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

譯者: 瑞文Eleven 林Lim 審譯者: Peipei Xiang

George and Charlotte Blonsky, who were

喬治與夏洛蒂·布朗斯基

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

是一對居住在紐約布朗克斯的夫妻，

invented something.

他們有一項發明，

They got a patent in 1965 for what they call,

在1965年獲得專利，

"a device to assist women in giving birth."

他們稱其為“協助婦女分娩的裝置”。

This device consists of a large, round table

這個裝置由一個很大圓桌

and some machinery.

及一些機械裝置組成，

When the woman is ready to deliver her child,

當孕婦將要臨盆時，

she lies on her back,

讓她平躺下來，

she is strapped down to the table,

並將她捆綁在桌子上。

and the table is rotated at high speed.

接著平台開始高速旋轉，

The child comes flying out

小孩就藉由離心力飛出來。(笑聲)

through centrifugal force.

If you look at their patent carefully,

如果你仔細檢視他們的專利，

especially if you have any engineering background or talent,

特別是如果你有任何工程背景或天分，

you may decide that you see

你可能會看到 這個設計有一兩項缺點。(笑聲)

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

Doctor Ivan Schwab in California

加州的艾凡‧施瓦布醫生

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

是幫忙解答以下問題的主要人物之一：

who helped answer the question,

"Why don't woodpeckers get headaches?"

“為什麼啄木鳥不會頭痛？”

And it turns out the answer to that

最後得出的結論是：

is because their brains

因為牠們頭蓋骨包覆大腦的方式

are packaged inside their skulls

in a way different from the way

與人類不同，

our brains, we being human beings,

當然，人類大腦也被頭蓋骨包覆着。

true, have our brains packaged.

They, the woodpeckers, typically

而牠們，啄木鳥，通常

will peck, they will bang their head

就是把頭撞向樹幹，

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

每天上千下，每天哦！

And as far as anyone knows,

而據我們所知，

that doesn't bother them in the slightest.

這對牠們一點傷害都沒有。 為什麼會這樣呢？

How does this happen?

Their brain does not slosh around like ours does.

牠們的大腦不會像人類的那樣搖盪，

Their brain is packed in very tightly,

而是與頭殼緊密地連接在一起，

at least for blows coming right from the front.

至少可應付來自前方的撞擊。

Not too many people paid attention

一直以來人們都很少關注這個研究，

to this research until the last few years

直到最近幾年，

when, in this country especially,

特別在美國，

people are becoming curious about

人們開始感到好奇，

what happens to the brains of football players

那些經常撞到頭的橄欖球運動員，

who bang their heads repeatedly.

他們的大腦是否會因此受傷害。

And the woodpecker maybe relates to that.

啄木鳥的研究可能就與此相關。

There was a paper published

幾年前，在英國《刺胳針》 醫學期刊上刊出一篇論文，題為

in the medical journal The Lancet

in England a few years ago called

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

《手指刺傷後，五年來 一直發出腐臭味的男人》，

Dr. Caroline Mills and her team

卡洛琳‧米爾斯醫生和她的團隊

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

接收了這位病人，卻束手無策。

The man had cut his finger,

這位手指受傷的男人，

he worked processing chickens,

他的工作是處理雞肉，

and then he started to smell really, really bad.

受傷之後他就變得非常非常臭，

So bad that when he got in a room

臭到當他在房間時，

with the doctors and the nurses,

連醫護人員都無法 忍受與他呆在一個房間裡，

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

It was intolerable.

味道真的令人難以忍受。

They tried every drug,

他們嘗試了所能想到的各種藥物

every other treatment they could think of.

和每一種治療方法，

After a year, he still smelled putrid.

一年後，他依舊散發腐爛的氣味，

After two years, still smelled putrid.

兩年後，情況依舊，

Three years, four years, still smelled putrid.

三年、四年，還是有濃濃的腐爛氣味，

After five years, it went away on its own.

五年後，臭味自動消失了！

It's a mystery.

