According to Japanese media reports, the "Funny Nobel Prize" awarded to the meritorious achievement of "laughing at first glance and pondering afterwards" was officially unveiled at Harvard University in the United States on September 14. A team of Japanese researchers and others won the Biology Prize, which is the 11th consecutive year that Japanese people have received this award.
According to reports, the research team that won the award consisted of Associate Professor Kazutoku Yoshizawa of Hokkaido University, Associate Professor Yoshitaka Uemura of Keio University, and overseas researchers. They found new species of insects in caves in Brazil, and found that females had "penis" general organs and used them to mate with males. The finding sparked reflection on gender differences and was therefore affirmed.
The insect found by the research team is about 3 mm long and is closely related to the "tea tachibana insect" that often appears around Japanese houses and other places. After 2010, it was registered as a new variety. The researchers found that the "male and female organs" of this insect had a "reversal" performance during the mating process, which took up to 40 to 70 hours. Subsequently, in 2014, the research team published a related paper.
As for the "reversal" rationale, the researchers believe that when the insect mated, the male insect delivered sperm along with the nutrients to the female. It is speculated that female insects gradually evolved to control mating behavior in order to obtain nutrients.
Yoshitaka Uemura said: "This insect makes people think about what males are in biology and what females are. We would be happy if more people could be interested in the diversity of biological sexes. ”
Due to the need to continue research in Japan, the research team of Kazutoku Yoshizawa and others did not attend the award ceremony on September 14. However, they transmitted video information taken in a cave in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, to the venue.
The researchers' humorous rhetoric was mixed with joy, saying, "It's an honor to receive this award." Any dictionary in the world describes the penis as a 'male construct'. Our discoveries have left many dictionaries out of step with the times. That's it, we're going to look for strange insects."