The annual Ig Nobel awards were presented last night

Previous prizes have been awarded to researchers who discovered that Viagra helps hamsters overcome jet-lag, studied how sheets wrinkle, and uncovered homosexual necrophiliac behaviour in the mallard duck.

However, there was agitation over the chemistry prize; this year awarded jointly to rival teams -- one from the United States which determined Coca-Cola to be an effective spermicide and one from Taiwan which proved it is not.

The medicine prize went to Dan Ariely of Duke University for demonstrating that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine.

Other winners included research into how to make potato crisps sound fresher when eaten, a paper on training amoeba to solve puzzles and the literature prize for the paper "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations."

Hey! it makes a change from all those repetitive Palin threads :)