Animal feed seen as shining achievement in Finland

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finns are prouder of their country's contributions to animal fodder than they are of achievements in mobile communications technology, according to a study in the home country of Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker.

Only one in six Finns was even able to name a Finnish invention or scientific achievement, the survey conducted by research firm Yhdyskuntatutkimus for the Finnish Society for Scientific Information, said.

Of those, nearly four times as many Finns named preserved animal fodder, invented by 1945 Nobel Prize winner A.I. Virtanen, a notable Finnish scientific achievement as selected the runner-up, sugar substitute xylitol.

Nokia, mobile phone-related inventions and open source computer operating system Linux ranked below genetic research, but above a plate-drying cupboard as notable achievements, the study showed.

(Reporting by Sakari Suoninen; editing by Sue Thomas)