This is the winner of the Ig Nobel prize in Fluid Dynamics: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of International University Bremen, Germany and the University of Oulu , Finland; and Jozsef Gal of Loránd Eötvös University, Hungary, for using basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation." Here is more detail, in case you don’t remember why you decided to read history as an undergraduate.
Oh, thank you for posting this... Although it is hardly "serious" science, it does go to show you that graduate students (yes, just think who did all the "dirty" work) can actually have a little fun with their studies.
It is my hope that some more serious work resulted from the endeavors, but this was certainly worth a good chuckle. I can imagine the debate on this paper, going on in the dark corners of a friendly pub until closing time... and the napkin art must have been something to behold.
DRK
I found the 1999 award in Science Education pretty amusing. I hear the folks who accepted the award wore Adam & Eve’s loincloths (which were recently dug up in the backyard of an Intelligent Design archaeologist employed by the Discovery Institute).
This study is more impressive than anything Harriet Miers has ever done.