Ariel Kraakman demonstrates the dynamics of hula-hooping, on the day after she first took up the practice. In so doing, she unknowingly honors the research of scientists Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael Turvey, who were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physics in 2004 for their study “Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping” […]
Category: Improbable TV
Documentaries and other videos that make people LAUGH, then THINK.
Ig Nobel webcast will be live on YouTube
Good news! The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will be streamed live on YouTube. Details are on the ceremony web page. This should make it simple and easy for almost everyone to watch.
Video: The Best of Miss Sweetie Poo
The organizers of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony solved an ancient problem: How to keep speeches from droning on and on… The solution, called “Miss Sweetie Poo”, is an 8-year-old girl who tells long-winded speakers to “Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored…” Here are Miss Sweetie Poo highlights from several Ig ceremonies.
Improbable Research Collection #128: The 2009 Ig Nobel Prize for Public Health
At the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, Public Health Prize winner Dr. Elena Bodnar demonstrates her invention – a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander. She is assisted by Nobel laureates […]
The Big Bank Opera (video), redux
As fans of the Ig Nobel Ceremony, opera, and large-scale economic failure may remember, “The Big Bank Opera” premiered as a featured part of the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. A few weeks ago, we posted all four acts to YouTube, each as a separate episode (#124-7) of the Improbable Research TV series. The libretto […]
The Big Bank Opera (video)
“The Big Bank Opera” premiered as a featured part of the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Here’s the entire mini-opera — Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 and Act 4 — each as a separate episode (#124-7) of the Improbable Research TV series. The video displayed below is Act 3, which is called “The Big […]
Improbable Research Collection #123
William Lipscomb, the 1976 Nobel laureate in chemistry, is a Kentucky colonel. He is famous for wearing string ties. Here he demonstrates how to tie a string tie. We made this video as part of the celebration for Professor Lipscomb’s upcoming 90th birthday.
Big-Banks/Big-Bang Opera preview
Big Banks and the Big Bang theory combine in these two new episodes (#122 and #121) of the Improbable Research TV series. These were filmed at an early rehearsal of “The Big Bank Opera”. The plot: Stylish bankers in a swanky Wall Street bar explain the explosive rise and fall of big banking and big […]
Improbable Research Collection #121
Here’s the new episode — #121, “Big Bank Opera Rehearsal, Act 1” — of the Improbable Research TV series. The episode depicts an early rehearsal of Act 1 of “The Big Bank Opera”, in which stylish bankers in a swanky Wall Street bar explain the explosive rise and fall of big banking and big bankers. […]
Improbable Research Collection #119
Here’s the new episode — #119, “MRI Sex” — of the Improbable Research TV series. Dr. Pek Van Andel, who won an Ig Nobel Prize for making the first MRI images of a couple’s sex organs while those organs were in use, also made a video of the phenomenon. Here, more or less, is the […]