The IgNobel Prizes, by Marc Abrahams (Orion, £9.99)
HELLO, small boys everywhere. This one's for you. The IgNobel Prizes celebrate all that is bizarre, weird and - frankly - improbable in real-life scientific research.
Awarded annually, Ig Prize winners of the past 10 years include vitally-important real projects from around the globe such as "Nose-picking in Adolescents" and "The Collapse of Toilet Seats in Glasgow."
Get the picture? There's worse, much worse - or better, depending on your view of this particularly crazy, surreal world.
How about award-winning physicist, Britain's Len Fisher, who won an Ig in 1999 for his research into the optimal way to dunk a doughnut? You think this is a joke? We've only just started.
No. On second thoughts, this should stop right now. But not before leaving you with this parting shot- the case of the inventor who, tormented by his wife's relentless, chronic flatulence, designed a range of charcoal-filled underwear to combat the problem.
Now there was a man who had a nose for success...
John Phillpott
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