Ig Nobel Prize publisher to go free online
The Annals of Improbable Research, best known as the host of the Ig Nobel Awards, will now offer a free online version of its journal.
The Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony, an annual event held at Harvard University and parody of the Nobel Prizes, honors discoveries in science and technology that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."
Past winners include: Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan who invented a way to extract vanilla fragrance and flavoring from cow dung; an Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, who invented a chemical weapon that when dropped causes heterosexual men to become attracted to each other; and Howard Stapleton for his so-called electromechanical teenager repellent device that produces a sound audible only to those 30 or younger.
The Annals of Improbable Research journal, while now available free online will still continue to be offered in a print version "for subscribers who like their electrons blended with protons and neutrons," the publisher said in a statement.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
