2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour: Thanks!

A big thank you to everyone and everything who (or that) came to, helped organize, or otherwise was part of the 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour.

It all happened in six weeks, in ten countries: Scotland, England, Austria, The Czech Republic, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Italy (again). Several of the events were webcast, including the big show at Imperial College London:

Here’s a list of all (or at least most) of the 2019 Ig Nobel EuroTour events:

• March 9, Saturday, 1:00 pm—Science Discovery Day, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, in the Physics and Astronomy Building, the North Haugh—Marc Abrahams , with
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Charles Paxton (Courtship  behaviour of ostriches towards humans under farming conditions in Britain)
  • Scottish premiere performance of the chorus-enhanced version of William Topaz McGonagall‘s disastrous poem “The Tay Bridge Disaster”
• March 11, Monday—Prison visit.
• March 13, Wednesday—University of Manchester, UK—Simon Building, Brunswick St, on the corner with Oxford Road)—Marc Abrahams will do 2 events [UPDATE: Here’s a report about the two events]:
  • 2 pm, in room Room 2.60—Workshop [for MRC doctoral students] about “how to decide what is important and what’s not, and what’s real and what not”
  • 4 pm, in Lecture Theatre B—A talk [open to everyone] about “Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes“, preceded by tea, coffee, and cake at 3:30). TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS are free (but limited in number).
• March 16, Saturday, 3:00 pm—Imperial College London, UK, in the Great Hall—This is the first half of a special double-event day, together with BAHFest London (BAHFest begins at 7:00 pm). TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS are on sale; there is the option to purchase tickets for both events, or for  just one.]—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner James Heathcote (Why do old men have big ears?)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winners Alex Garcia-Faura (Vagina music, for fetuses)
  • Robert Ewers (Boring Speakers Talk for Longer)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner James Cole (Nutritional value of human cannibalism)
  • Andrew George (British premiere performance of the chorus-enhanced version of William Topaz McGonagall‘s ‘disastrous poem “The Tay Bridge Disaster”), with Ig Nobel Prize winner Chris McManus (Scrotal asymmetry in man and in ancient sculpture), Marnie Chesterton, Zach Weinersmith, Stevyn Colgan, members of the London Sea Shanty Collective, and other stars
• March 19, Tuesday, 6:00 pm—University of Graz, Austria, at Aula of Karl Franzens University Universitätsplatz 3—TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Minna Lyons (Comparison of psychopathic traits in night owls versus early risers)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Hynek Burda (Free-roaming dogs, when urinating, align themselves with earth’s magnetic lines)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Stephan Bolliger (Is it better to be hit on the head with a full bottle of beer, or a with an empty bottle of beer?)
• March 20, Wednesday, 5:00 pm—Ig Nobel Talk, hosted by Sisyfos, Prague, The Czech Republic, at the Czech Academy of Sciences—Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes and Improbable Research.
• March 25, Monday, 6:00 pm—EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, in the Rolex Forum—This is part of EPFL’s 50th anniversary celebration! TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS. [PREVIEW] “Cats and Locusts and Star Wars and ‘Huh?’ and Claire and Mark and Marc and Marc, on Monday, in Lausanne”—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Claire Rind (Monitoring a brain cell of a locust while that locust watches selected highlights from the movie Star Wars)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Marc Fardin (Can a cat be both a solid and a liquid?)
  • [Bad weather, and the susequent grounding of aircraft, prevented one speaker from attending: Ig Nobel Prize winner Mark Dingemanse (The word “huh?” seems to exist in every human language) was stuck at the airport in Amsterdam. Science journalist Pierre Barthélémy came to the rescue, doing an impromptu talk, in French, about Ig Nobel Prize-winning research he has written about in Le Monde.]
• March 28, Thursday, 7:30 pm—The Value of Improbable Research: An Ig Nobel Evening, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, at De Lindenberg—TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS are available. Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Mark Dingemanse (The word “huh?” seems to exist in every human language)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Nadia Dominici (People can run across the surface of a pond, if that pond is on the moon)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker (Homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck)
  • A philosophical round of questioning led by Lisa Doeland
• April 1, Monday, 6:00 pm—Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw, Poland—Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker (Homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck).
• April 3, Wednesday, 4:30 pm—University of Catania, Italy—at
  CSFNSM – Centro Siciliano di Fisica Nucleare e Struttura della Materia, via S. Sofia 64—Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes and Improbable Research. [PREVIEW] Confirmed rumor has it that the winners of the 2010 Ig Nobel prize for management will be at the event.
• April 9, Tuesday, 3:00 pm—Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, in the Biomedicum lecture hall—FREE ADMISSION, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC—[PREVIEW]—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Len Fisher (the optimal way to dunk a biscuit)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner James Cole (Nutritional value of human cannibalism)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winners Peter Witzgall, Erika Wallin, Marie Bengtsson (detecting, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine)
• April 10, Wednesday, 3:00 pm—University of Stockholm, Sweden, in the Alba Nova—FREE ADMISSION, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC—[PREVIEW, PREVIEW]—This event will be livestreamed on Stockholm Univ’s Facebook page—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Len Fisher (the optimal way to dunk a biscuit)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner James Cole (Nutritional value of human cannibalism)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winners Paul Becher, Erika Wallin, Erik Hedenström (detecting, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine)
  • The 24/7 Lectures by: Ragnhild Lunnan, Jonas Sellberg, Rezan Güler, Sara Strandberg
  • A human-endurance demonstration by Max Kesselberg
• April 11, Thursday, 2:00 pm—University of Oslo, Norway, at Kristine Bonnevies Hus, Auditorium 3—”A truly intriguing talk with Marc Abrahams“
• April 12, Friday, 8:00 pm—Ig Nobel Night in Berlin—Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany—Marc Abrahams, with special guest celebrity forensic entomologist Mark Benecke (analysis of some forensic-science-related Ig Nobel Prize winners). TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS are now on sale. [Some background, about the Ig Nobel Prizes.] [PREVIEW in Die Zeit], PREVIEW in Der Tagesspiegel]
• April 16, Tuesday, 6:00 pm—Perugia, Italy—at POST, Via del Melo, 34—Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes and Improbable Research. This event will be livestreamed on Facebook.

You can read about, see, or hear bits and pieces of the tour, in some of the clips on our press clips page.

Next year (2020)’s Ig Nobel EuroTour

We will soon begin organizing the 2020 Ig Nobel EuroTour. If your institution would like to host an event, please get in touch with us!