Plastic Dog Testicle Creator Wins Nobel Prize For Medicine

[matcom]

<snip>

BOSTON --Gregg Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards to mass produce his invention -- prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs.

What started 10 years ago with an experiment on an unwitting Rottweiler named Max has turned into a thriving mail-order business. And on Thursday night Miller's efforts earned him a dubious yet strangely coveted honor: the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine.

"Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honor," he said. "I wish they were alive to see it."

The Ig Nobels, given at Harvard University by Annals of Improbable Research magazine, celebrate the humorous, creative and odd side of science.

Miller has sold more than 150,000 of his Neuticles, more than doubling his $500,000 investment. The silicone implants come in different sizes, shapes, weights and degrees of firmness.

The product's Web site says Neuticles allow a pet "to retain his natural look" and "self esteem."

Although the Ig Nobels are not exactly prestigious, many recipients are, like Miller, happy to win.

"Most scientists -- no matter what they're doing, good or bad -- never get any attention at all," said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research.

Some, like Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide in Australia, who won the biology prize, actually nominated their own work. "I've been a fan of the Ig Nobels for a while," he said.

Smith's team studied and catalogued different scents emitted by more than 100 species of frogs under stress. Some smelled like cashews, while others smelled like licorice, mint or rotting fish.

He recalled getting strange looks when he'd show up at zoos asking to smell the frogs. "I've been turned away at the gate," he said.

This year's other Ig Nobel winners include:

-- PHYSICS: Since 1927, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have been tracking a glob of congealed black tar as it drips through a funnel -- at a rate of one drop every nine years.

-- PEACE: Two researchers at Newcastle University in England monitored the brain activity of locusts as they watched clips from the movie "Star Wars."

-- CHEMISTRY: An experiment at the University of Minnesota was designed to prove whether people can swim faster or slower in syrup than in water.

The Ig Nobel for literature went to the Nigerians who introduced millions of e-mail users to a "cast of rich characters ... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled."

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/10/06/inventor_of_fake_dog_testicles_wins_award?mode=PF

[jane_pippin]

1. here are some gems from the neuticles site:

Media talks about Neuticles:
"Neuticles are just plain neat!"
Rush Limbaugh

http://www.neuticles.com/index1.html

Customers talk about Neuticles:
"I've put off neutering "Crooked Joe" for months and when I found out about Neuticles and spoke to them it made me feel better about neutering. Joe not only looks the same now- but dosen't know he's missing anything."
Jeff Lane
Oak Park, Ill

http://www.neuticles.com/index1.html

Going Going Nuts, book by Creator of Neuticles:
Excerpt:
Page 80

Forty months had passed since Dad had moved in. He was as healthy and happy as a four year old in a sand pile. He lived up to the name of Wacky Pappy in every sense of the word during his every waking moment.

Dad wanted to do things normal and right and thought he did. He still thought he was completely normal. He would anger easily if crossed and would do things beyond imagination.

I had fed Buck his usual three scoops of dry dog food and a half can of meaty Alpo. He wouldn't eat just dry. So, the moist Alpo was mixed in with the dry which made it to his liking.

I had placed the half empty can of Alpo on the counter to answer the phone. Upon my return Dad had eaten the contents of the can with his fingers and was grabbing handfuls of Bucks food from his bowl -eating it like caramel popcorn.

"Mmmm- this is good," he said, popping another piece into his mouth.

http://www.goinggoingnuts.com/excerpts.html#80

[underpants]

2. More ... ... ...from YESTERDAY

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4111543