un Premio Ig Nobel.

In 1991, I, together with bunch of other people,

En 1991, eu, con outra morea de xente,

started the Ig Nobel prize ceremony.

comezamos a cerimonia dos Premios Ig Nobel.

Cada ano damos 10 premios.

Every year we give out 10 prizes.

Os premios están baseados nun só criterio. É moi sinxelo.

The prizes are based on just one criteria. It's very simple.

É que fixeras algo que primeiro lle faga rir á xente, e despois pensar.

It's that you've done something that makes people laugh and then think.

What you've done makes people laugh and then think.

Que o que fixeras lle faga rir á xente e despois pensar.

Sexa o que sexa, ten un aquel

que cando a xente se atopa con iso

their only possible reaction is to laugh.

a súa única reacción posible é a risa.

And then a week later,

E unha semana máis tarde,

it's still rattling around in their heads

aínda lle repica na cabeza

and all they want to do is tell their friends about it.

e morre por ir contárllelo aos amigos.

That's the quality we look for.

Velaí a calidade que buscamos.

Every year, we get in the neighborhood

Cada ano, andamos ao redor

of 9,000 new nominations for the Ig Nobel prize.

de 9000 novas candidaturas aos Premios Ig Nobel.

Of those, consistently between 10 percent

Delas, entre o 10 por cento

and 20 percent of those nominations

e o 20 por cento

son persoas que se candidatan a si mesmas.

are people who nominate themselves.

(Risos)

Those self-nominees almost never win.

Estes case nunca gañan.

It's very difficult, numerically, to win a prize if you want to.

É moi difícil, estatisticamente, gañar un premio se o queres.

Even if you don't want to,

E incluso se non o queres,

é moi difícil estatisticamente.

it's very difficult numerically.

You should know that when we choose somebody

Debedes saber que cando escollemos unha persoa

to win an Ig Nobel prize,

para gañar un Ig Nobel,

We get in touch with that person, very quietly.

contactamos con ela discretamente,

We offer them the chance to decline

ofrecémoslle a opción de rexeitar

this great honor if they want to.

este grande honor, se quere.

Happily for us, almost everyone who's offered a prize

Por sorte para nós, case todos aos que lles ofrecemos o Premio

decides to accept.

deciden aceptalo.

Que consegues se gañas un Premio Ig Nobel?

What do you get if you win an Ig Nobel prize?

Well, you get several things.

Pois varias cousas.

You get an Ig Nobel prize.

Consegues un Premio Ig Nobel.

O deseño é diferente cada ano.

The design is different every year.

(Risos)

These are always handmade from extremely cheap materials.

Están sempre feitos á man con materiais sumamente baratos.

You're looking at a picture

Estades vendo unha imaxe

of the prize we gave last year, 2013.

do premio que entregamos o ano pasado, 2013.

Most prizes in the world also give

A maioría dos premios do mundo tamén dan

their winners some cash, some money.

aos gañadores algún diñeiro en efectivo.

We don't have any money,

Nós non temos cartos,

so we can't give them.

así que non podemos dalos.

In fact, the winners have to pay their own way

De feito, os gañadores deben pagar do seu peto

a viaxe á cerimonia dos Ig Nobel,

to come to the Ig Nobel ceremony,

which most of them do.

e a maioría fano.

Last year, though, we did manage to scrape up some money.

O ano pasado, no entanto, si demos xuntado uns poucos cartos.

Last year, each of the 10 Ig Nobel prize winners

Cada un dos 10 gañadores dos Ig Nobel

received from us 10 trillion dollars.

recibiron de nós 10 trillóns de dólares.

Un billete de 10 trillóns de dólares de Zimbabwe.

A $10 trillion bill from Zimbabwe. (Laughter)

(Risos)

You may remember that Zimbabwe had a little adventure

Pode que recordedes que Zimbabwe tivo unha pequena aventura

for a few years there of inflation.

de inflación durante uns cantos anos.

They ended up printing bills

Acabaron imprimindo billetes

that were in denominations as large as 100 trillion dollars.

con valores nominais tan grandes como 100 trillóns de dólares.

The man responsible, who runs the national bank there, by the way,

A persoa responsable, que dirixe o seu banco nacional,

gañou o Premio Ig Nobel de matemáticas.

won an Ig Nobel prize in mathematics.

