* The 2009 Ig Nobel prize in Economics went to the management and auditors of four Icelandic banks--Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and the Central Bank of Iceland, "for experimentally demonstrating that financial market fluctuations can rapidly transform very small banks into very large banks, then rapidly reverse the process... thereby demolishing the national economy." (New Scientist)
* The 2009 Ig Nobel prize in Mathematics went to Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, "who imbued his compatriots with a sophisticated understanding of large numbers by printing the national currency in denominations ranging from 1 cent to 100 trillion dollars as the country's inflation rate soared to 231 million percent." (New Scientist)
* The 2009 Ig Nobel prize in Public Health went to Elena Bodnar of the University of Chicago medical school for her creation of a dual-use bra. Bodnar lived in the Ukraine at the time of the Chernobyl accident. She designed and patented a bra with cups that can double as a pair of gas masks--in case of a nuclear accident, a bioterrorist attack, or a smoky fire, the wearer can quickly detach the two cups, fasten one over his or her mouth and nose for protection, and hand the other to a needy bystander.
* The 2009 Ig Nobel prize in Veterinary Medicine went to U.K.-based researchers Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University's agriculture school. Surveying 516 dairy farmers, they found that cows that were regularly called by names yielded significantly more milk than those that remained anonymous. Cows "feel happier and more relaxed if they are given a bit more one-to-one attention," helping them produce more milk, Douglas said.
* The 2009 Ig Nobel prize in Biology went to Fumiaki Taguchi and colleagues at Kitasato University in Japan for showing how bacteria extracted from giant panda droppings can reduce the mass of kitchen waste by more than 90 percent; the findings were published in the Journal of the Japan Society of Waste Management Experts.