NEW YORK — A woman's bra which in an emergency can double as a pair of gas masks has won one of the awards handed out at the prestigious Harvard University for the year's most eccentric research.

Photo: AFP

The Ig Nobels, a tongue-in-cheek homage to their Scandinavian counterparts, were announced just days before the Nobel committee in Stockholm began awarding its prestigious awards on Monday 5 October.

The bra that can be turned into two protective face masks -- one for the wearer and the other for whoever else may need one -- won its inventors Elena Bodnar, Raphael Lee and Sandra Marijan of Chicago the Public Health award.

The patent states that each of the bra's cup sections is fitted with a filter device, meaning the wearer can whip it off, and detach each section to fit it over the face.

Another Ig Nobel for Chemistry went to three researchers at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico -- Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor Castano -- for creating diamonds out of tequila.

The literature prize at Thursday (1 October)'s ceremony went to the Irish police for writing out more than 50 traffic tickets to one Prawo Jazdy, whose name in Polish means "driver's license."

Stephan Bollinger and other doctors at the University of Bern in Switzerland received the peace prize for demonstrating that empty beer bottles are more likely to crack heads in a bar-room brawl than full ones.

The Veterinary Medicine prize was conferred on two researchers from Newcastle University in Britain who discovered that cows with names produce more milk.

The Igs, as they are known, are chosen by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine to highlight scientific achievements that according to its website "first make people laugh and then make them think."