Got a show for you that's right it can only be the Nobel Prizes this hour the annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony coming up after the break stay with us. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Windsor Johnston a police cordon remains in place around a large section of London Bridge as authorities investigate a suspected terrorist attack today the b.b.c. Is reporting at least 2 people are dead and several others injured N.P.R.'s Frank Langfitt reports this was the 2nd deadly knife attack on the bridge in 2 years police rushed to the scene this afternoon with the London Ambulance Service is calling a major incident a video shows a man dressed in black lying on London Bridge surrounded by civilians and police officers trying to subdue him a man in civilian clothes continues to wrestle with the man on the ground until an officer and body armor pulls him to safety police fired 2 shots at the man on the ground who then crumples on the sidewalk witnesses said that amid the commotion pedestrians raced off the bridge which police have sealed off Britain's Press Association says staff at the nearby monument tube station say 5 people have been injured in the attack Frank Langfitt n.p.r. News London oh open enrollment to sign up for the Affordable Care Act will continue through the middle of next month N.P.R.'s Selena Simmons Dolphins' reports the latest numbers from the government show more than 2300000 people have signed up for coverage so far slightly fewer than this time last year there are a few reasons why enrollment might be lower than last year I don't know and Maine just expanded Medicaid so some people who had Obamacare coverage could have switched to Medicaid also Nevada just launched its own exchange so Nevadans are out of the health care dot gov pool Charles Gabaa runs a website that tracks enroll met numbers and he notes that because of a quirk in the calendar this year's enroll ments might actually be slightly ahead of last year that's despite the fact the trumpet ministration has tried to thwart the success of the Affordable Care Act in a variety of ways including not defending it in a federal lawsuit that challenges the law's constitutionality Silenus a man's death in. N.p.r. News the German parent company of Mercedes-Benz is planning world wide job cuts over the next 3 years N.P.R.'s Alina reports. Is the 2nd German car maker this week to announce major cutbacks in a statement said the auto industry is in the middle of quote the biggest transformation in its history German carmakers are pushing to catch up with investments into electric and hybrid vehicles and cell driving technology dialers big effort to cut costs is going to result in thousands of job cuts by the end of 2022 the company said it planned to cut management positions by 10 percent dialer said it planned to make the cuts in a socially responsible manner using quote natural fluctuation part time retirement and other means earlier this week luxury carmaker Audi also said it would cut thousands of jobs by 2025 to free up money to fund its work on the electric cars Alina so you n.p.r. News at the close on Wall Street the Dow was down 112 points this is n.p.r. News. Stores and malls across the nation are jammed with holiday shoppers looking for deals on this Black Friday Shannon McSweeney Lemay is with the Woodbury common Premium Outlets in Central Valley New York she says for a lot of shoppers hitting the stores on Black Friday is a tradition it's that excitement it's a celebration that you can't you just can't get on line there are 6 fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year the National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to rise between 3.8 and 4.2 percent meanwhile national parks across the u.s. Are offering holiday shoppers an alternative on this Black Friday Colorado Public Radio reports that entrance fees at some parks are being waived today Colorado Delaware Minnesota there are a few the states offering free admission to their parks on a day synonymous with shopping Rebecca Farrell with Colorado Parks and Wildlife describes the idea this way to really encourage people to kind of forego some of the commercialism and and being inside and stuck in lines or waiting on Web sites to instead really go outside and explore you know that the natural resources and the wonderment that you can find in our parks feral says this is become a Colorado tradition it was originally inspired by outdoor retail giant r.e.i. Which is closed at stores every Black Friday since 2015 for n.p.r. News I'm Stina speak in Grand Junction Colorado stocks closed lower in an abbreviated session on Wall Street today the Dow was down 112 points the Nasdaq down 39 this is n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from Capital One offering this spark cash card for businesses committed to helping business owners turn purchases into meaningful investments that can help drive business forward Capital One what's in