A bevy of Ig Nobel Prize winners — scientists who have done things that make people LAUGH, then THINK — will strut their stuff in the 2014 Ig Nobel tour of Europe. It happens March 14—April 2. Here’s a quick list of events:
- Fri, March 14 …. LONDON, Imperial College.
- Mon, March 17 …. COVENTRY, University of Warwick
- Tue, March 18 …. LONDON. Conway Hall.
- Thu, March 20 …. LEEDS, University of Leeds
- Mon, March 24 …. AARHUS. University of Aarhus
- Tue, March 25 …. AARHUS. University of Aarhus
- Wed, March 26 …. COPENHAGEN, Copenhagen University
- Thu, March 27 …. STOCKHOLM, Karolinska Institute
- Thu, March 27 …. STOCKHOLM, ABF House
- Wed, April 2 …. PORTSMOUTH, University of Portsmouth
For full details, see our events schedule. For fuller details of the UK part of the tour, see the 2014 UK tour page. Among the participants (in various shows):
- Marc Abrahams (editor of the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, father of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony) [Marc will be master of ceremonies at all the tour events.]
- Brian Crandall (Ig Nobel Prize winner —the experimental swallowing and excreting of a parboiled shrew)
- Masanori Niimi (Ig Nobel Prize winner —the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice)
- Kees Moeliker (Ig Nobel Prize winner —homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck, and who will now tell the strange recent history of pubic lice)
- Robin Ball (Ig Nobel Prize winner — the physics of ponytails)
- Ilja van Beest (Ig Nobel Prize winner — roller coaster rides as a treatment for asthma)
- Richard Stephens (Ig Nobel Prize winner — swearing as a response to pain)
- The QI Elves (the researchers who dig up info for the British TV program ‘QI’)
- Mason Porter (mathematician — bipolar patients as harmonic oscillators)
- David Schultz (weather researcher — does it rain more often on weekends?)
- Alex Ford (biologist —the happiness of clams who take Prozac)
NEW DUCK OPERA: The show at Imperial College London will include the world premiere of “The Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera” by Daniel Gillingwater, with a cameo appearance by Kees Moeliker, the Ig Nobel Prize-winning discoverer of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck.
DRAMATIC IMPROBABLE READINGS: Several of the shows will also feature celebrated persons each doing two-minute-long dramatic readings from genuine — and bizarre — published scientific studies. The readings will be part of the shows at Imperial College London, Conway Hall (London), and The University of Leeds.
The tour also celebrates publication of the new book This Is Improbable Too, by Marc Abrahams. The Daily Mail has already celebrated the book, saying: “It’s almost dementedly inconsequential.”