A 'Polar Biology Publication' that prevailed: forces at work when Penguins Poo

摘要

Sometimes the history of a publication, the "build-up" that ultimately results in a publication, is as interesting as the publication itself. And so it is with the paper, whose background I am now about to elaborate upon. In fact, it was the Editor of this journal, who requested I do this. The article the Editor wanted me to write about was titled "Pressures Produced when Penguins Poo: a study of avian defaecation". It had appeared at the end of the year 2003 in this journal: Polar Biology vol. 27, 56-58. This publication received one of Harvard University's coveted "ig-Nobel" awards in October 2005. The "ig-Nobel" awards are the brainchild of Dr. Marc Abrahams, Editor of the humourously-serious, but definitely readable, international journal "Annals of Improbable Research". The awards honour those researchers, whose work first makes you laugh and then makes you think. The "ig-Nobel" prizes (in a variety of categories) have been handed out in the presence of several 'real' Nobel Prize winners at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre in front of an audience of approximately 1,200 people every year since 1991.