A scientist who studied the anatomy of the woodpecker's skull to find out why it does not suffer from headaches after banging its head against a tree trunk 12,000 times a day has won an alternative Nobel prize.
Ivan Schwab, of the University of California, Davis, has joined the pantheon of scientists whose research has been deemed quirky enough to win an "Ig Nobel" - an alternative to the genuine Nobel prizes.
Dr Schwab's study, published earlier this year in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, pointed out that woodpeckers hammer a hard surface up to 20 times a second at 1,200-times the force of gravity without suffering concussion, detached retinas or any of the other symptoms of "shaken-baby syndrome".
"For us, life's headaches are common enough, but what if you spent your life battering your head against a wall?" he asked.
I wonder....
He should have also tried my head examination too
