Money is not everything, but it may ease your pain, a study by an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University found.

Ig Nobel Prize, a parody of the Nobel Prize, has long been the leading award for hilarious science research. But now the Ig has a Chinese counterpart, Mango Science Prizes, which was presented on April 7 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Called Laugh and Think, “The prize is an event in homage to curiosity,” said Wang Yami, the chief director of the prize ceremony. “Curiosity has led humankind to do scientific research again and again, and enabled us to live to this day in this world of hazards.”

Like the Ig Nobel Prize, the Mango Science Prize awards people for scientific inventions that "first make people laugh, and then make them think.” Seven awards were handed out after careful examination by a panel of judges comprised of 15 scientists and 26 others, including directors, actors and writers, as well as media professionals.

The conventional five prizes include:

Physics- Zhao Ting, director of the research entitled Monkey Brains to Control Mechanical Arms, for advancing brain-computer interface knowledge.

Chemistry- Huang Wen for demonstrating the factors behind maintaining the fresh taste of chicken soup when it’s stored in crockery.

Biology and Medicine- Fudan University and Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences for their pioneering research of the Y chromosome in determining the identity of Cao Cao (155-220).

Mathematics- Harbin Institute of Technology for the amazing dynamo and vigor of its robotic performance at the 2012 Spring Festival Gala.

Psychology- Zhou Xinyue for her three-year experiment revealing that money-counting or forming sentences related to the word 钱 (qian, literally “money”) can ease the level of pains.