2024 年搞笑诺贝尔奖：“神风”鸽子、逆流而上的死鱼等等

本周荣获搞笑诺贝尔奖的一系列奇异研究包括一项训练鸽子驾驶炸弹的实验和另一项解释死鱼如何逆流而上的实验。

The Ig Nobel prizes, awarded this week, celebrate bizarre research that sparks an interest in science. Here are some highlights.

本周颁发的搞笑诺贝尔奖旨在表彰激发人们对科学兴趣的奇异研究。以下是一些亮点。

An experiment that trained pigeons to pilot bombs and another that explained how dead fish can swim upstream are among a slew of bizarre research that was awarded Ig Nobel prizes this week.

本周荣获搞笑诺贝尔奖的一系列奇异研究包括一项训练鸽子驾驶炸弹的实验和另一项解释死鱼如何逆流而上的实验。

Organised by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, the annual prize ceremony held at Harvard University celebrates hilarious research that spurs interest in science. And the awards are presented by genuine Nobel laureates.

由《不可思议的研究年鉴》杂志主办的哈佛大学年度颁奖典礼旨在庆祝激发人们对科学兴趣的搞笑研究。这些奖项是由真正的诺贝尔奖获得者颁发的。

Among the other eight winners was a team that showed how the hair on your head swirls in a different direction depending on whether you live in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.

其他八名获胜者中的一个团队展示了你头上的头发如何根据你生活在北半球还是南半球而向不同方向旋转。

A study showing how painful side-effects can make fake medicine more effective, and another revealing a flipped coin is more likely to land on the same side it started on, also got a gong.

一项研究表明，痛苦的副作用如何使假药更有效，另一项研究表明，翻转的硬币更有可能落在它开始的同一面，也获得了好评。

As did scientists who popped paper bags next to a cat standing on a cow, and those who revealed how mammals can breathe through their anus — in an emergency.

科学家们将纸袋放在站在牛身上的猫旁边，以及揭示哺乳动物如何在紧急情况下通过肛门呼吸的科学家们也是如此。

'Kamikaze' pigeons

“神风”鸽子

The psychologist and inventor BF Skinner is best known for his theory of "operant conditioning", that says you can use rewards to teach behaviour.

心理学家和发明家 BF Skinner 以其“操作性条件反射”理论而闻名，该理论认为可以使用奖励来教导行为。

It's an idea he put into practice in the 1940s, when he trained pigeons to guide bombs to their target.

他在 20 世纪 40 年代将这个想法付诸实践，当时他训练鸽子引导炸弹飞向目标。

Dr Skinner obtained pigeons for his experiments from racing fanciers and a farmer.

斯金纳博士从赛鸽爱好者和农民那里获得了用于实验的鸽子。

(Getty Images: Bettmann/Contributor)

（盖蒂图片社：贝特曼/贡献者）

One of Dr Skinner's daughters, Julie Vargas, a behaviour analyst herself, explained:

斯金纳博士的女儿朱莉·瓦尔加斯（Julie Vargas）本人也是一名行为分析师，她解释道：

"During World War II, my father wanted to help the war effort.

“第二次世界大战期间，我父亲想为战争提供帮助。

"Pilots were having a hard time hitting enemy ships. They had to get so low to hit the target properly they often lost their lives."

“飞行员很难击中敌舰。他们必须飞得很低才能正确击中目标，因此常常丧生。”

Enter the top-secret Project Pigeon.

输入绝密的鸽子计划。

While pondering missile guidance systems, Dr Skinner became inspired by the deft manoeuvring of birds in the sky. 

在思考导弹制导系统时，斯金纳博士受到天空中鸟类灵巧机动的启发。

He thought they could be used to pilot bombs and initially tried training crows, "but they were too aggressive", Dr Vargas said. 

瓦尔加斯博士说，他认为它们可以用来驾驶炸弹，并最初尝试训练乌鸦，“但它们太具有攻击性”。

So Dr Skinner decided to train a set of "kamikaze" pigeons, and built a contraption that fitted on the front of a missile to accommodate avian pilots.

因此，斯金纳博士决定训练一组“神风特攻队”鸽子，并建造了一个装置，安装在导弹的前部，以容纳鸟类飞行员。

He then used movies to train each pigeon to steer a missile towards a ship. The bird had to peck repeatedly on the image of a ship as it got bigger in the screen (as it would in real life as the bomb fell through the air) to be rewarded with food.

