Scientific research is separated into two branches. That in which logic and consistency govern and the other which pretends or wants to be that. This second one is politely referred to as pathological science.It is otherwise known as pseudoscience, hocus-pocus or wasted, cargolcult, junk, dishonest, delusional and fraudulent science.
Examples of pathological science have included Cold Fusion (endless power out of a cup of hard water and a couple of palladium electrodes) Polywater (plastic out of water) and Breatharianism - the belief that it is possible to live only on light. ( see http://www.jasmuheen.com )
This pathological science has sometimes (but not always) been the focus of fun for Improbable Research, organisers of the annual Ig Nobel Prizes.
Just as the Nobel Prize honours extraordinary achievements in physics, medicine and chemistry, so too do the Ig Noble Prizes. These prizes selected by eminent scientists, engineers and doctors "honour achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think".
The prizes seem to fall into two types the goofy (yet sound) and the delusional (pathological) science.
Here are some samples from the 2008 Ig Noble Prize list.
Economics Prize. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.
Chemistry Prize. Sharee Umpierre University of Puerto Rico, Joseph Hill the Fertility Centers of New England (USA) and Deborah Anderson Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide.
Peace Prize: The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) and the citizens of Switzerland for adopting the legal principle that plants have dignity.
And here are some samples from the 2010 Ig Noble Prize List.
Engineering Prize. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and Agnes Rocha-Gosselin of the Zoological Society of London, UK, and Diane Gendron of Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Baja California Sur, Mexico, for perfecting a method to collect whale snot, using a remote-control helicopter.
Transportation Planning Prize. Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Atsushi Tero, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi of Japan, and Dan Bebber, Mark Fricker of the UK, for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks.
Public Health Prize. Manuel Barbeito, Charles Mathews, and Larry Taylor of the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA, for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists.
Biology Prize. Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of Bristol, UK, for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.
A full list of award winners (dating back to 1991) and more bizarre science can be found at http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/