WEIRD SCIENCE

A round-up of the strangest science stories from around the world.

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SILLY SCIENCE AWARDS

Painting zebra stripes onto cows and pizza-eating lizards were among the ideas that won big at this year's Ig Nobel Prize awards. The annual competition celebrates scientists whose work first makes people laugh... and then think.

A team from Japan had researched whether painting black and white stripes on cows reduced how many flies bit them, because this is thought to be why zebras evolved striped fur. The study showed that the cows with painted skin were bitten half as much as normal, suggesting that the flies really are put off by stripes.