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

翻译人员: Melody Tang 校对人员: Yiding(Eden) Wen

[马克 · 阿伯罕斯]

George and Charlotte Blonsky, who were

乔治和夏洛特 · 布朗斯基

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

是住在纽约布朗克斯的一对夫妻

invented something.

他们有一项发明

They got a patent in 1965 for what they call,

他们在1965年获得了一项专利

"a device to assist women in giving birth."

他们称之为“帮助妇女分娩的装置”

This device consists of a large, round table

这个装置是由一个大圆桌

and some machinery.

和一些机械组成

When the woman is ready to deliver her child,

当妇女准备生孩子时

she lies on her back,

她仰卧着

she is strapped down to the table,

被绑在圆桌上

and the table is rotated at high speed.

然后圆桌高速旋转

The child comes flying out

小孩通过离心力飞出来

through centrifugal force.

（笑声）

If you look at their patent carefully,

如果你仔细看看他们的专利

especially if you have any engineering background or talent,

特别是如果你有任何工程背景或天分

you may decide that you see

你可能会看到这个设计有一两点 不完美的地方

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

（笑声）

Doctor Ivan Schwab in California

加州的艾凡 · 施瓦布医生

他是帮忙找出这个问题的答案的 主要人之一

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

who helped answer the question,

"Why don't woodpeckers get headaches?"

“为什么啄木鸟不会头疼？”

And it turns out the answer to that

结果答案是：

is because their brains

因为他们头盖骨包裹大脑的方式

are packaged inside their skulls

in a way different from the way

和我们人类的方式不同

our brains, we being human beings,

true, have our brains packaged.

当然，人类的大脑也被包裹在头盖骨里面

They, the woodpeckers, typically

啄木鸟，特别典型的

will peck, they will bang their head

会啄木，把头撞向树

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

每天都要上千回 每天啊

And as far as anyone knows,

据我们所知 这一点都不影响他们

that doesn't bother them in the slightest.

How does this happen?

为什么会这样呢？

Their brain does not slosh around like ours does.

他们的大脑不会像人类的那样摇晃

Their brain is packed in very tightly,

他们的大脑非常紧密地压缩在一起

at least for blows coming right from the front.

至少可应付从前方的撞击

Not too many people paid attention

很少人关注这个研究 直到最近几年

to this research until the last few years

when, in this country especially,

特别是这个国家，人们开始好奇

people are becoming curious about

what happens to the brains of football players

对于频繁用头顶球的足球运动员

who bang their heads repeatedly.

他们的大脑会怎样呢

And the woodpecker maybe relates to that.

啄木鸟的研究可能与此相关

There was a paper published

几年前，在英国《柳叶刀》医学杂志上

in the medical journal The Lancet

in England a few years ago called

发表了一篇文章 《手指刺伤后，五年来一直散发腐臭味的男人》

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

Dr. Caroline Mills and her team

卡洛琳 · 米尔斯医生和她的团队

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

接受了这位病人 却不知如何处理

The man had cut his finger,

这位男士割伤了他的手指

he worked processing chickens,

他的工作是处理鸡肉

后来他就变得非常难闻 以至于他在房间里时

and then he started to smell really, really bad.

So bad that when he got in a room

with the doctors and the nurses,

医生和护士都无法忍受呆在同一个房间

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

It was intolerable.

非常难以忍受

They tried every drug,

他们尝试了所能想到的每一种药物 和每一种治疗方法

every other treatment they could think of.

After a year, he still smelled putrid.

一年后 他依旧散发腐烂的气味

After two years, still smelled putrid.

两年后 还是腐烂的气味

Three years, four years, still smelled putrid.

三年，四年 还是腐烂的气味

After five years, it went away on its own.

五年后 腐烂气味自动消失了！

这至今是个谜

It's a mystery.

In New Zealand, Dr. Lianne Parkin

在新西兰 莉安 · 帕金博士和她的团队

and her team tested an old tradition in her city.

