SYDNEY: Australian scientists have been awarded the Ig Nobel prize in chemistry for making a device that can un-boil the boiled egg.
According to details, researchers team led by Colin Raston from Flinder University, Australia, has created a device named, Vortex Fluid Device (VFD) to change the structure of proteins by shaking them at high speed.
Earlier this team had demonstrated the technique using hard boiled egg, showing that the shear stress from spinning could cause the denatured proteins to re-fold, reverting the egg white to its raw, transparent state.
After getting the Ig Nobel, team leader said ‘It’s living the dream. All scientists want to do something that is significant, but this has the wow factor.’
Research is for Biomedical purposes not in the kitchen. The VFD could be used to fix misfolded proteins that are produced by recombined bacteria, for example, and has already been shown to improve the potency of a common cancer drug fourfold.
The Ig Nobel prize were set up to recognize ‘achievements that make people laugh, then think’. They are awarded each year shortly before the Nobel prizes to some of the most imaginative, and often silly-sounding, research across the sciences.