UPDATE (February 28): A big thank you to everyone who sent in suggestions and offers! We are now firming up plans for this event, which will happen on Thursday night, March 10. We will post details soon on the Ig Nobel Tour of the UK page.
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We want to add a little pre-tour event to this year’s Ig Nobel Tour of the UK, and are looking for an institution in London that would enjoy hosting it. This would be on either Thursday night, 10 March or Friday night, 11 March.
Like all our events, it’s all about research that makes people laugh, then then think.
This event will be unlike the others on the UK tour. It will be smaller, less formal, and have a different format and content. It will consist of an all-star lineup of scientists (probably including one or more Ig Nobel Prize winners), science journalists, and other colorful individuals. Each will do a simple, two-minute dramatic reading from a study that was honored with an Ig Nobel Prize.
We’re calling this Improbable Research After Dark, because some of the studies are on topics that might possibly, conceivably, theoretically, offend individuals who are prim, proper, and of high sensibility. We will advise that anyone who is easily offended by anything should not come to this event.
This kind of event is something of an experiment. We’ve done it once, last year at the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Science Festival. This London experiment will have a tweaked (new! improved!) format. And whatever we learn here will be applied in April in Edinburgh (as one of three different events we’re doing at the Edinburgh Science Festival).
If your institution would like to host this event, please get in touch with us ASAP at <marca@improbablecom.wpcomstaging.com>
(The tour itself begins a few days later, and will include much more elaborate shows in Liverpool, Bristol, London, and Dundee. It’s the 9th annual tour for National Science & Education Week.) Twitter: #IGUKTOUR