your wallet more Capital One dot com and Americans for the Arts. Support for Casey you comes from gathering for women a nonprofit committed to supporting unhoused and housing in secure women on the Monterey Peninsula by providing basic necessities job training and counseling learn more at gathering for Women dot org And from New Leaf community markets offering distilled turkeys for the holidays advance orders and reservations at new leaf markets in Santa Cruz Half Moon Bay capital and app plus village. This is Science Friday I'm Ira Flatow we do hope you had a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving we're glad you're with us today because here at Science Friday you know the day after Thanksgiving is our own kind of holiday tradition highlights from the Ig Nobel award ceremony the awards are handed out each year by the editors of the science humor magazine The Annals of Improbable Research for a work in science that 1st makes you laugh and then makes you think it's stuff that might make you say I wonder especially late at night after a few fine beverages this year celebration is the 29th 1st annual awards this year ceremonies featured a mini opera about habits The Good The Bad and The Ugly and prizes handed out by genuine regular Nobel laureates just to explain a few things there are a few traditions at the ceremonies like the welcome welcome and goodbye goodbye speeches there's an official who will sound an alarm have things driven to say get too raunchy and then there's Miss sweetie poof a little girl who starts to whine whenever the speakers go on too long sometimes the speakers try to bribe her but she always wins in the end the theme for this year was habits you'll hear the audience cheer whenever that word is pension So here's our post Thanksgiving habit is what I did there as we take you back to earlier this year at Harvard Sanders theater where the dignitaries and dignitaries are taking the stage. T. Minus 543 to wait wait wait we almost forgot one of them said the 29th 1st annual ignore the private ceremony was the one. By. Oh are 3 to you why go. Gentlemen and creatures of habit. Welcome to the 29 1st annual ignoble Prize ceremony. And now Professor Jean Berko Gleason will deliver the traditional And I bet she will ignoble Welcome welcome speech. Will. Welcome. And now. Welcome our most special guests the new eg Nobel Prize winners this year's winners represent 4 continents and here they come. Now ladies and gentlemen boys and girls literati glitterati pseudo intellectuals quasi pseudo intellectuals. Pseudo quasi intellectuals very stable geniuses. And the rest of you may I introduce our Master of Ceremonies the editor of the Eno's of Improbable Research chief airhead Marc Abrams. Gathered here tonight to honor. Markable individuals and groups everyone has done something that 1st makes people laugh then think. About price ceremonies produced by the science humor magazine The Annals of Improbable Research and proudly co-sponsored by the Harvard Radcliffe Society of Physics Students and the Harvard grad Science Fiction Association the editors of The Annals of Improbable Research have chosen a theme for this year's ceremony that theme is habits. Tonight 10 prizes will be given the achievements speak for themselves all to eloquently the prizes will be physically presented to the winners by Nobel laureates ladies and gentlemen please welcome the Nobel laureates in 1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine rich Roberts. 2007 Nobel laureate in economics Eric mask in. 1919 No Bill Laureate in Physics Jerome Friedman. As usual for the 29th straight year was prevented from joining us he appears now via the magic of video. And running joke for years has been a video sent in by noble physicist to Rome Friedman in which he says he can't attend the ceremony but hopes the audience is enjoying the occasion as much as he is well this year Dr Friedman broke tradition and actually attended along with nobilis Eric mask and rich Roberts. Thank you professor. You can't keep you waiting longer. But you're afraid. I will be the. The but I'm sorry to tell you. In the video there is an imposter. Does he really look like me Ok if you want to thank you I'd like to see some identification please sir it serves the purpose Ok. He may be the only human being you will ever see who spent 29 years setting up a joke I. Would think in public events it's now a habit. To have a keynote speech there's no avoiding it here it is. Oh if you don't. Know. The aim of this year's big Nobel Prize is habits. Now let's not be overly polite about it some people have a habit of. Not paying attention when other people are talking. You see some people some people have a habit of. Not paying attention when someone else is talking and that's a bad bad yes that is a bad habit. And some people have a habit of not really saying anything when they're giving a speech and when some people give a speech they don't actually say much. But it is a bad