在她的城市 试验了一个古老的传说

They live in a city that has huge hills,

他们住在一个满是大山丘的城市

San Francisco-grade hills.

像旧金山那样的山丘

And in the winter there, it gets very cold

在冬季那里变得非常冷 冷到结冰

and very icy.

There are lots of injuries.

常常发生事故

The tradition that they tested,

他们试验的传统就是

they tested by asking people

他们请早上去上班的人们

who were on their way to work in the morning,

to stop and try something out.

停下来做两者之一的试验

Try one of two conditions.

The tradition is that in the winter,

这个传统是

在冬天 那个城市

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

他们将袜子穿在靴子的外面

And what they discovered by experiment,

從他们的试验，他们看到很生动的 画面里，他们发现

and it was quite graphic when they saw it,

was that it's true.

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

是真的 如果你将袜子穿在靴子子外面 而不是里面

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

你比较不容易滑倒

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

我希望你们也同意

我刚刚描述的这些

I've just described to you,

每一项都应该拿到某种奖品

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

（笑声）

And that's what they got,

他们确实有得到 刚介绍的每一项 确实都拿到 搞笑 诺贝尔奖

each of them got an Ig Nobel prize.

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

在1991年我和其他一些人 创立了 搞笑诺贝尔奖

started the Ig Nobel prize ceremony.

每一年我们颁发十个搞笑诺贝尔奖

Every year we give out 10 prizes.

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

这个奖只有一个得奖标准，

这个标准很简单

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

就是你做的能让人笑 然后思考

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

只要你做的能让人笑 然后思考

不管是什么

当人第一次碰到它时 他们唯一的反应是笑

their only possible reaction is to laugh.

And then a week later,

it's still rattling around in their heads

然后 一星期后 那件事仍盘踞在他们的脑中

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

他们唯一想做的就是要告诉他们的朋友

That's the quality we look for.

那就是我们要找的。

Every year, we get in the neighborhood

每一年我们收到大约九千个

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

新的搞笑诺贝尔奖项提名

Of those, consistently between 10 percent

其中 一直都有百分之十到二十是

and 20 percent of those nominations

自己提名自己的

are people who nominate themselves.

Those self-nominees almost never win.

（笑声）

这些自我提名的几乎从来没得奖过

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

从数据上说，，得奖的机会微乎其微

不管你是想赢或不想赢都很难。

Even if you don't want to,

it's very difficult numerically.

You should know that when we choose somebody

你知道吗

当我们选中一个搞笑诺贝尔奖的得主

to win an Ig Nobel prize,

We get in touch with that person, very quietly.

我们会先和私下他联络

We offer them the chance to decline

我们给他们一个拒绝领这个 很荣耀的奖项的机会

this great honor if they want to.

我们很高兴 几乎每位被选中的得主 都决定接受这个奖

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

decides to accept.

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

若你是搞笑诺贝尔奖的得主 你会得到什么呢？

Well, you get several things.

你会得到几个东西

You get an Ig Nobel prize.

你会得到一个搞笑诺贝尔奖

每一年的奖的设计都不一样

The design is different every year.

These are always handmade from extremely cheap materials.

这些都是用非常便宜的材料以手工制作的

You're looking at a picture

of the prize we gave last year, 2013.

你现在看到的是我们去年颁发的 2013年的

Most prizes in the world also give

大部分的奖都会给得奖者一些奖金

their winners some cash, some money.

We don't have any money,

我们没有钱，所以我们无法给他们奖金

so we can't give them.

In fact, the winners have to pay their own way

事实上，我们的得主要自己付旅费来参加 搞笑诺贝尔奖的颁奖仪式

to come to the Ig Nobel ceremony,

which most of them do.

大部分的人会来

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

去年，我们凑了一点钱

Last year, each of the 10 Ig Nobel prize winners

十位搞笑诺贝尔奖的得主

received from us 10 trillion dollars.

