After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure.

The team is among 10 recognised in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. They are not to be confused with the more lucrative and career-changing Nobel prizes to be handed out in Scandinavia next month.

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      226 days ago

      The Ig in the Ig Nobel prize stands for nothing. It’s supposed to reference the word ignobel. The Ig Nobel prize is a parody of the actual Nobel Prize

    • @[email protected]
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      6 days ago

      I don’t think it does. Push the name together, switch order of two letters, and it is ignoble. The name is a riff on the Nobel Prize.