此案例至今是個謎。

In New Zealand, Dr. Lianne Parkin

在紐西蘭，莉安 • 帕金博士和她的團隊

and her team tested an old tradition in her city.

在她的城市試驗了一個古老的傳統，

They live in a city that has huge hills,

他們住在一個滿是大山丘的城市，

San Francisco-grade hills.

像舊金山那裡的山丘，

And in the winter there, it gets very cold

在冬季那裡非常寒冷，

and very icy.

冷到結冰，

There are lots of injuries.

所以常常有人滑倒受傷。

The tradition that they tested,

他們試驗的傳統就是：

they tested by asking people

他們請早上去上班的人們，

who were on their way to work in the morning,

to stop and try something out.

停下來進行兩項試驗中的一種，

Try one of two conditions.

The tradition is that in the winter,

這個傳統是：在那個城市的冬天

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

你將襪子穿在靴子的外面。

And what they discovered by experiment,

他們從試驗的生動畫面中發現，

and it was quite graphic when they saw it,

was that it's true.

是真的，

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

如果你將襪子穿在 靴子外面而不是裡面，

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

就比較不容易滑倒。

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

我希望你們會同意，

I've just described to you,

我剛剛談到的這些研究，

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

每一項都應該拿到某種獎項。(笑聲)

And that's what they got,

他們確實有得到，

each of them got an Ig Nobel prize.

剛介紹的每一項都拿到搞笑(Ig)諾貝爾獎，

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

我和一些人在1991年

started the Ig Nobel prize ceremony.

創立了搞笑諾貝爾獎，

Every year we give out 10 prizes.

每一年我們頒發十個搞笑諾貝爾獎，

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

這個獎只有一個簡單的得獎標準，

就是你做的能讓人發笑，然後思考。

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

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

不管是什麼，

當人第一次接觸到它時，

their only possible reaction is to laugh.

他們唯一的反應是笑，

And then a week later,

it's still rattling around in their heads

然後，在一週後，

那件事仍盤踞在他們的腦中，

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

他們唯一想做的就是與朋友分享，

That's the quality we look for.

那就是我們要找的特質。

Every year, we get in the neighborhood

每一年我們收到大約九千件

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

新的搞笑諾貝爾獎提名，

Of those, consistently between 10 percent

其中，一直都有10%到20%

and 20 percent of those nominations

是來自自我推薦。

are people who nominate themselves.

（笑聲）

Those self-nominees almost never win.

這些自行提名的絕少得獎，

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

從數據來看， 就算你很想得獎，得獎的機會微乎其微，

Even if you don't want to,

同樣就算你不想得獎， 得獎的機會還是微乎其微。

it's very difficult numerically.

You should know that when we choose somebody

你知道嗎，當我們選中一個

to win an Ig Nobel prize,

搞笑諾貝爾獎得主，

We get in touch with that person, very quietly.

我們會先私下與他聯絡，

We offer them the chance to decline

我們給他們一個

this great honor if they want to.

拒絕領獎的機會，

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

我們很高興，幾乎每位被選中的得主

decides to accept.

都決定接受這個獎。

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

作為搞笑諾貝爾獎得主， 你會得到什麼呢？

Well, you get several things.

你會得到幾個東西：

You get an Ig Nobel prize.

一個搞笑諾貝爾獎座，

The design is different every year.

每年的獎座設計都不一樣，(笑聲)

These are always handmade from extremely cheap materials.

它們都是用非常便宜的材料手工製成，

You're looking at a picture

你現在看到的是

of the prize we gave last year, 2013.

我們去年(2013)頒發的獎座。

Most prizes in the world also give

世上大多數的獎項

their winners some cash, some money.

都會頒發一些獎金，

We don't have any money,

我們沒有任何經費，所以無法頒獎金。

so we can't give them.

In fact, the winners have to pay their own way

事實上，獲獎者得自費來參加頒獎，

to come to the Ig Nobel ceremony,

which most of them do.

但大部分的人會來。

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

去年，我們湊了一點錢，

Last year, each of the 10 Ig Nobel prize winners

給十位得獎者

received from us 10 trillion dollars.

