On behalf of the country of Liechtenstein, Karl Schwärzler accepted the Economics Prize for his unabashed spirit of capitalism. His ground-breaking work has made it possible to rent the entire small European country for corporate conventions, weddings, and bar mitzvahs.

“Come and visit sometime,” Schwärzler invited the audience.

Seven other awards were also presented in such categories as Interdisciplinary Research, Medicine, Psychology and Chemistry.

Paying tribute to the evening’s theme of “Nano,” several prominent scholars explained their fields of research in a series of Nano-Lectures—twenty-four second summaries in scientific jargon followed by a seven word explanation. Topics for the traditional sound-bite soliloquies included slow light, the genome, memory and education.

Ig Nobel winners will have the chance to explain their research at greater length to those interested in free public lectures hosted this Saturday at MIT.

—Staff writer Kimberly A. Kicenuik can be reached at kicenuik@fas. harvard.edu.