„The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten achievements that „first make people laugh, and then make them think.“ Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater.
The name is a play on the word ignoble („characterized by baseness, lowness, or meanness“) and the name „Nobel“ after Alfred Nobel. The official pronunciation used during the ceremony is /ˌɪɡnoʊˈbɛl/ „ig-no-bell“. It is not pronounced like the word „ignoble“ (/ɪɡˈnoʊbəl/).“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize
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