Ig Nobel Prize Winners: 17 Silly Discoveries Of Last Decade Get Celebrated (PHOTOS)

A Nobel Prize may have never seriously been in the cards for the Dutch scientists who used MRI scans to image male and female genitals during sex, or for those researchers who found that chimpanzees can identify each other by their butts.

But just because Stockholm didn't celebrate these scientists doesn't mean they haven't earned some serious recognition. They did, in fact, win Ig Nobel Prizes.

What is an Ig Nobel? It's a whimsical award given annually to celebrate scientific research that may first make people laugh, but then makes them think.

The 23rd annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in September will be held at Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. While this year's event will introduce 10 new winners to the Ig Nobel list of laureates, here is a look at 17 winners of the past decade.