The winners of the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize were announced this week. The Ig Nobels honour people whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." Most disturbing was the Biology Prize, which went to C.W. Moeliker for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. Other winners include: for Engineering, the men who conceived of Murphy's Law in 1949; for Economics, Karl Schwärzler and the nation of Liechtenstein for making it possible to rent the entire country for corporate conventions, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other gatherings; and for Peace, Lal Bihari of India for his 18-year effort to prove he is alive after greedy relatives bribed corrupt officials to declare him dead so his property could be "inherited," and for forming the Association of Dead People to help the thousands of other Indians in the same plight.

The Ig Nobels are given out annually by the Annals of Improbable Research, who also brought you such projects as The Luxuriant and Flowing Hair Club for Scientists and a study of feline reactions to bearded men.