Vibrating a slightly intoxicated earthworm on a sub-woofer speaker in a rural Victorian backyard shed – where experiments were conducted because of the COVID situation – has earnedARC Future Fellow, Dr IvanMaksymov, and Dr Andrey Pototsky, both from the Swinburne University of Technology, the Ig Nobel award in Physics. Dr Maksymov is a physicist and an associate investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), while Dr Pototsky is a Senior Lecturer in AppliedMathematics. Their esoteric experiment was recognisedwith the award of an ‘Ig Nobel’ prize, one of just ten presented internationally in 2020 to researchers that showcase creative and different approaches to solving serious and complicated problems. Their workwas designed to investigate a hypothesis that the brain not only functions using nerve-based electric pulses, but also through acousto-mechanical signals (soundwaves). Earthworms are ideal for such experiments because they are inexpensive, their axons (nerve fibres) are somewhat similar to human nerve fibres, and usingworms does not require special ethics approval. Also, Dr Maksymov says: ‘One can easily anaesthetise a worm using vodka.’ ‘We used a laser to illuminate the worm and a photodetector to collect the reflected light. The intensity of the reflected light was periodically changed due to the ripples on the surface of the worm, which allowed us to investigate their frequency, amplitude and other parameters that physicists usuallywant to know.’ As a result of the vibratingworm experiment in the backyard shed, the researchers say that exciting newdevelopments in soft-bodied robotics and mechatronics could be explored. ‘Significantly,’ adds Dr Maksymov, ‘the earthworms recovered after our experiments andwere released into a worm farm.’ IG NOBLE PRIZE FOR RESEARCH USING INTOXICATED WORMS
THE WORLDWIDE IG NOBEL AWARDS (FOR IMPROBABLE RESEARCH) SHOWCASE CREATIVE AND DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO SOLVING SERIOUS AND COMPLICATED PROBLEMS. THE NAME OF THE AWARD IS A PUN ON THE NOBEL PRIZE, WHICH IT PARODIES, AND THE WORD ‘IGNOBLE’. THEY HAVE BEEN RUN BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY SINCE 1991 TO ‘FIRST MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH, AND THEN MAKE THEM THINK’.
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DISCOVERY AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH
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