Man Lets Bees Sting His Penis, Wins Spoof Nobel Prize

How far would you go to win a spoof Nobel prize?

As reported by EDGE in 2014, Michael Smith, a Cornell University student who researches bee colonies, published a study in scientific journal PeerJ last year on the human body's sensitivity to pain. For his research, he deliberately subjected himself to weeks of bee stings on various parts of his body, including his penis and testicles, in an attempt to determine which part of the human anatomy is most sensitive to pain.

For his pains, Smith was awarded an lg Nobel prize for physiology and entomology.

According to the Mirror.UK, the Ig Nobel prizes seek to celebrate achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think, as a spoof on the more serious Nobel Prize awarded in Sweden, which will be announced next month.

For his research, he picked 25 locations on the body and then, with a live honeybee firmly grasped in forceps, he placed the insect next to his skin until stung. The bee's stinger was left in for one-minute to allow delivery of the venom. The process was repeated five times for 38 days. Each body part was stung three times over the course of the experiment.

He concluded that, using a pain rating of 1 for mild and 10 for excruciating, the top ten worst places to get stung by a bee are:

1) Nostril� - 9.0������������
2) Upper lip - 8.7���������
3) Penis - 7.3��������������
4) Scrotum - 7.0�������������
5) Palm - 7.0������������ �
6) Cheek - 7.0
7) Armpit - 6.7���
8) Nipple - 6.7�
9) Middle finger tip - 6.7
10) Abdomen - 6.7��

The five least painful places to get stung were the:

25) Skull - 2.3
24) Middle toe tip - 2.3
23) Upper arm - 2.3
22) Buttocks - 3.7
21) Calf - 3.7

The annual lg Nobel prizes, meant to entertain and encourage global research and innovation, are awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research.