Prof un-boils egg, wins parody Nobel Prize

An eggscellent invention that can partially "un-boil: an egg, and that even has implications for cancer treatment, has won an Adelaide scientist a parody Nobel Prize.

Flinders University chemistry professor Colin Raston has taken home an Ig Nobel Prize - intended to celebrate eccentric science - for his Vortex Fluidic Device, which can unravel proteins.

Prof Raston says the device has "huge" implications for cancer treatment, pharmaceutical manufacturing, biofuel production and food processing.

"Wow, did I really do that? It's living the dream. All scientists want to do something that is significant but this has the wow factor," he said.

"It's not what we set out to do, to un-boil an egg, but it's the way of explaining the science involved and helping the wider world realise the momentousness of it."