It can clean rust, strip the paint off cars and now, according to one BU scientist’s research, remove the worry from the morning after.
The Annals of Improbable Research awarded Boston University Reproductive Biology Director Deborah Anderson the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize for Chemistry for her discovery of the spermicidal effects of Coca-Cola products.
‘The project itself was fun,’ Anderson said. ‘It should have deserved a fun award.’
Anderson’s original study, which was published in a 1985 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, focused on the effects Coca-Cola products have on sperm motility.
Anderson said a Harvard University student inspired her to look into the subject after telling her stories of women in Puerto Rico who used Coca-Cola products after sex to prevent pregnancy.
After Anderson tested original Coca-Cola, Diet Coca-Cola and a now-defunct ‘New Coke’ on a donor’s sperm, she and her colleagues concluded that Coca-Cola products reduced the movement of sperm due to the highly acidic environment in the soda. Diet Coke was the most effective, reaching acidity levels much higher than the other sodas and reducing sperm movement to zero.
Though Coca-Cola does act as a spermicide, Anderson said she would not recommend it as a reliable contraceptive.
‘Sperm swim fast,’ Anderson said. ‘There’s a good chance that you won’t catch them and end up with irritation and infections.’
The Annals’ Board of Governors, which includes, scientists, journalists, area scholars and Improbable Research editors, selects 10 winners out of 7,000 nominations each year.
Once entered, submissions are always kept in the nomination pool, so this year’s honorees were also competing with submissions from up to 18 years ago, Improbable Research editor Marc Abrahams said.
‘Thanks to the study of Professor Anderson and her colleagues, of all the millions, maybe billions, who drink Coca-Cola regularly, they’ll all now think before they drink,’ Abrahams said.
Other recipients of this year’s Ig Nobel Prize included a Duke University economics professor who discovered that expensive placebo pain medicines work better than cheaper placebos, a University of New Mexico psychology professor who found strippers make more money when at peak fertility and a Brazilian archaeology professor who proved armadillos can contribute to archaeological misdating, according to the Improbable Research website.’
Actual Nobel Laureates presented the awards at Harvard University on Oct. 2.
Abrahams said the point of the Ig Nobel Prize is to take scientific research and make people laugh and then think, as Anderson’s study did.
Anderson’s research assistants, who work with her on the science of HIV transmission, said they were excited about her award because it is nice to hear about the lighter side of reproductive research.
‘To see her rewarded for her’ lighter endeavors in between all of her hard work, that’s something that really shows off Dr. Anderson as a person,’ undergraduate research assistant Ashish Premkumar, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said. ‘Someone who is’ serious-minded, but willing to have a bit of fun now and then.’
Research assistant Caitlin Blaskewicz said she looked at the more practical side of her mentor’s research.
‘Everything we research is relevant to what is actually happening in our world,’ Blaskewicz, a BU graduate student, said. ‘If there are girls in Puerto Rico who think that Coca-Cola will protect them from becoming pregnant, then someone should look into it.’