A man who spent three days in the Swiss Alps living as a mountain goat has received an Ig Nobel prize for the silliest scientific research.
While he recalled his time as a goat fondly, particularly bonding with a "goat buddy", he conceded that the whole idea was "bizarre."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Thwaites shared his biology prize with another Brit with a penchant for animal role-play. Charles Foster, a fellow at the University of Oxford, spent months living like as a variety of animals and was even chased by bloodhounds while mimicking a deer, according to Phys.org.
The Ig Nobel awards were inspired by the US science humour magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, and have been handed out annually in a ceremony at Harvard University for 26 years. Winners receive $10trn – unfortunately, that's Zimbabwean dollars, which are currently almost worthless.
Although the experiments might sound ridiculous – and, in the case of the "goat man", look ridiculous too - "a lot of it - when examined closely - is actually intended to tackle real-world problems", the BBC reports.
How do you find out who wears in the trousers in a family of rats? Egyptian urologist Dr Ahmed Shafik set out to answer the question, managing to wrangle rodents into cotton, wool and cotton-polyester blend trousers "in order to study the garments' effects on their sex lives", the Daily Telegraph reports.
His conclusion – that the rats wearing polyester were less sexually active – is unlikely to alter the face of science, but it did earn Shafik an Ig Nobel prize.
Other winners at Thursday night's ceremony were a team of economists who studied the personality traits volunteers ascribed to different coloured rocks and a Swedish man who penned three novels about his passion for collecting hoverflies.
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weaponsThe Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarrayIn the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