(Risos)

The other thing you win is an invitation

A outra cousa que gañas é unha invitación

to come to the ceremony,

para vir á cerimonia

que ten lugar na Universidade de Harvard

which happens at Harvard University.

And when you get there,

E cando estás alí,

chegas á maior aula e lugar de reunión de Harvard.

you come to Harvard's biggest meeting place and classroom.

It fits 1,100 people,

Caben 1100 persoas,

está cheo a rebentar,

it's jammed to the gills,

and up on the stage,

e no escenario

agardando para darche a man,

waiting to shake your hand,

waiting to hand you your Ig Nobel prize,

agardando para entregarche o teu Ig Nobel,

hai unha morea de gañadores do Premio Nobel.

are a bunch of Nobel prize winners.

That's the heart of the ceremony.

Iso é a cerna da cerimonia.

Os gañadores non se coñecen ata ese momento,

The winners are kept secret until that moment,

even the Nobel laureates who will shake their hand

incluso os galardoados co Nobel que lles darán a man

don't know who they are until they're announced.

non saben quen son ata que os anuncian.

I am going to tell you about just a very few

Vou contarvos algúns outros

of the other medical-related prizes we've given.

dos premios relacionados coa medicina que xa demos.

Tede en conta que levamos dado 230 premios.

Keep in mind, we've given 230 prizes.

There are lots of these people who walk among you.

Hai moita desta xente que anda entre vós.

Maybe you have one.

Quizais ti teñas un.

A paper was published about 30 years ago

Hai uns 30 anos publicouse un artigo

called "Injuries due to Falling Coconuts."

titulado "Lesións causadas por caída de cocos."

It was written by Dr. Peter Barss,

Escribiuno o Dr. Peter Barss,

who is Canadian.

que é canadense.

Dr. Barss came to the ceremony

O Dr. Barss veu á cerimonia

and explained that as a young doctor,

e explicou que como médico novo,

he wanted to see the world.

quería ver mundo.

Foi a Papúa-Nova Guinea.

So he went to Papua New Guinea.

Unha vez alí, traballou nun hospital, e tiña curiosidade

When he got there, he went to work in a hospital, and he was curious

what kinds of things happen to people that bring them to the hospital.

pola clase de cousas que lle pasaba á xente para acabar no hospital.

He looked through the records, and he discovered

Revisou os rexistros e descubriu

that a surprisingly large number of people

que un número sorprendentemente amplo de persoas

in that hospital were there

estaban no hospital

because of injuries due to falling coconuts.

por lesións causadas pola caída de cocos.

One typical thing that happens is

Algo normal que ocorre é

people will come from the highlands, where there are not many coconut trees,

que a xente viña das montañas, onde non hai moitos coqueiros,

down to visit their relatives on the coast,

a visitar aos parentes da costa,

where there are lots.

onde hai moitos.

And they'll think that a coconut tree

E pensan que un coqueiro

is a fine place to stand and maybe lie down.

é un bo lugar para estar ou se cadra deitarse.

A coconut tree that is 90 feet tall,

Un coqueiro duns 27 metros de alto,

and has coconuts that weigh two pounds

que ten cocos que pesan case un kilo

e poden caer en calquera momento.

that can drop off at any time.

A team of doctors in Europe

Un grupo de médicos en Europa

publicou unha serie de artigos sobre colonoscopias.

published a series of papers about colonoscopies.

You're all familiar with colonoscopies,

Todos estades familiarizados con elas,

one way or another.

dun xeito ou outro.

Or in some cases,

Ou nalgúns casos,

dun xeito e doutro.

one way and another.

(Risos)

They, in these papers,

Nestes artigos,

explicábanlles aos seus colegas que practicaban colonoscopias,

explained to their fellow doctors who perform colonoscopies,

how to minimize the chance

como minimizar a posibilidade

de que cando practicas a colonoscopia,

that when you perform a colonoscopy,

your patient will explode. (Laughter)

o teu paciente estoupe.

(Risos)

Dr. Emmanuel Ben-Soussan

O Dr. Emmanuel Ben-Soussan,

one of the authors,

un dos autores,

flew in from Paris to the ceremony,

voou dende París para a cerimonia,

where he explained the history of this,

na que explicou a historia disto:

that in the 1950s,

nos anos 50,

when colonoscopies were becoming a common technique for the first time,

cando as colonoscopias comezaban a ser unha técnica común,

estábase descubrindo como facelas ben.

people were figuring out how to do it well.