habit I bad. Bad bad. That so I'd like to wrap up this speech good by reminding you of something said here here on this stage many years ago by it Nobel Prize winner. All the way from Japan Dr not commands. Well so I'll just go ahead and say it. Dr Nachman it said might should be long speeches should be short. Let's get out of here please rethink it. Now gets something special 247 lectures we've invited several of the world's top thinkers to tell us very briefly what they're thinking about each 247 lecturer will explain her or his topic twice 1st a complete technical description in 24 seconds and then after a brief pause a clear summary that anyone can understand in 7 words the 1st 247 lecture will be delivered by a scientist who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine rich Roberts. Topic. First a complete technical description of the subject in 20. For seconds on your mark get set go serendipity is exemplified when you're clever experiment fails because nature is trying to tell you something important and it leads to a Nobel Prize winning discovery. It's also exemplified when you're booked on a plane flying from Boston to Los Angeles on September 11th and the meeting you're attending these move one day and at the last minute you have to fly on September 10th Instead this happened to me in 2001. So it. Well I don't know what to say after that. Well yes I do now clear summary that anyone can understand in 7 words on your mark get set go serendipity means good luck has struck again. The next 247 lecture will be delivered by the president of the Skinner foundation Julie skin Irvine guess her topic habits Ah 1st a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds on your mark get set go happen it is in opera under discriminated control r s d s Carl named it with facilitating post Seaton's which I delivered when emitted in their preference. Now clear summary that anyone can understand in 7 words on your mark get set go I had it is acting as usual again I. Your words are. Sente by the editors of The Annals of Improbable Research You can find out more about them in probable dot com. We need to take a break we'll be right back with more from Sanders theatre in just a moment stay with us. I'm Ira Flatow when you're listening to Science Friday from w. N.y.c. Studios. From talking we're square in Baghdad. To the streets of Bogota Colombia. To a barricaded University in Hong Kong. Protested all around the world is there a common thread I'm Ari Shapiro unpacking a season of unrest this afternoon on All Things Considered from n.p.r. News joins us this afternoon from 3 to 530 on 90.3. Support for Casey you comes from Gail's bakery and receipt to read and capital offering pastries made fresh each morning chocolate eclairs raspberry Napoleons and many New York cheesecakes on the corner of Bain Capital Ave for 6 to 1200 and from Mt Madonna Institute offering an accelerated path to become an eye or Veda health counselor or an eye or Vedic yoga therapist course begins on January 30th learn more at Mt Madonna Institute dot org. This is Science Friday I'm Ira Flatow and if you're just joining us we're playing highlights from this year's ignoble awards ceremony research that 1st makes you laugh then makes you think it was recorded in September of this year at Harvard Sanders theater Here's an ignoble master of ceremonies marking Abrams some of our ignoble Prize winners from previous years liked come back to our stage to take a bow well and to help honor the new ignoble Prize winners we have several with us this year please welcome them the 2015 ignoble Physics Prize was awarded to Patricia Yang David who Jonathan Pham and Jerome Chu for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds plus or minus 13 seconds please welcome David to go and Patricia yang. 2009 ignoble chemistry prize was awarded to Javier Moralez cuss deal Miguel a particular and Victor. University. Toma to make a call for creating Diamandis from liquid specifically from tequila. He's well thought here was just below. The 2008 ignoble chemistry prize was awarded to 2 teams of scientists one of whom discovered that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide on the other team discovered that it's not. He's welcome Dr Deborah Anderson. 2012 ignoble acoustics Prize was awarded to cause a talker. And Code of Japan for creating the speech jammer speech errors a machine that disrupts a person's speech by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay please welcome because you talk of Cory Haro coaching so caught up. Now let's get it over with the ladies and gentlemen the awarding of the 200-1000. We're giving out 10 prizes the winners come from many nations they've truly earned their prizes Karen tell them what they've won. This year's winners will each receive and Nobel Prize winners don't say. That's not all oh what they also get. A piece of paper. That says they've won it Nobel Prize. This piece of paper it's signed by several Nobel laureates. Do they get any money. 