Is this the most ridiculously looking scientific discovery of all time?

This is Gary Dryfoos demonstrating one of the 2014 Ig Noble prizes: Use bacon "to stop uncontrollable, life-threatening nosebleeds." Seriously, it's a real research paper and it has already saved lives. Watch the ceremony to see the most ridiculous—but sometimes crucial and enlightening—scientific research of 2014.

Here's a list, linking to the original peer-reviewed research papers:

• Watching a beautiful painting can soften your pain (VanGogh works pretty well.)
• Bacon to stop uncontrollable nosebleeds (it works.)
• Calculation of the friction coefficient under a banana peel (bananas can kill Godzilla.)
• The dangers of having cats for your mental health (crazy cat lady is not a myth.)
• Dogs are sensitive to the variations on Earth's magnetic fields (woof!)
• How reindeers react to polar bears (the scientists actually dressed as polar bears to try this.)
• How to use bacteria from baby poop to cure meat (this is actually delicious.)
• Economy Ig Nobel went to Italy and how they included prostitution, illegal drug sales, contraband and other illegal transactions to increase their GDP (Berlusconi's bunga-bunga parties are probably included too.)

The Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine last Thursday at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

AP Photo by Charles Krupa

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