The Nobel Prize is for people who have done great work, but have you heard of the Ig Nobel Prize? It is not a serious prize like the Nobel Prize. It is given to people who have done research that makes you laugh and think. This year, a group of Japanese researchers in Aichi Prefecture won the Ig Nobel prize for biology. They knew that flies don’t bother zebras as much as they bother cows. Was it because of the stripes on zebras? They wanted to find out, so they painted white stripes on some cows but not on others. They waited and watched. Flies didn’t bite the cows with stripes as much as they bit the regular cows. Stripes are the reason that flies don’t bother zebras so much.   (130 words)

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