Here is the Ig Informal Lecture by the winner of the 2020 Ig Nobel Entomology Prize.
The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. In the Ig Informal Lectures, some days after the ceremony, the new Ig Nobel Prize winners attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. [In non-pandemic years, the lectures happen at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, two days after the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. But in the pandemic year 2020, it’s all happening online.]
The 2020 Ig Nobel Prize for Entomology was awarded to Richard Vetter, for collecting evidence that many entomologists (scientists who study insects) are afraid of spiders, which are not insects.
He documented that research, in this study:
- “Arachnophobic Entomologists: When Two More Legs Makes a Big Difference,” Richard S. Vetter, American Entomologist, vol. 59, no. 3, 2013, pp. 168-175.
Schedule
We are releasing The Ig Informal Lectures, one at a time, here on www.improbablecom.wpcomstaging.com, and on YouTube. Here are the release dates:
- November 26th, 2020: Economics
- December 3rd, 2020: Psychology
- December 17th, 2020: Medicine
- December 24th, 2020: Physics
- December 31st, 2020: Entomology
- January 7th, 2021: Acoustics
- January 14th, 2021: Materials Science