Scientists taking on the deep questions of whether cats are liquid or solid, how holding a crocodile influences gambling were honored Thursday at the Ig Nobel Prize spoof awards.
在周四搞笑诺贝尔奖颁奖礼上，关于“一只猫可否同时处于固体状态和液体状态”、“在处于鳄鱼攻击状态下赌徒的情绪影响”等研究榜上有名。
The prizes are the brainchild of Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and are intended not to honor the best or worst in science, but rather to highlight research that encourages people to think in unusual ways.
“搞笑诺贝尔奖”出自科学幽默杂志《不可思议研究年报》编辑马克.亚伯拉罕斯的创意。该奖项无意颁给科学界最好或最差的研究，而是要突出那些鼓励人们使用不同寻常的方式进行思考的研究。
We hope that this will get people back into the habits they probably had when they were kids of paying attention to odd things and holding out for a moment and deciding whether they are good or bad only after they have a chance to think, Abrahams said in a phone interview.
亚伯拉罕斯在接受电话采访时曾表示：“我们希望该奖项能令人们重拾他们在童年时期可能会有的习惯，能注意到奇怪的事情并坚持一会儿，且只有在有机会进行思考之后才决定是好是坏。”
Some of the honorees tend towards the spurious: French researcher Marc-Antoine Fardin’s 2014 study "Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?" was inspired by internet photos of cats tucked into glasses, buckets and sinks.
此次“搞笑诺贝尔奖”的一些获奖者倾向于研究似是而非的问题，比如今年的物理学奖就颁给了法国研究人员马克.安托万.法尔丹关于“一只猫可否同时处于固体状态和液体状态”的研究。据悉，其灵感来自互联网上猫咪们塞进玻璃杯、水桶和水槽中的照片。
Other work on the prize list has clearer potential for practical applications.
其他研究在实际应用方面则具有更明显的潜力。
Economics winners Matthew Rockloff and Nancy Greer conducted an experiment in which problem gamblers and non-problem gamblers handled 1-meter (3.3-foot) long crocodiles before playing a simulated slot machine.
经济学奖得主马修.罗克洛夫和南希.格里尔进行了一项实验，让问题赌徒和非问题赌博者在玩模拟老虎机前接触一条长达一米的鳄鱼。
The 2010 study, conducted on 103 people in Queensland, Australia, found that problem gamblers were likely to place higher bets after handling the reptiles, as their brains had misinterpreted the excitement of holding a dangerous animal as a sign they were on a lucky streak.
该研究于2010年在澳大利亚昆士兰进行，研究对象有103人。研究发现，问题赌徒在接触鳄鱼后可能会下更高的赌注，因为他们的大脑将接触危险动物所产生的兴奋曲解为他们非常走运的信号。
The awards, now in their 27th year, are to be handed out by actual Nobel Prize winners in a ceremony at Harvard University on Thursday.
第27届颁奖典礼将于本周四在哈佛大学举行，奖品将由真正的诺贝尔奖得主颁发。
