The 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes, a whimsical reply to the more serious Nobel Prizes, announced the winners of the 22nd edition at a hilarious ceremony held at Harvard University. The winners, all ten of them, walked away with The Stinker - the official mascot of the ceremony and some of them also demonstrated or showed off the discoveries and innovations that won them the award.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded by science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research and are meant to celebrate the unusual and encourage scientific research. The publication claims the Ig Nobel Prizes winners have all done something "that first makes people laugh and then makes them think".

The prizes have a deserved reputation for unearthing some truly odd researches... like the Dutch and Russian psychologists who discovered that leaning to the left made the Eiffel Tower seem smaller!

Check out the complete list of winners and their amazing but silly discoveries

Psychology Prize - Anita Eerland, Rolf Zwaan and Tulio Guadalupe for the study "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller"

Peace Prize - The SKN Company (Russia) for converting old Russian ammunition into new diamonds

Acoustic Prize - Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada (Japan) for creating the SpeechJammer - a machine that disrupts a person's speech by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay

Neuroscience Prize - Craig Bennett, Abigail Baird, Michael Miller and George Wolford (USA) for demonstrating brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere - even in a dead salmon

Chemistry Prize - Johan Pettersson (Sweden and Rwanda) for solving the puzzle of why, in certain houses in the town of Anderslöv, Sweden, people's hair turned green

Literature Prize - The US Government's General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports

Physics Prize - Joseph Keller (USA), Raymond Goldstein (USA and UK) and Patrick Warren and Robin Ball (UK), for calculating the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail

Fluid Dynamics Prize - Rouslan Krechetnikov (USA, Russia and Canada) and Hans Mayer (USA) for studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee

Anatomy Prize - Frans de Waal (Netherlands and USA) and Jennifer Pokorny (USA) for discovering chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends

Medicine Prize - Emmanuel Ben-Soussan and Michel Antonietti (France) for advising doctors who perform colonoscopies on how to minimize the chance their patients will explode

Watch a webcast of the 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes here and also check out some of amusing photographs from the event

Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Keynote speaker Robert Kirshner (L) reacts as performers depicting human spotlights, shine torch lights on 1986 Nobel Prize laureate for Chemistry Dudley Herschbach (C) during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. Richard Roberts, 1993 Nobel Prize laureate for Medicine, is seen applauding on the right. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
The "Human Spotlight" shines a light on keynote speaker Robert Kirshner as he gives a demonstration during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize laureate for Economics in 2007 Eric Maskin (L-R), Nobel Prize laureate for Medicine in 1993 Richard Roberts, Nobel Prize laureate for Chemistry in 1986 Dudley Herschbach, keynote speaker Robert Kirshner and Nobel Prize laureate for Physics in 2005 Roy Glauber lean to the left to demonstrate the Ig Nobel Psychology Prize winners' study that "Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller" during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Kazutka Kurihara (L) and Koji Tsukada accept the 2012 Ig Nobel Acoustics Prize for creating the Speech Jammer, a machine that disrupts a person's speech by making them hear their own words at a delay, during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Former Ig Nobel Prize 1996 winners for Art Don and Nancy Featherstone hold their creation, the pink flamingo lawn ornament, during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Ig Nobel Prize winner for Medicine in 2006 Francis Fesmire and Ig Nobel Prize winner for Medicine in 1996 Richard Gustafson wear bra cups that double as gas masks during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
A human target is hit with paper airplanes by members of the audience and keynote speaker Robert Kirshner (3rd R), 1986 Nobel Prize laureate for Chemistry Dudley Herschbach (2nd R) and 1993 Nobel Prize laureate for Medicine Richard Roberts during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize laureate for Economics in 2007 Eric Maskin (C) is raffled off during the "Win a Date with a Nobel Laureate" contest during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Former Ig Nobel 2007 award winner in Medicine Dan Meyer who won for his study of sword swallowing and its side effects prepares to swallow a sword during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Winners of 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes
Raymond Goldstein holds up a pony tail as he accepts his 2012 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics during the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
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