And there were some difficulties at first.

E ao primeiro había algunhas dificultades.

The basic problem, I'm sure you're familiar with,

O problema básico, seguro que vos soa,

that you're looking inside a long, narrow, dark place.

é que estás mirando dentro dun lugar longo, estreito e escuro.

And so, you want to have a larger space.

Polo tanto, queres ter un espazo máis grande.

You add some gas to inflate it

Engades un pouco gas para inchalo

so you have room to look around.

e así tes máis sitio para mirar.

Now, that's added to the gas, the methane gas,

Pero ese gas engádese ao metano,

que xa está dentro.

that's already inside.

The gas that they used at first, in many cases, was oxygen.

O gas que usaban ao primeiro, en moitos casos, era osíxeno.

So they added oxygen to methane gas.

Así que lle engadían osíxeno ao metano.

E entón, se querían poder ver,

And then they wanted to be able to see,

they needed light,

precisaban luz,

así que poñían unha fonte de luz,

so they'd put in a light source,

which in the 1950s was very hot.

que nos anos 50 era moi quente.

So you had methane gas, which is flammable,

Polo que tiñan metano, que é inflamable,

oxygen and heat.

osíxeno e calor.

They stopped using oxygen pretty quickly. (Laughter)

Pararon de usar osíxeno bastante axiña.

(Risos)

Now it's rare that patients will explode,

Agora é estraño que os pacientes estoupen,

but it does still happen.

pero aínda segue ocorrendo.

The final thing that I want to tell you about is a prize

O último que vos quero contar é o premio

we gave to Dr. Elena Bodnar.

que lle demos á Dra. Elena Bodnar.

Dr. Elena Bodnar invented a brassiere

Ela inventou un suxeitador

that in an emergency

que nunha emerxencia

can be quickly separated

se pode separar rapidamente

into a pair of protective face masks.

nun par de máscaras de protección

Unha para salvarche a vida,

One to save your life,

one to save the life of some lucky bystander. (Laughter)

outra para salvarlla a algún sortudo que pase por alí.

(Risos)

Why would someone do this, you might wonder.

Estarédesvos preguntando por que faría alguén algo así.

Dr. Bodnar came to the ceremony

A Dra. Bodnar veu á cerimonia

and she explained that she grew up in Ukraine.

e explicou que ela criouse en Ucraína.

She was one of the doctors who treated victims

Foi un dos médicos que tratou a vítimas

of the Chernobyl power plant meltdown.

do accidente nuclear de Chernóbil.

E máis tarde descubriron

And they later discovered that

a lot of the worst medical problems

que moitos dos peores problemas médicos

came from the particles people breathed in.

viñan de partículas que a xente respirou.

So she was always thinking after that

Así que sempre quedou pensando

about could there be some simple mask

se podería haber algunha máscara sinxela

that was available everywhere when the unexpected happens.

que estivese dispoñíble en todas partes cando ocorrera algo inesperado.

Years later, she moved to America.

Anos despois, mudouse a América.

She had a baby,

Tivo un meniño.

One day she looked, and on the floor,

Un día mirou no chan

her infant son had picked up her bra,

que o seu cativo collera o seu suxeitador

and had her bra on his face.

e o puxera na cara.

E de aí saíu a idea.

And that's where the idea came from.

She came to the Ig Nobel ceremony

Veu á cerimonia dos Ig Nobel

with the first prototype of the bra

co primeiro prototipo do suxeitador

e fixo a demostración.

and she demonstrated:

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Risos) (Aplausos)

["Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate (2008) in economics"]

[Paul Krugman, Premio Nobel de Economía do ano 2008]

["Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel laureate (2001) in physics"]

[Wolfgang Ketterle, Premio Nobel de Física do ano 2001]

I myself own an emergency bra. (Laughter)

Eu mesmo teño un suxeitador de emerxencias.

(Risos)

It's my favorite bra,

É o meu suxeitador favorito,

but I would be happy to share it with any of you,

pero encantaríame compartilo con calquera de vós

should the need arise.

se fora necesario.

Grazas.

Thank you.

(Aplausos)

(Applause)