New York The French researchers who discovered that fleas on a dog can jump higher than fleas on a cat were among a host of scientists honoured last night at the 2008 Ig Nobel Prizes.

The annual awards, to be handed out at Harvard University by the journal The Annals of Improbable Research, reward thought-provoking breakthroughs that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”

Flea researchers Marie-Christine Cadiergues, Christel Joubert and Michel Franc won the prize for biology for their article in Veterinary Parasitology which found that dog fleas jumped an average of 30cm, against the cat flea’s 20cm leap.

The prize for medicine went to Dan Ariely of the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology for his work on placebos, demonstrating that expensive fake medicine is more effective than cheap fake medicine.

The chemistry award was split between Sheree Umpierre, Joseph Hill and Deborah Anderson for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu and B.N. Chiang for proving that it is not.

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