A researcher from Boston was awarded an Ig prize this week for discovering that Coke, when made with real sugar, explodes sperm. The next time sperm try to launch an offensive attack, you all know what to do...
Although the Ig prize is a joke, the study was definitely real.
Awarded by the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research, the prizes are based on published research, some intended to be humorous but often not. Usually the "honoured" researchers go along with the joke.
Deborah Anderson of Boston University Medical Centre and colleagues were awarded the chemistry prize for a 1985 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found Coca-Cola kills sperm.
It definitely wouldn't work as a contraceptive because sperm swims so fast," she said.
But Coke made with sugar does kills sperm, probably because sperm soak it up. "The sperm just kind of explode."
Nice! Other Ig prizes this year include an economics award for discovering tha lap dancers earn the most money at times when they're most fertile, and a biology prize for researchers who found that dog fleas can jump higher than cat fleas.
Congrats to all the winners.