The Ig Nobel Prize-winning study about why strings get tangled got an appreciative nod in the Veritasium video about knots and knot theory. The mention moment comes at about 31:50 in the video: Of course the video is not not worth watching in its entirety: The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to […]
Category: Ig Nobel
News about the Ig Nobel Prizes — honoring achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK.
The 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony: Countdown, and where to watch!
The 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen entirely online on Thursday, September 14, 2023. The webcast begins at 6 pm (U.S. eastern time) and will be available for viewing on the ceremony page. Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be introduced. Each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.
Japan’s Ig Nobel Prize Winners, Celebrated
Nippon.com is running an ongoing series of profiles of Ig Nobel Prize winners. They say: ‘The Ig Nobel Prize recognizes scientific research that “makes people laugh and then makes them think.” Japanese researchers have consistently been among its recipients since 2007, including a Bandai employee who won the illustrious prize for developing the Tamagotchi and […]
Politicians’ Big (Prize-winning) Influence on Life and Death (new data)
The results in a new medical study bolster the reputations of the nine national leaders who shared the 2020 Ig Nobel Prize for Medical Education. That prize was awarded to Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Narendra Modi of India, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Donald […]
Interview with Roy Glauber about Oppenheimer
Several years ago, Dan Drollette interviewed Roy Glauber. Here’s a portion of that interview, published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: “Glauber was one of the youngest scientists in the 1,400-person Los Alamos staff, and afterward he went on to a distinguished career in physics… Glauber was known for his sense of humor, such […]
INVITATION: Throw paper airplanes in the 2023 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony
We invite you to throw paper planes in this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Seth Gliksman created this brief invitation video. The video tells what and how: The ceremony — the 33rd First Annual — will happen entirely online, on Thursday evening, September 14, 2023, beginning at 6:0 pm (US eastern time). DEADLINE for submitting […]
Madam Van take a bi-lingual educational dive into the Ig Nobel Prizes
Let Madame be your guide:
A grand Japanese gathering of Ig Nobel winners and plans
A few years ago, the TV network NHK again gathered together several Japanese Ig Nobel Prize winners, for a look back at some of their favorite prizes, and a look ahead at some of their hopes and research dreams:
Cutting remarks: The power of few words
This year’s 24/7 Lecturers are hard at work preparing their lectures for the 33rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. These lectures — a complete technical description of a subject in 24 seconds, followed by a clear summary in seven words — demand more skill and thought than the audience may realize. Here is a […]
Some history of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and all that
Eugenie Scott and I had a fun talk, for an online meeting of the Bay Area Skeptics, about the Ig Nobel Prizes. This happened on June 8, 2023. Here’s video: