Ig Nobel prize for calculating when to gossip

Ig Nobel prize for calculating when to gossip

Can you calculate how to gossip? And what did the ancient Mayans do with enemas and alcohol? Dutch researchers won no less than three Ig Nobel prizes last night. 

For the thirty-second time, the Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded. These go to research that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. The ‘Peace Prize’ goes to a scientific model for gossips. When is it better to tell the truth and when does a lie work in your favour? The researchers calculated it for a few simple situations.
 

Heart palpitations
The Ig Nobel prize for ‘applied cardiology’ also went to Dutch scientists. When two people go on a blind date and they feel attracted to each other, their heartbeats start to synchronise: their hearts beat in the same rhythm. This has been concluded by researchers from Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam.

Other award-winning research also has a Dutch touch. What about those depictions of enema rituals on Mayan pottery? The authors deduce that the Mayans probably took their alcohol anally and received the Ig Nobel Prize in art history for that. (HOP, BB)