2008 Ig Nobel Tour of the U.K.

VIDEO: Watch the entire 2008 event at Imperial College London. Imperial College always hosts the most elaborate show of the entire UK tour.

The 2008 tour will happen in (and ever-so-slightly preceeding) National Science and Engineering Week, March 6-14, 2008. This is the sixth annual tour.

Sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of Science

March 6, 2008, Thursday, 7:30 pm	Oxford, Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, on Parks Road at the corner with Keble Road. (Click here for map.) … Special pre-tour event, on the day before National Science and Engineering Week officially begins. Free. Reserve tickets (max 2 per person) in advance at https://www.ox.compsoc.net/ignobel/. Tickets must be picked up at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the event. (You can turn up on the night, but capacity is limited so please reserve a place in advance to be sure of getting in.)	Featuring: Fiona Barclay, Jim Gundlach, John Hoyland, Chris McManus, Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer, Caroline Richmond. (Organizer: Alasdair Kergon, ignobel AT oxlug.org)
March 11, 2008, Tuesday, 6:00 pm	London. Imperial College. Great Hall, Level 2, Sherfield Building, South Kensington campus. (Click here for map.) … Free. Tickets (limit 2 per person) must be obtained in advance. Email events@imperial.ac.uk with your name, email and postal address. Tickets will be mailed approximately one week before the show and the tickets entitle everyone one free drink (beer, wine or soft drink) at the reception following the show. NOTE: Anyone who has not received their tickets by Friday, 7th March should email events@imperial.ac.uk to let them know.	Featuring: Kees Moeliker, Fiona Barclay, David Gadian, Jim Gundlach, John Hoyland, Erwin Kompanje, Maureen MacGlashan, Chris McManus, Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer. This event is co-sponsored by Imperial College’s Graduate Schools. (Organizer: Bethan Jones, b.v.jones AT imperial.ac.uk)
March 12, 2008, Wednesday, 6:30 pm	London. Guardian Newsroom Archive and Visitor Centre, 60 Farringdon Road. (Click here for map.) … Free. To reserve tickets, email (lisa.birk AT improbable.com). Tickets (limit 2 per person) must be obtained in advance, and must be picked up at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the event. (You can turn up on the night on the off chance that some ill-fated ticket-holder doesn’t show up, but capacity is limited so please reserve a place in advance to be sure of getting in.) NOTE: We had a snafu with a few of the early ticket reservations for this event. If you requested a reservation, you should have gotten a confirmation from us within 48 hours — if you did not hear back, please get in touch again ASAP!	Featuring: Kees Moeliker, Fiona Barclay, Piers Barnes, Jim Gundlach, John Hoyland, Erwin Kompanje, Maureen MacGlashan, Chris McManus, Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer. (Organizer: Lisa Birk, lisa.birk AT improbable.com)
March 14, 2008, Friday, 6:00 pm	Newcastle. Centre for Life, Conference and Banqueting, Times Square, Scottswood Road. (Click here for map.) … Free. Advance booking recommended as this will be a popular event. To reserve tickets, call 0191 243 8210 or email info@life.org.uk.(Click on the poster image to see a larger version.)	Featuring: Kees Moeliker, Jim Gundlach, Rob Ives, Claire Rind and Peter Simmons, Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer. (Organizer: Lisa Birk, lisa.birk AT improbable.com)

What and who: The shows feature Marc Abrahams, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prizes, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and Guardian columnist, together with a gaggle of Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers. Each show will include a unique combination of the following individuals:

NOTE: We will add to this list as other participants are confirmed.
• Kees Moeliker is curator of birds at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. He will discuss the possible imminent extinction of the pubic louse. Moeliker won the 2003 Ig Nobel Biology Prize for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. He is also the Annals of Improbable Research European Bureau Chief.
• Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer shared the 2007 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize for their penetrating medical report “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects.”
• Jim Gundlach is co-author of the study “The Effect of Country Music on Suicide,” for which he shared the 2004 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize.
• Maureen MacGlashan is the editor of The Indexer, the journal that published Glenda Browne’s 2007 Ig Nobel Literature Prize-winning study of the word “the” — and of the many ways “the” causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order.
• Piers Barnes, who shared the 2006 Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed
• Chris McManus wrote the study “Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture,” for which he later received the 2002 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize. He is Professor of Psychology and Medical Education at University College London.
• John Hoyland created and edits the “Feedback” column in New Scientist Magazine. He is a repository of improbable discoveries.
• Claire Rind and Peter Simmons shared the 2005 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie “Star Wars.”
• Rob Ives is founder and chief designer at FlyingPig, maker of paper moving mechanical models, including the mechanical Flying Spaghetti Monster.
• David Gadian and colleagues won the 2003 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize for for presenting evidence that the brains of London taxi drivers are more highly developed than those of their fellow citizens.

Fiona Barclay collaborated with Theo Gray to assemble the world’s first periodic table table — a large, lovely, four-legged piece of furniture that contains all the elements of the periodic table (except those that are overly lethal or have half-lives that are vanishingly small). The result: the 2002 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize. Fiona, a biochemist, is business development manager of RGB Research.

• Caroline Richmond writes colorful obituaries of the UK’s most colorful doctors. Her obituaries appear in the BMJ and other publications of record.
• Erwin Kompanje is a clinical ethicist at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a scholar of overlooked spectacular medical history.

History: Click here for glimpses at the 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, and 2003 tours.

Press contacts: Lisa Hendry (+44) (0)20 7019 4946 (lisa.hendry AT the-ba.net); or Marc Abrahams (+1) 617-491-4437 (marca AT chem2.harvard.edu).

SPECIAL NOTE for members of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (LFHCfS): You are invited to attend any of these shows as an on-stage object of admiration, and take a public bow. If possible, inform us before that you are coming, but in any event (1) please do come — and (2) please print a copy of your LFHCfS web page entry, and bring it with you — it will serve as your admission credential as a participant in the show.