搞笑诺贝尔奖背后的深意

    日本科学家在化学领域的表现尤为耀眼。当初，金泽大学（Kanazawa University）冶金学家广濑由纪夫着手研究为什么小鸟总是要避开当地公园的一尊金属雕像时，他并不知道这样的研究会给世界各地的人们带来欢乐。现在，他看出了这项研究的可笑之处，并于2003年满怀感激地接受了颁发给他的搞笑诺贝尔奖。“大多数情况下，入选的日本人都非常乐意参加评奖活动，”亚伯拉罕说。“也有一些人不情愿参与……”但他突然停顿下来，不愿进一步讨论细节。

    一些人非常喜欢暴露在媒体的聚光灯之下。就这一点而言，中松博士是一位“独一无二的”获奖者，“最重要的是，他是奥兹国的魔法师（Wizard of Oz），”亚伯拉罕说。谦虚平和的中松博士（真名是中松义郎）曾经发明过软驱、传真，并拥有3,000多项其他的发明专利。在搞笑诺贝尔获奖者群体中，他的确独具一格，自成一派。2005年，因拍摄并分析34年来所吃的每一顿饭，这位84岁的老人荣膺营养学奖。

    他在日本是最受国人欢迎的发明怪才，经常在水下屏住呼吸，“在距离死亡之神仅有0.5秒的时候，”获得发明灵感。他有很多疯狂的创新方式，他说，日本的发明天才亦是如此。他解释说：“日本有许多创新者，因为我们的自然资源非常贫瘠，所以我们必须充分运用我们的智慧和人力资源。”

    现在，中松义郎正忙着完成人类的自我拯救，因为他看到人们都在担心能源问题。为了这个目的，他声称他已经发明了一种空调，它耗用的能源仅是传统空调的1%。正如搞笑诺贝尔奖所言，无论能否得到验证，我们都需要中松义郎这样的人从事“乍看令人发笑，细想发人深省的”研究工作。

    译者：任文科

    Japanese scientists have done particularly well in chemistry. Unknowing his research into why birds, literally, gave a miss to a metal statue in his local park would induce mirth worldwide, Yukio Hirose, a metallurgist at Kanazawa University, now sees the joke and gratefully received his prize in 2003. "The Japanese selected have been good sports for the most part," says Abrahams. "There were some who would not take part…" but he is quick to draw a veil over the details.

    Some reveled especially in the media spotlight. The prize winner for that has to be "the one and only" Dr. NakaMats says Abrahams. "He is, above all, the Wizard of Oz." Modestly claiming to have invented the floppy disk, the fax and have patented over 3,000 other inventions beside, Dr. NakaMats, whose real name is Yoshiro Nakamatsu, is in a class of his own when it comes to Ig noble prize winners. In 2005 the 84-year-old won the Nutrition prize for photographing and analyzing every meal had eaten over 34 years.

    He is better known in Japan as the country's favorite eccentric boffin who gets his ideas "while 0.5 seconds from death" holding his breath underwater. There is, he says, much method in his madness and the genius of Japanese invention. "There are many innovators in Japan. Because we are very poor in natural resources so we must use our intelligence and human resources," he explains.

    Nakamatsu is now busy trying to save ourselves from ourselves as he watches humanity flail around fretting over energy. To such ends he claims he has invented an air-conditioner that uses just 1% of energy used by conventional units. Verifiable or not we need people like Dr. NakaMats to, as the Ig Nobles put it, "make people laugh, and then make them think."