一項涉及訓練鴿子駕駛炸彈的第二次世界大戰項目贏得了今年的諾貝爾和平獎。

搞笑諾貝爾獎由科學幽默雜誌《不可思議的研究年鑑》每年頒發一次，旨在表彰那些「讓人發笑，然後思考」的不尋常的研究領域。

A Second World War project which involved training pigeons to pilot bombs has won this year’s spoof Nobel peace prize.

一項涉及訓練鴿子駕駛炸彈的第二次世界大戰項目贏得了今年的諾貝爾和平獎。

The Ig Nobel gongs – awarded annually by the science humour magazine the Annals of Improbable Research – celebrate unusual areas of research that “make people laugh, then think”.

搞笑諾貝爾獎由科學幽默雜誌《不可思議的研究年鑑》每年頒發一次，旨在表彰那些「讓人發笑，然後思考」的不尋常的研究領域。

Professor Burrhus Frederic Skinner, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota in the US, received the posthumous gong for his work on Project Pigeon, where he was able to teach pigeons to guide missiles with some success.

美國明尼蘇達大學心理學家伯魯斯·弗雷德里克·斯金納教授因其在鴿子計劃中的工作而獲得追授獎，他在該計劃中成功地教鴿子引導導彈。

But the project never took flight because of scepticism from the US military and government officials.

但由於美國軍方和政府官員的懷疑，該計畫從未啟動。

However, Prof Skinner stood by the research, writing in a summary of the project published in 1960: “Call it a crackpot idea if you will. It is one in which I have never lost faith.”

然而，史金納教授支持這項研究，並在 1960 年發表的該計畫摘要中寫道：「如果你願意的話，可以稱其為瘋狂的想法。這是我從未失去信心的一件事。

The anatomy prize went to a team of scientists in France who wanted to investigate whether hair on the heads of most people in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction – clockwise or anticlockwise – as those from the Southern Hemisphere.

解剖學獎頒給了法國的科學家小組，他們想要調查北半球大多數人頭上的頭髮是否與南半球人的頭髮旋轉方向相同（順時針或逆時針）。

Study author Khonsari Roman, professor of maxillofacial surgery at the Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, said: “As a whole, clockwise whorl are considerably more common all over the world.

該研究的作者、巴黎 Necker-Enfants Malades 醫院頜面外科教授 Khonsari Roman 說：「總體而言，順時針螺紋在世界各地更為常見。

“Nevertheless, counter-clockwise whorls seem to be more prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere.”

“儘管如此，逆時針旋轉似乎在南半球更為普遍。”

He said there is may be an “unknown mechanism” that leads to clockwise whorls in general but the team does not yet know why people in the Southern Hemisphere are more likely to have anticlockwise swirls.

他說，可能存在一種「未知的機制」導致整體順時針旋轉，但研究小組還不知道為什麼南半球的人們更有可能出現逆時針旋轉。

The chemistry award was won by a research team who used used a lab technique to separate drunk and sober worms, while US-based scientists Fordyce Ely and William E Petersen were awarded the biology prize for exploding a paper bag next to a cat standing on the back of a cow with aim to understand more about how and when cows spew their milk.

化學獎由研究小組獲得，他們使用實驗室技術分離醉酒和清醒的蠕蟲，而美國科學家福代斯·伊利和威廉·E·彼得森則因在站在貓旁邊的紙袋爆炸而獲得生物學獎。

The two found that cows temporarily stopped ejecting milk when frightened.

兩人發現，乳牛在受到驚嚇時會暫時停止噴奶。

An international team of scientists led by academics in Germany picked up the prize for probability, which involved more than 350,000 coin-flipping experiments totalling 650 hours and using 44 different currencies.

由德國學者領導的國際科學家團隊獲得了機率獎，該團隊涉及超過 35 萬次拋硬幣實驗，總計 650 小時，使用 44 種不同的貨幣。

The team found that when people flip a coin it “wobbles” in the air, making it more likely to land on the same side it started.

