{"id":60,"date":"2006-10-06T23:49:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-07T03:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=60"},"modified":"2008-08-05T10:47:47","modified_gmt":"2008-08-05T14:47:47","slug":"fingers-on-chalkboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"Fingers on chalkboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

The wild and wacky–and even useless–is honored annually at the Ig Nobels<\/a>. Here’s an article about just a few of those “honored.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The sound sets teeth on edge, makes skin crawl and sends a shiver down the spine. Just thinking about it gives some people the heebie-jeebies.<\/p>\n

But what is it about the sound of fingernails scratching on a blackboard that elicits such a universal reaction?<\/p>\n

Randolph Blake and two colleagues think they know – the sound’s frequency level.<\/p>\n

Their research has earned them an Ig Nobel, the annual award given at Harvard University by Annals of Improbable Research magazine for weird, whacky and sometimes worthless scientific research.<\/p>\n

This year’s winners include a doctor who put his finger on a cure for hiccups; two men who think there is something to the old adage that feet smell like cheese; and researchers who discovered that dung beetles won’t tuck in to just any old pile of . . . well, dung.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wild and wacky–and even useless–is honored annually at the Ig Nobels. Here’s an article about just a few of those “honored.” The sound sets teeth on edge, makes skin crawl and sends a shiver down the spine. Just thinking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":737,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=737","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":0},"title":"Ig Nobles 2008","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ig Nobles 2008 were recently awarded! Don't know what I'm talking about? \"The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":963,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=963","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":1},"title":"“Science will be honored.”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday he wants to launch a \"new era\" of science education in the United States, one that encourages students to ask tough, challenging questions and brings more specially trained science and math teachers into the classroom. Duncan told the National Science\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=963#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=44","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":2},"title":"Florida biologist honored with “genius grant”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations to Edith Widder for obtaining a MacArthur Fellow. Edith Widder is a biologist and deep-sea explorer who combines expertise in oceanographic research and technological innovation with commitment to reversing the worldwide trend of marine ecosystem degradation. More information on the MacArthur Fellowship. The MacArthur Fellowship is a five-year grant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":275,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=275","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":3},"title":"Fact or fiction?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Daniel W. Jarvis writes a regular column for a Marco Island community newspaper. I stumbled across his most recent piece, which announces that he will be poking evolution with a stick in his next few columns and promoting intelligent design. This first column doesn't present much hope for the series\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1357,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1357","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":4},"title":"Lots of science happening in Florida!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"-- Florida teacher wins 2011 Outstanding Biology Teacher Award from The National Association of Biology Teachers [Stephen M.] Anand teaches Advanced Biology and Honors Biology at A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts. ... He also coordinates a yearly Marine Research Development Trip to Key Largo for his students and has\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1271,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1271","url_meta":{"origin":60,"position":5},"title":"Evolution “caught in the act!” Quick, notify Senator Wise!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida citizens: You have a mission! Senator Wise is very busy, and so he may not be aware of some rebellious researchers lurking in Gainesville. These lab-coat wearing troublemakers are stomping all over Sen. Wise's turf. They are daring to (gasp) conduct research on (gulp) EVOLUTION! We need to let\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}