2009 Ig Nobel in Chemistry Goes to Tequila Made Diamonds
October 04, 09
Three scientists from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México on Thursday won the 2009 Ig Nobel in chemistry for creating diamonds from tequila. The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." 
From good times to good gifting - tequila
to diamond process wins recognition
Photo: Aaron Fulkerson
Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga and Victor M. Castaño devised an inexpensive process that uses cheap tequila to produce microscopic diamond films for industrial applications such as optical instruments and electronics.
According to Apátiga, "Tequila had the right composition of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen to produce diamonds."
The Ig Nobel is organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). The awards are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at
Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank, won the mathematics prize for "giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers — from very small to very big — by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000)."
Other winners this year included Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati who won the physics prize for analytically determining why pregnant women don't tip over; Ireland's police service won the literature prize for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means "Driving License".