研究小組發現，當人們拋硬幣時，它會在空中“搖擺”，使其更有可能落在最初的同一面。

Other awards presented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, US, on Thursday, included the physiology prize for discovering that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus and the physics prize for demonstrating the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

週四在美國波士頓麻省理工學院頒發的其他獎項包括因發現許多哺乳動物能夠透過肛門呼吸而獲得的生理學獎，以及因展示死鱒魚的游泳能力而獲得的物理學獎。

James C Liao, professor of biology at the University of Florida in the US, said in 2004 he discovered that fish swim in a flag like flapping motion when towed behind a cylinder and wanted to see if dead fish did the same.

美國佛羅裡達大學生物學教授詹姆斯·C·廖(James C Liao)表示，2004年，他發現魚被拖在圓柱體後面時會像旗幟一樣擺動，想看看死魚是否也會做同樣的事情。

He said: “The dead fish experiment was a quick way to show that just the shape, slime and flexibility of a (dead) fish is enough for it to harness energy to hold position behind the cylinder and even move forward (by accelerating its body against its own drag).”

他說：「死魚實驗是一種快速方法，表明僅（死）魚的形狀、粘液和靈活性就足以使其利用能量保持在圓柱體後面的位置，甚至向前移動（通過加速其身體）對抗其自身的阻力）。

Prof Liao said that his work could help design better fish passages to help with their migration.

廖教授表示，他的工作可以幫助設計更好的魚類通道，以幫助它們遷移。

Speaking about the award, he said: “I feel surprised and honoured that it (the research) has been recognised after all these years.

談到該獎項，他說：「我感到驚訝和榮幸，它（這項研究）在這麼多年後得到了認可。

“I’m excited for more people to find out about it, because on the surface the experiment sounds ridiculous, but then as you understand it more, the implications of this curiosity-based science discovery are far-ranging and can also improve on things that humans hold dear.”

「我很高興更多的人能夠了解它，因為從表面上看，這個實驗聽起來很荒謬，但當你了解更多時，就會發現這個基於好奇心的科學發現的影響是廣泛的，而且還可以改善事物人類所珍視的。

Meanwhile, the demography gong went to Dr Saul Justin Newman, senior research fellow at University College London, who discovered some people with the longest lives hailed from places that had poor recordkeeping.

與此同時，倫敦大學學院高級研究員索爾·賈斯汀·紐曼博士獲得了人口學獎，他發現一些壽命最長的人來自記錄保存不良的地方。

Dr Newman said he became interested in investigating data on humans who live longer than most after debunking two scientific papers about extreme human ageing.

紐曼博士表示，在揭穿兩篇關於人類極端老化的科學論文後，他開始對研究比大多數人壽命更長的人類數據感興趣。

He said: “I found that extreme age records appear to be dominantly errors.

他說：「我發現極端年齡記錄似乎主要是錯誤。

“These errors are apparent from unusual patterns in individual cases, scientific studies and entire populations.

「從個別案例、科學研究和整個人群的異常模式來看，這些錯誤是顯而易見的。

“For example, the world’s oldest man, Jiroemon Kimura, has an extraordinary number of biographical anomalies and has three reported birthdays: one that seems to have been forged, one that was a typographic error inserted by demographers, and one that is supposedly real.”

「例如，世界上最長壽的人木村次郎右衛門的傳記異常數量驚人，並且有三個報告的生日：一個似乎是偽造的，一個是人口學家插入的印刷錯誤，還有一個據說是真實的。

Dr Newman said these anomalies are even larger when analysed across populations.

紐曼醫師表示，對不同族群進行分析時，這些異常現象甚至更大。

He said: “Reaching extreme ages is predicted by higher rates of poverty, higher rates of old-age poverty, not having a birth certificate, and amazingly, by having fewer 90-plus year olds in a region, that is, the more 90 year-olds there are in a region, the fewer 105-year-olds.”

他說：「達到極端年齡的原因包括更高的貧困率、更高的老年貧困率、沒有出生證明，而且令人驚訝的是，一個地區90歲以上的人口較少，也就是說，90歲以上的人口較多。

Dr Newman said many of these people live in regions known as “blue zones” such as Okinawa in Japan,

紐曼博士說，其中許多人生活在被稱為「藍色區域」的地區，例如日本沖繩，