每一位都十兆元的獎金，十兆元耶！

A $10 trillion bill from Zimbabwe. (Laughter)

一張十兆元的辛巴威紙鈔。(笑聲)

You may remember that Zimbabwe had a little adventure

你可能記得辛巴威 在過去幾年稍有波折，

for a few years there of inflation.

就是通貨膨脹，

They ended up printing bills

他們最後印的紙鈔

that were in denominations as large as 100 trillion dollars.

最高票面金額達十兆元。

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

順便提一下，負責此事的國家銀行總裁

won an Ig Nobel prize in mathematics.

贏得了搞笑諾貝爾獎的數學獎。(笑聲)

The other thing you win is an invitation

另外，你會得到一張 搞笑諾貝爾獎頒獎典禮的邀請函，

to come to the ceremony,

which happens at Harvard University.

典禮是在哈佛大學舉行，

And when you get there,

當你來到哈佛最大的會議室兼教室，

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

It fits 1,100 people,

你會看到在可容納1100千人的會場 擠得水泄不通。

it's jammed to the gills,

and up on the stage,

而在舞台上 等著和你握手並頒獎給你的是

waiting to shake your hand,

waiting to hand you your Ig Nobel prize,

are a bunch of Nobel prize winners.

一堆(真正的)諾貝爾獎得主。

That's the heart of the ceremony.

那是整個典禮的精髓，

The winners are kept secret until that moment,

直到那一刻，獲獎者名單仍是秘密，

even the Nobel laureates who will shake their hand

即使那些會與他們握手的諾貝爾獎得主

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

也不知道誰是得獎者，直到名字被公佈。

I am going to tell you about just a very few

現在我要跟你們分享一些

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

我們頒發的醫療相關獎項，

Keep in mind, we've given 230 prizes.

提醒你我們已頒發了230個獎項。

There are lots of these people who walk among you.

許多得主可能在你們之中，

Maybe you have one.

或者你自己就是。

A paper was published about 30 years ago

30年前，有一篇發表的論文題目是

called "Injuries due to Falling Coconuts."

”墜落的椰子導致的傷害”，

It was written by Dr. Peter Barss,

作者是加拿大的彼得‧巴爾斯醫生，

who is Canadian.

Dr. Barss came to the ceremony

巴爾斯醫生在頒典禮時解釋，

and explained that as a young doctor,

當他是年輕醫生時，想要看看世界，

he wanted to see the world.

So he went to Papua New Guinea.

所以他去了巴布亞紐幾內亞，

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

當他在當地醫院工作時，

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

他很好奇當地人送醫的原因為何？

He looked through the records, and he discovered

他翻閱了醫療記錄後，

that a surprisingly large number of people

驚奇得發現，

in that hospital were there

相當多的病人是因為

because of injuries due to falling coconuts.

被墜落的椰子砸傷而送醫。

One typical thing that happens is

典型的事件經過是：

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

一些來自沒有許多 椰子樹的高地人，

down to visit their relatives on the coast,

來到有許多椰子樹的海邊拜訪親戚，

where there are lots.

And they'll think that a coconut tree

他們想椰子樹下似乎是

is a fine place to stand and maybe lie down.

很適合站立或躺下的地方，

A coconut tree that is 90 feet tall,

椰子樹有27公尺高，

and has coconuts that weigh two pounds

每個椰子約0.9公斤重，隨時可能會掉下來。

that can drop off at any time.

A team of doctors in Europe

有一組在歐洲的醫生

發表了一系列有關大腸鏡檢查的論文，

published a series of papers about colonoscopies.

You're all familiar with colonoscopies,

各位應該對大腸鏡檢查 多少知道一些，

one way or another.

Or in some cases,

有些知道還不止一些。

one way and another.

