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A Japanese team of scientists was recently awarded an Ig Nobel in the field of chemistry for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency.

The Ig Nobel prize is granted to researchers who “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” The wasabi alarm is at first ridiculous, but is actually a lifesaving invention useful for alerting the deaf.

With this Ig Nobel award, Japanese researchers have received Ig Nobels for five straight years. In the entire 21 year history of the Ig Nobel awards, Japan has received fifteen prizes.

For creating the bowlingual, a translation device for communicating with dogs

1999, Chemistry

Takeshi Makino, president of The Safety Detective Agency in Osaka, Japan

For developing a spray you apply on men’s underwear to check whether they have been cheating on their wives

1997, Economics

Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita

For inventing the Tamagotchi and “diverting millions of person-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets”

1995, Psychology

Shigeru Watanabe, Junko Sakamoto, and Masumi Wakita

For training pigeons to discriminate between Picasso and Monet paintings

Congratulations to all the winners this year and another round of applause to the fabulous research Japanese people have put their time and efforts into in the past two decades. While the recent trends seem to have drifted from peace to poop and slime mold, we commend you!