Does painting cows with stripes prevent fly bites? Researchers who studied this win Ig Nobel prize

""When I did this experiment, I hoped that I would win the Ig Nobel. It's my dream. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable," said Tomoki Kojima, whose team put tape on Japanese beef cows and then spray painted them with white stripes. Kojima appeared on stage in stripes and was surrounded by his fellow researchers who harassed with cardboard flies."

""Every great discovery ever, at first glance seemed screwy and laughable," Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an email interview ahead of the awards ceremony. "The same is true of every worthless discovery. The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate ALL these discoveries, because at the very first glance, who really knows?""

Researchers painted Japanese beef cows with white, zebra-like stripes using tape and spray paint and observed fewer flies attracted to the cows and reduced fly annoyance. A separate team from Africa and Europe investigated lizard preferences for different types of pizza. Additional winners included teams that found moderate alcohol can sometimes improve foreign-language speaking ability and a researcher who tracked fingernail growth over decades. Winners received handmade human-stomach models and single hand wipes as prizes. The 35th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony is organized by the Annals of Improbable Research and includes playful traditions like audience paper pelting.

Read at ABC7 Los Angeles