2014 Ig Nobel awards honor nasal tampons made of bacon

Here, Nobel-winning economist Eric Maskin delivers a 24/7 lecture, in which he explains his research in 24 seconds, then in seven words.

Improbable Research

The 24th Ig Nobel prizes were awarded last night, recognizing scientific research that “first makes people laugh and then makes them think."

The traditionally elaborate ceremony's entertainment included the Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest, two Paper Airplane Deluges, and an opera set to the music of Mozart and called What's Eating You, "about people who stop eating food and instead nourish themselves exclusively with pills."

The awards for individual categories were presented at Harvard University by "a group of genuine, genuinely bemused Nobel Laureates." All but one of the teams managed to get representatives to Boston to receive the awards in person (and the group that couldn't make it appeared by video).