然后，他用电影训练每只鸽子引导导弹飞向一艘船。当屏幕上的船只变大时，这只鸟必须反复啄食船只的图像（就像现实生活中炸弹从空中落下时一样）才能获得食物奖励。

Despite initial scepticism, Dr Skinner got several grants for his feasibility study.

尽管最初持怀疑态度，斯金纳博士的可行性研究还是获得了几笔资助。

Although electronic guidance systems won out in the end, the same kind of methods have been used to train birds to identify survivors at sea, Dr Vargas said.

瓦尔加斯博士说，尽管电子制导系统最终获胜，但同样的方法也被用来训练鸟类识别海上幸存者。

Dr Skinner's work was eventually declassified and described in a 1960 issue of American Psychologist where he wrote:

斯金纳博士的工作最终被解密，并在 1960 年出版的《美国心理学家》中进行了描述，他写道：

The ethical question of our right to convert a lower creature into an unwitting hero is a peacetime luxury.

我们有权将低等生物转变为不知情的英雄，这一道德问题是和平时期的奢侈。

In recognition, his work was awarded the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize for Peace.

为了表彰他的作品，他被授予 2024 年搞笑诺贝尔和平奖。

How dead trout 'swim'

死鳟鱼是如何“游泳”的

As a child, James Liao, a biologist at the University of Florida, used to ponder why some fish love swimming behind rocks in a stream.

佛罗里达大学的生物学家詹姆斯·廖（James Liao）小时候经常思考为什么有些鱼喜欢在溪流中的岩石后面游泳。

Fast forward to the 21st century and he found himself defrosting a dead trout to find out.

快进到 21 世纪，他发现自己正在解冻一条死鳟鱼来找出答案。

This was part of an experiment where he first analysed the behaviour of live rainbow trout in a tank full of flowing water. To simulate a rock in a stream, he placed a cylinder in the tank upstream from the fish.

这是实验的一部分，他首先分析了活虹鳟鱼在装满流动水的水箱中的行为。为了模拟溪流中的岩石，他在鱼的上游放置了一个圆柱体。

The trout swam forward but appeared to have a ultra-relaxed and passive swimming style.

鳟鱼向前游动，但游动方式却显得极其放松和被动。

"It was this weird sashaying movement that looked like a flag flapping in the wind," Professor Liao said.

“这种奇怪的摇晃动作看起来就像一面旗帜在风中飘扬，”廖教授说。

He had a hunch that it would be useful to look at what happened when he tied a dead trout downstream from the cylinder instead.

他有预感，如果他把一条死鳟鱼绑在圆筒下游，看看会发生什么，这会很有用。

Lo and behold, the deceased fish also "swam" forward against the flow.

瞧，死去的鱼也逆流“游”了过去。

The dead fish looked just like the live fish swimming, Professor Liao said: "They were almost indistinguishable." 

死鱼看起来就像游动的活鱼，廖教授说：“它们几乎无法区分。”

His analysis showed that the energy for the movement of the fish — dead or alive — came from swirling eddies created by the presence of the cylinder.

他的分析表明，鱼的运动能量（无论是死的还是活的）都来自于圆柱体的存在所产生的漩涡。

As the eddies hit the body of the fish first this way then that, the animal moved forward against the flow without having to use its muscles.

当漩涡先这样冲击鱼的身体，然后再那样冲击鱼的身体时，鱼就可以逆着水流向前移动，而无需使用其肌肉。

Professor Liao likened the movement to surfing instead of swimming, or changing the angle of a sail to catch the wind and tack across a bay in a boat.

廖教授将这一运动比作冲浪而不是游泳，或者改变船帆的角度以乘风而行，乘船驶过海湾。

It means fish use the energy of water swirling behind rocks to swim upstream, and is what helps migratory species such as salmon cover long distances up rivers and streams, Professor Liao said.

廖教授说，这意味着鱼类利用岩石后面旋转的水的能量向上游游动，这有助于鲑鱼等迁徙物种沿着河流和溪流长途跋涉。

Professor Liao was awarded the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics.

廖教授荣获2024年搞笑诺贝尔物理学奖。

Hair in the hemispheres

半球的头发

There's been a lot of debate over the decades whether water spirals down the plug hole one way in the

几十年来，人们一直在争论水是否以一种方式沿着塞孔螺旋流下。