It may not sound like the most useful of scientific achievements.

But an Australian scientist has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize, a humorous parody of the more serious Swedish counterpart, for creating a way to unboil an egg.

Chemistry professor Colin Raston from Flinders University in Adelaide built a machine which can unravel proteins.

He said he had his 'Eureka' moment when he fed a boiled hen egg into the machine and it came back uncooked.

Chemistry professor Colin Raston from Flinders University has been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for creating a way to unboil an egg

'Wow, did I really do that?' Professor Raston said at the time.

The machine, which has been called a vortex fluidic device, works by unfolding the proteins in egg whites back to their natural state.

It has been hailed as a potential game-changer for the targeted delivery of chemotherapy drugs for cancer treatment.

Professor Raston said: 'It's living the dream. All scientists want to do something that is significant, but this has the wow factor.

The machine, which has been called a vortex fluidic device, works by unfolding the proteins in egg whites back to their natural state

'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.'

'The sheer scale of this is mind boggling. The global pharmaceutical industry alone is worth $160 billion annually and the processing of proteins is central to it.

'The VFD is completely changing it – and is set to do the same for the fuel and food industries. It's impossible to place a price on the value of this device.

'Winning an Ig is both humbling and amazing.'

HOW DOES PROFESSOR RASTON'S VORTEX FLUIDIC DEVICE WORK? The machine harnesses mechanical energy (spinning) to undo the work of thermal energy (cooking). When an egg is boiled, proteins in the egg white begin to unravel then re-fold in a tight, tangled structure that gives the boiled egg its white, rubbery look. The machine works by unfolding the proteins in egg whites back to their natural state. Heat breaks up the bonds of proteins, which settle back into a more tightly bound mass. Professor Raston’s idea is to spin those bound proteins so fast that they fly apart again — but this time, without heat, they snap back to their original shapes. He said the device allowed more tightly controlled chemical processes to be performed, saving researchers time and reducing their materials wastage. Advertisement

He was awarded the prize in a ceremony at Harvard University by a panel of genuine Nobel Laureates in front of 1,100 spectators.

Professor Raston sported a tie emblazoned with fried eggs for the occasion.

Scientists from Flinders University and the University of California-Irvine worked together on the machine which could drastically cut costs for the pharmaceutical industry.

Researchers discovered the ability to untangle the proteins in the white of a hard-boiled egg to make them active again in a clear solution.

Proteins are used in a variety of industries including in the development of cancer medications.

But Professor Raston said the proteins in an egg white 'misfold' when it is being cooked – rendering them useless.

'If you think of a protein as a long piece of spaghetti, it coils up in a special way,' Professor Raston said.

'Often these proteins coil up into structurally incorrect shapes which makes them extremely difficult to process,' he said.

'But the vortex fluidic device causes the proteins to unwind and refold normally by spinning the material in a liquid in a rapidly rotating tube which can be titled at different angles, and the speed of rotation can be varied.'