每一位都得到十兆元的奖金

A $10 trillion bill from Zimbabwe. (Laughter)

一张十兆元的辛巴威纸钞

（笑声）

You may remember that Zimbabwe had a little adventure

你可能记得辛巴威在过去几年 发生一点事

for a few years there of inflation.

就是通货膨胀

They ended up printing bills

他们最后印的纸钞是以十兆为单位

that were in denominations as large as 100 trillion dollars.

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

顺便提一下，负责此事的国家银行首长 赢得了搞笑诺贝尔奖的数学奖

won an Ig Nobel prize in mathematics.

The other thing you win is an invitation

另外，你会得到一张搞笑诺贝尔奖 颁奖仪式的邀请函

to come to the ceremony,

which happens at Harvard University.

仪式是在哈佛大学举行的

And when you get there,

当你去的时候，你会来到哈佛 最大的会场兼教室

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

It fits 1,100 people,

在那里一万一千人挤得水泄不通

it's jammed to the gills,

and up on the stage,

在讲台上，等着和你握手和 颁发奖给你的是

waiting to shake your hand,

waiting to hand you your Ig Nobel prize,

are a bunch of Nobel prize winners.

一群诺贝尔奖得主

That's the heart of the ceremony.

那是整个颁奖仪式的最高点 直到那一刻 所有得主都被蒙在鼓里

The winners are kept secret until that moment,

even the Nobel laureates who will shake their hand

即使在这些诺贝尔得主会握他们的手时 他们仍不知道这些人是谁

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

一直到他们的名字被宣布出来。

I am going to tell you about just a very few

我现在要和你们分享我们颁奖过的

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

几个其他和医疗有关的奖项

Keep in mind, we've given 230 prizes.

我们已颁过230个奖 许多得主可能在你们之中

There are lots of these people who walk among you.

Maybe you have one.

或者你自己就是其中一位

A paper was published about 30 years ago

30多年前 有一篇发表的论文 题目是“坠落的椰子导致的伤害”

called "Injuries due to Falling Coconuts."

It was written by Dr. Peter Barss,

这是加拿大的比得 · 巴尔斯医生所写的

who is Canadian.

Dr. Barss came to the ceremony

巴尔斯医生在颁奖仪式中解释

and explained that as a young doctor,

当他是位年轻的医生时 他要看看世界

he wanted to see the world.

So he went to Papua New Guinea.

所以他去了巴布亚纽几内亚

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

当他到那里时 他去那里的医院工作

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

他很好奇 那里的人因那些问题会来医院

He looked through the records, and he discovered

他翻阅了医疗记录后发现

that a surprisingly large number of people

来那个医院资料的原因中 相当多是因为坠落的椰子所造成的伤害

in that hospital were there

because of injuries due to falling coconuts.

One typical thing that happens is

一个典型的事件经过是：

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

一些来自没有许多椰子树的高地的人

down to visit their relatives on the coast,

去到有许多椰子树的海边拜访亲戚

where there are lots.

And they'll think that a coconut tree

他们想椰子树下似乎是 很适合站立或躺下的地方

is a fine place to stand and maybe lie down.

A coconut tree that is 90 feet tall,

椰子树有90英尺高 每个椰子约二磅重

and has coconuts that weigh two pounds

that can drop off at any time.

随时可能掉下來

A team of doctors in Europe

有一组在欧洲的医生发表 一系列有关结肠镜检查的论文

published a series of papers about colonoscopies.

You're all familiar with colonoscopies,

各位应该对结肠镜检查 应该多少知道一些

one way or another.

Or in some cases,

有些是知道不止一些

one way and another.

