So it looks like it’s another year without a Nobel Prize for me.

I mean, there are still a few yet to be announced but I really thought the prize in physics was my best shot. I guess there’s always next year.

I wonder though, do Nobel winners put Nobel Laureate on their resume? Or is that the kind of thing that makes your resume obsolete?

Maybe I should focus on winning an Ig Nobel, which may not be as prestigious but certainly seems like more fun. Plus I think you could put “Ig Nobel Winner” on your resume and people who have no idea what that is will assume you’ve won the Nobel Prize.

If you’re unfamiliar, the Ig Nobels “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology” according to the sponsor’s Web site.

The ceremony is held at Harvard, and includes fun customs like encouraging the audience to throw paper airplanes at the stage. The organizers are also able to get real Nobel winners to help present the prizes.

This year the mainstream media focused on the Public Health Prize winner, who created a bra that be separated into two pieces that then become protective face masks. Yes, that is an interesting invention, but it’s not the best part of this year’s Igs. That honor should go to the guy who wanted to know if cracking your knuckles really leads to arthritis. In order to test the hypothesis, he cracked the knuckles on only his left hand…for 60 years. That’s how you get the Ig Nobel in Medicine.

The spirit of the awards is great, since all of the honorees are really pursuing these ideas as serious science. They show up and graciously accept the awards, joining everyone else in not taking themselves too seriously. Take the Peace Prize winners, who investigated whether an empty or full beer bottle causes more damage when thrown at someone’s head.

For a full list of this year’s honorees, go here.