1996 Ig Nobel Winners

* Physics: Robert Matthews of Aston University in Birmingham, England, for demonstrating that toast always falls on the buttered side.

* Public Health: Ellen Kleist of Nuuk, Greenland, and Harald Moi of Oslo, Norway, for their study of the transmission of gonorrhea through inflatable dolls.

* Biology: Anders Baerheim and Hogne Sandvik of the University of Bergen, Norway, for their study of the effect of ale, garlic and sour cream on the appetite of leeches.

* Medicine: James Johnston of R.J. Reynolds, Joseph Taddeo of U.S. Tobacco, Andrew Tisch of Lorillard, William Campbell of Philip Morris and the late Thomas Sandefur Jr. of the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. for their testimony to Congress that nicotine is not addictive.

* Peace: Jacques Chirac, president of France, for commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima with atomic bomb tests in the Pacific.

* Chemistry: George Goble of Purdue University for lighting a barbecue grill in three seconds using charcoal and liquid oxygen.

* Literature: The editors of the journal Social Text for publishing research the author admits was meaningless, which claimed reality does not exist.

* Biodiversity: Chonosuke Okamura of Okamura Fossil Laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, for discovering the fossils of dinosaurs, horses, dragons, princesses and more than 1,000 other extinct mini-species, each less than one 100th of an inch in length.

* Economics: Dr. Robert J. Genco of the University of Buffalo for his discovery that financial strain may lead to periodontal disease.

* Art: Don Featherstone of Fitchburg, Mass., for inventing the plastic pink flamingo.