I suppose everyone has one or two guilty presures and, for me it is Ig nobel. I have to admit I absolutely love it, because it demonstrates in a funny way the importance of looking things differently and give it a go if you find it interesting. Besides I think many of the prize winners are fairly good researchers. One of this year’s winner investigated the side effects of sword swallowing, which appeared in a respectable medical journal BMJ. Another this year’s winner is a study on how Viagra can help the recovery from Jet lag in hamsters. This is also a serious stuff and the result was even covered by Times (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1821279.ece).

I was pleased to know that one of the prize winner was Japanese, and Japanese newspapers gave fair amount of coverage to it. Let me quote a passage from Science.

“Ice cream may never be the same now that Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan has discovered how to extract vanillin, the essence of vanilla flavor, from cow dung. Don’t pooh-pooh Yamamoto’s accomplishment. It may not win her a Nobel Prize, but it has netted her an honor equally exclusive. “

According to a Japanese newspaper, such technology is possible because vanilla is extracted from plants which cows eat. Although she admits that vanilla extracted from her method may not be suitable for ice cream, it can be an inspiration for chemists who are working on renewable resources.