They, in these papers,

在這些論文裡，

explained to their fellow doctors who perform colonoscopies,

他們對進行大腸鏡檢查的醫生解釋，

如何降低病人進行 大腸鏡檢查時爆炸的機率，

how to minimize the chance

that when you perform a colonoscopy,

your patient will explode. (Laughter)

（笑聲）

Dr. Emmanuel Ben-Soussan

其中一位作者艾曼紐勒‧貝蘇桑醫生

one of the authors,

flew in from Paris to the ceremony,

從巴黎飛來參加頒獎典禮，

where he explained the history of this,

在典禮中，他解釋了有關這方面的歷史，

that in the 1950s,

在1950年代，

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

那時大腸鏡檢查才開始 成為一個普遍的技術，

people were figuring out how to do it well.

大家都在摸索怎麼做最好，

And there were some difficulties at first.

剛開始時有些困難，

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

你們對根本的問題應有些熟悉，

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

你得從一個很長、很窄 又很黑的地方看進去，

And so, you want to have a larger space.

你會希望有比較寬闊的空間，

You add some gas to inflate it

所以你會灌入一些氣體使它膨脹，

so you have room to look around.

讓你有空間可以看清楚，

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

在裡面原已存在甲烷

that's already inside.

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

起初他們大多數灌入氧氣，

So they added oxygen to methane gas.

他們將氧氣加入原有的甲烷相混和，

And then they wanted to be able to see,

然後為了他們能夠看清楚，

they needed light,

他們需要亮光，

so they'd put in a light source,

所以就加上光源，

which in the 1950s was very hot.

在1950年代，光源是很熱的，

So you had methane gas, which is flammable,

就這樣，你有了易燃的甲烷，

oxygen and heat.

氧氣和熱源，

They stopped using oxygen pretty quickly. (Laughter)

他們很快就停用氧氣了。（笑聲）

Now it's rare that patients will explode,

現在，很少有病人會爆炸，

but it does still happen.

但是偶而仍會發生。

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

最後我要告訴你們的是我們頒發給

we gave to Dr. Elena Bodnar.

伊蓮娜‧巴特那醫生的獎項。

Dr. Elena Bodnar invented a brassiere

她發明了一個在緊急時可以 很快拆開變成兩個口罩的胸罩。

that in an emergency

can be quickly separated

into a pair of protective face masks.

One to save your life,

一個可以救你自己的命 ，

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

另外一個可以救很幸運的旁觀者。(笑聲)

Why would someone do this, you might wonder.

你可能會想， 為什麼會有人要做這個？

Dr. Bodnar came to the ceremony

巴特那醫生來到頒獎典禮，她解釋說：

and she explained that she grew up in Ukraine.

她在烏克蘭長大，

She was one of the doctors who treated victims

她是治療車諾比核能廠

of the Chernobyl power plant meltdown.

核災受害者的醫生之一，

And they later discovered that

他們後來發現

a lot of the worst medical problems

許多最嚴重的醫療問題，

came from the particles people breathed in.

So she was always thinking after that

之後她就經常在想，

about could there be some simple mask

若是意外發生時，有什麼是 簡單又隨手可得的口罩，

that was available everywhere when the unexpected happens.

Years later, she moved to America.

多年後，她移居美國

She had a baby,

並生了一個小孩，

One day she looked, and on the floor,

有一天，她看到小孩揀起她在地上的胸罩，

her infant son had picked up her bra,

and had her bra on his face.

並將它放在臉上，

And that's where the idea came from.

那就是她的靈感來源。

She came to the Ig Nobel ceremony

她來參加頒獎典禮時，

with the first prototype of the bra

還帶了第一個原型樣本

and she demonstrated:

現場進行示範。

(Laughter) (Applause)

（笑聲和掌聲）

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

[保羅‧庫格曼，2008年諾貝爾經濟獎得主]

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

[沃爾夫岡‧克特勒，2001年諾貝爾物理獎得主]

I myself own an emergency bra. (Laughter)

我自己也擁有一個緊急用胸罩，(笑聲)

It's my favorite bra,

這是我最喜歡的胸罩，

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

但有需要時，我會很樂意 和你們任何一個人分享。

should the need arise.

Thank you.

謝謝！

(Applause)

(掌聲)