Why Don’t Pregnant Women Tip Over?

Important scientific discoveries—including answers to the questions “Why don’t pregnant women tip over?” and “Is it better to be hit over the head by a full or empty beer bottle?”—were recognized Thursday at the Ig Nobel prize ceremony at Harvard. One laureate, Catherine Douglas, was cited for her extensive study demonstrating that cows with names produce more milk; another, Katharine Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, won her prize for her revolutionary discovery that pregnant women don’t tip over due to an extra wedge-shaped vertebra not present in men (flying in the face of the conventional wisdom that their “bigger bums” provide counterweight). The peace prize went to scientists from the University of Berne, who found that it takes less force to break a full beer bottle, but that empty or full, the bottle can fracture your skull. The Ig Nobels, given out a week before the Nobel Prizes, are intended to recognize “research that makes people laugh and then think.”