（笑声）

They, in these papers,

在这些论文里 他们解释给他们的同事

explained to their fellow doctors who perform colonoscopies,

在他们做结肠镜检查时

如何降低他们的病人在检查时 爆炸的几率

how to minimize the chance

that when you perform a colonoscopy,

your patient will explode. (Laughter)

（笑声）

Dr. Emmanuel Ben-Soussan

曼纽 . 边生医生见到其中一位作者 从巴黎飞来参加颁奖仪式

one of the authors,

flew in from Paris to the ceremony,

where he explained the history of this,

在仪式里 他解释在1950年代 有关这方面的历史

that in the 1950s,

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

那时 结肠镜检查才开始成为 一个普遍的技术

people were figuring out how to do it well.

大家都在摸索如何做才是最好

And there were some difficulties at first.

开始时有些困难 你们对基本的问题可能有些熟悉

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

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

你要看一个很长 很窄且很黑的地方

And so, you want to have a larger space.

你希望可以比较宽大的空间 所以你加入一些气体来膨胀它

You add some gas to inflate it

so you have room to look around.

让你有空间可以看清楚

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

那是加在已经在里面的甲烷气之上

that's already inside.

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

起初他们大多数用的气体是氧气

So they added oxygen to methane gas.

他们将氧气加在已有的甲烷气内

And then they wanted to be able to see,

然后为了他们能够看清楚 他们需要亮光 所以他们就加上光源

they needed light,

so they'd put in a light source,

which in the 1950s was very hot.

在1950年代 那时的光源很热

So you had methane gas, which is flammable,

总之 那时你有易燃的甲烷，氧气，和热

oxygen and heat.

They stopped using oxygen pretty quickly. (Laughter)

但他们很快就停用氧气了（笑声）

Now it's rare that patients will explode,

现在 很少有病人会爆炸 但是仍然时有发生

but it does still happen.

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

最后 我要告诉你们的是我们颁发给 伊莲娜 . 巴特那医生的奖项

we gave to Dr. Elena Bodnar.

Dr. Elena Bodnar invented a brassiere

伊莲娜 . 巴特那医生发明了一个 在紧急时

that in an emergency

can be quickly separated

可以很快分开成两个口罩的胸罩

into a pair of protective face masks.

One to save your life,

一个可以救你自己的命 另外一个可以救一个很幸运的旁观者

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

（笑声）

Why would someone do this, you might wonder.

你可能会想 为什么会有人要做这个？

Dr. Bodnar came to the ceremony

巴特那医生来到颁奖仪式 她解释说：

and she explained that she grew up in Ukraine.

她是在乌克兰长大的

She was one of the doctors who treated victims

她是最早治疗切尔诺贝利核能厂 核灾的受害者的医生中的一名医生

of the Chernobyl power plant meltdown.

And they later discovered that

他们后来发现许多最严重的医疗问题 主要是因为他们吸入的物体

a lot of the worst medical problems

came from the particles people breathed in.

So she was always thinking after that

之后她就经常在想 若是意外突然发生

about could there be some simple mask

that was available everywhere when the unexpected happens.

有什么简单又随手可得的口罩

Years later, she moved to America.

多年后 她搬到美国 生了一个小孩

She had a baby,

One day she looked, and on the floor,

有一天 她看着她的小孩在地上 拣起她的胸罩

her infant son had picked up her bra,

and had her bra on his face.

将她的胸罩放在脸上当口罩 那是她的灵感来源

And that's where the idea came from.

She came to the Ig Nobel ceremony

当她来到颁奖仪式的时候 她带了第一个原型样本来示范

with the first prototype of the bra

and she demonstrated:

（笑声）

(Laughter) (Applause)

（笑声和掌声）

（笑声）

（笑声）

{掌声）

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

[保罗 库格曼 2008年诺贝尔经济奖得主]

（笑声）

（笑声）

（掌声）

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

[沃尔夫冈 克特勒 2001年 诺贝尔物理得主]

（掌声）

I myself own an emergency bra. (Laughter)

我自己也拥有一个紧急用胸罩

（笑声）

It's my favorite bra,

这是我最喜欢的胸罩

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

但有需要时 我会很乐意和 你们任何一个人分享

should the need arise.

谢谢

Thank you.

（鼓掌）

(Applause)