Since 2001, the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony has included the 24/7 Lectures, in which some of the world’s top thinkers each explained a concept in two ways:
First, a complete, technical description in 24 seconds, and then, a clear summary that anyone can understand in 7 words.
Now all the 24/7 Lectures are collected, together in one place.
You can see the lecture texts, as well as notes, a link to the video of each lecture, and the a count of the actual number of words used in the clear 7-word summary.
There have been over 60 Lectures since this program began in 2001. The lecturers have included Nobel Laureates, Professors, Authors, and Inventors. The List of topics explained in 24 seconds and then in 7 words has included Statistics, Dark Matter, Income Inequality, Vaginal pH, Genius, Cryptography, The Genome, and The Possibility of Arsenic Based Life In Our Universe.
“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge.” – Book of Proverbs
“Long life should be longer. Speech should be short.” – Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats
The webpage also includes a precursor to the 24/7 Lectures: The Heisenberg Certainty Lectures. These lectures, a featured part of most of the early Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies, were each 30 seconds long, written and performed by many Nobel Laureates. Each Heisenberg Certainty lecturer could talk about whatever they wanted — but were strictly limited to those 30 seconds. The time limit was enforced by referee John Barrett. The ranks of Heisenberg Certainty Lectures included Car Talk hosts Tom & Ray Magliozzi, the president of Bijan Fragrances, the chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department, and other luminaries.
