Professor Colin Raston from Flinders University has won the Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of a machine that can partially ‘unboil’ an egg.

The compact machine is capable of unravelling proteins (the process required to make the white of a cooked egg runny again) and has applications in the treatment of cancer, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, the production of biofuels and in food processing.

Colin Raston with the Vortex Fluidic Device – also called the ‘unboil an egg’ machine

The Egscellent researcher said winning an Ig mirrored the eureka moment of his breakthrough – “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” Professor Raston said.

“It’s not what we set out to do, to unboil an egg, but it’s the way of explaining the science involved and helping the wider world realise the momentousness of it.”