http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1516&ncid=1516&e=2&u=/afp/20031014/od_afp/japan_prize_offbeat_us_031014145540
"When I gave my lecture, the audience were killing themselves laughing ... I still don't understand what's funny about my investigation," a bemused Hirose told AFP on Tuesday, recalling the prize-giving ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Threatre this month.
Yukio Hirose (L), 62, professor of Japan's Kanazawa University smiles as he won the 'Ig Nobel Prize' for chemistry bringing the award to Japan for the second consecutive year
Hat's off to Hirose-sensai in keeping up that deadpan joke quite well. He really scored BIG in this project since publishing a well-received paper English that now is world famous is going to give him a HUGE boost in his university preformance evaulations and his stature in Japan general. I've got several J-Phd.s here green with envy of Prof Hirose's "accomplishment" since his actual research was valid, well-done and interesting. [[ His research found that the statue's bronze had a large amount of Arsenic in it, hence the birds would not come near it.]]