10 trillion $1.10 trillion dollars. Trillion American dollars Ah Zimbabwean dollars. 10 trillion dollars know what else do they get. They get a handshake from Nobel laureate what else. Nothing. How nice thank you Karen for. This year's prize. Is a cup. Full of habits it's a coffee cup with a wad of chewed gum a cigarette but a mobile phone and evidence of several other habits ladies and gentlemen the Ig Nobel Prize. Medicine. Winner is from Italy and the Netherlands the prize goes to Silvano Gallus for collecting evidence that pizza might protect against illness and death if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy I was welcomed so no Palace thank you what we find nowadays are we found that I like to. Be that you know these. People who regularly consume this pizza. Digest it I can see and. I want to pick a show that it beats I made up or they generally indicate that I care. That pays that I'd better make. Sure to have major benefits it in conclusion. Eating. He should be and therefore but please please hold the Roni I had good reason in those days I made better. Collect your 10 trillion dollar bill Nobel laureates thank medical education. The winners are from the USA The prize goes to Karen Pryor and. McKeon for using a simple animal training technique called clicker training to train surgeons to perform orthopedic surgery please welcome your entire research because I. Can and I would like to think everybody egg Nobel for this honor but we'd also like to think that people who worked on the research and really put to the test a t. Think teaching methodology that highlights and builds on success and focuses on positive and timely reinforcement. And with so much of our world focused on that which is not successful it may be worth having a weight to focus on things that are successful thank you very much. We economics. Winners are from Turkey the Netherlands and Germany the prize goes to her. Timothy Vos and Andreas Voss for testing which country's paper money is best at transmitting dangerous bacteria. These welcome various boss Timothy boss your father saw it. When staying in a foreign country had you ever had to feeling that the money that normally flows through your hands gets sticky on your fingers and it's kind of dirty The question is is that contaminated with anything that poses a health risk so we. We have to look into that and the fact is that bag fit stickier dirty do not have to be contaminated actually the Rumanian Larry and to dollar where one of the worst thing if there is. We have for the proposition for you to get risk of your health risk and your wallet we please ask you to take your crispy dollar notes Folsom into an airplane and throw them out where you can experience. For all others we just accept washed your hands even when you have them back. Thank. You very well I. Always be very sure to collect your 10 trillion dollar bill. The next 247 lecture will be delivered by a professor of cognitive science at Hampshire College Joanna Morris her topic theory of mind 1st a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds on your mark get set go theory of mind is the ability to impute mental states beliefs intense emotions to oneself and what is in to understand that others have beliefs decides intentions that are different from one's own area of mind is probably here to sit there because mental states and not directly opposite each human can only into existence of his or her own mind through introspection and no one has direct access to the mind of another the piece I'm sure that others have in mind enables one to understand mental states you know well and now a clear summary that anyone can understand in 7 words on your mark get set go so right other people just like you. I the I don't think you are sounding like you are doing everything right. On a missed who won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics Eric mask in. His topic. Boating 1st a complete technical description of the subject in 24 seconds on your mark get set go in most American elections each citizen votes for one candidate in the one with the most votes wins this is a flawed system it lead to Donald Trump Trump one. Republican primary is by less than a majority because the anti Trump vote was split over 15 other candidates a better system lets voters rank candidates no one gets a majority of 1st place votes the least favorite has dropped 2nd choices move in 1st place and the process continues until there is a majority. And now. We're so angry that anyone can understand in 7 words on your mark get set go let the majority choose who's in authority. Ology. As. The winners are from Singapore China Australia Poland the USA and bowl Garia the prize goes to lean June Kong Herbert as yet. Alexander urban Eck Reynard and Thomas Potter ek for discovering that dead magnetized cockroaches behave differently then living magnetize cockroaches Please welcome Thomas Herbert great or thank you. Thank you very