news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051007/ap_on_fe_st/ig_nobels
Fake Dog Testicle Creator By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 7, 9:04 AM ET BOSTON - Gregg Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards t o mass produce his invention prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs.
What started 10 years ago with an experiment on an unwitting Rottweiler n amed Max has turned into a thriving mail-order business. And on Thursday night Miller's efforts earned him a dubious yet strangely coveted honor : the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine. "Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honor," he said. The Ig Nobels, given at Harvard University by Annals of Improbable Resear ch magazine, celebrate the humorous, creative and odd side of science. Miller has sold more than 150,000 of his Neuticles, more than doubling hi s $500,000 investment. The silicone implants come in different sizes, sh apes, weights and degrees of firmness. The product's Web site says Neuticles allow a pet "to retain his natural look" and "self esteem." Although the Ig Nobels are not exactly prestigious, many recipients are, like Miller, happy to win. "Most scientists no matter what they're doing, good or bad never get any attention at all," said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Impro bable Research. Some, like Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide in Australia, who won the biology prize, actually nominated their own work. "I've been a fan of the Ig Nobels for a while," he said. Smith's team studied and catalogued different scents emitted by more than 100 species of frogs under stress. Some smelled like cashews, while oth ers smelled like licorice, mint or rotting fish. He recalled getting strange looks when he'd show up at zoos asking to sme ll the frogs. This year's other Ig Nobel winners include: PHYSICS: Since 1927, researchers at the University of Queensland in Aus tralia have been tracking a glob of congealed black tar as it drips thro ugh a funnel at a rate of one drop every nine years. PEACE: Two researchers at Newcastle University in England monitored the brain activity of locusts as they watched clips from the movie "Star Wa rs." CHEMISTRY: An experiment at the University of Minnesota was designed to prove whether people can swim faster or slower in syrup than in water. The Ig Nobel for literature went to the Nigerians who introduced millions of e-mail users to a "cast of rich characters ... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the grea t wealth to which they are entitled."
This handout photograph, provided by the subject, shows Gregg Miller with Buck, a bloodhound, in April, 2001 at home in Buckner, Mo Miller m ortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards to mass produce his inv ention, prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs. Miller was honored as pa rt of Harvard's IG Nobel Awards, which is a spoof on the Nobel Prize awa rds, whcih combine humor with scientific discovery.
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