Some Past Improbable Research Events
(Click here to see list of upcoming events.)
For events prior to 2008, see back issues of mini-AIR, our monthly newsletter.
| February 15, 2008, Friday | AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts 8:00 pm. Republic A room, Sheraton Boston Hotel. (Click here for a map.) “Update on Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes.” Annual special Improbable Research session. Featuring: AIR editor Marc Abrahams, Ig Nobel Prize winner Gauri Nanda (inventor of Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away and hides repeatedly); Steve Nadis (“Just How Many Holy Grails of Science Are There?”); Toscanini’s Ice Cream Proprietor Gus Rancatore (Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize winner Mayu Yamamoto‘s discovery of how to extract vanillin from cow dung, and applications of this for making delicious ice cream; Gus will will also touch on the 89th Anniversary of the Great Boston Molasses Flood); Elaine Chew and Alexandre Francois (A technical analysis of the music of P.D.Q. Bach); David Kessler and Joshua Kroll (“Technical Secrets of the Ig Nobel Ceremony”); and eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo will help ensure that all the talks are delightfully brief. Open to the public — free. |
| March 6-16, 2008 | Ig Nobel UK Tour (for National Science Week) Click here for details. |
| April 1, 2008 | Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands16.00-17.30. Woudestein Campus, Zaal B-3, Burg. Oudlaan 50. Entrance free. Lof der Zotheid-lezing ?Is er leven na een dode eend?? (Is there life after a dead duck?). Ig Nobel prize winner and European Bureau Chief of Improbable Research Kees Moeliker will speak (in fluent Dutch) about ?Onwaarschijnlijk Onderzoek en de Ig Nobel prijzen?. He will highlight the achievement that won him an Ig Nobel prize and will talk about his recent quest to acquire specimens of the rapidly declining pubic louse. As a supporting act, medical ethicist Erwin Kompanje will reveal his discovery, in the 16th century medical literature, of a remarkable but forgotten device. Click here for general info, and here for a map. |
| April 21, 2008, Monday | Skeptics in the Pub, Asgard, Cambridge, MA7:00 pm. 350 Mass Ave.. Free. Marc Abrahams will discuss improbable research with a barful of skeptical people. |
| April 23, 2008, Wednesday | Brown Bag Lecture, Chemical Heritage Foundation, PhiladelphiaFree. 315 Chestnut Street, 6th Floor Conference Room.Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes and, possibly, brown bags. |
| June 1, 2008, Sunday | American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Annual Conference, Colorado Convention Center, Denver.7:00 pm. Marc Abrahams will give the opening plenary talk: “Improbable Research, Spectrometric and Otherwise.” Info: Gary Glish. |
| June 5, 2008, Thursday, 5:55 pm | Dead Duck Day. Natural History Museum Rotterdam, The Netherlands.Annual commemoration of the day the famous mallard duck crashed into the glass wall of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, precipitating the denouement of what became the first scientifically documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker will preside, aided by the dead duck. For location and further information click here. |
| June 7, 2008, Saturday, 9:00 pm. | Cheltenham Science Festival, UKIn Town Hall. Ig Nobel Cabaret. Marc Abrahams will introduce Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer (Ig Nobel Prize winner?medical effects of sword swallowing), Fiona Barclay (collaborator on the Ig-winning Periodic Table Table) and Charles Paxton (Ig winner?courtship behaviour of ostriches towards humans under farming conditions in Britain), and John Hoyland (New Scientist’s Feedback editor) |
| July 27, 2008, 3:00 pm | “QED,” Central Square Theater, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Marc Abrahams will lead an audience discussion after a performance of the play about physicist Richard Feynman. |
| August 1, 2008, Friday | Tickets go on sale for the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. |
| August 23, Saturday 2008, 12:15 pm-1:15 pm | Alpbach Technology Forum, Alpbach, Austria.Marc Abrahams and Kees Moeliker will give a plenary talk: “Improbable Research and the Future of Europe”. The session will include a special guest appearance by a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. This plenary session is open to the public, free. |
| September 24, 2008, Wednesday | Deadline to register Official Theme Delegations for the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Details to be announced. |
| October 2, 2008, Thursday, 7:30 pm | Eighteenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA7:30 pm. Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, MA. Tickets go on sale August 1. NOTE: The live webcast begins at 7:15 pm, with the pre-ceremony concert by Paul & Storm. |
| October 4, 2008, Saturday, 1:00 pm | Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, Cambridge, MARoom 10-250. Co-sponsored by the MIT Press Bookstore. |
| October 10,2008, Friday evening | Ohio-Region Section of the American Physical Society (OSAPS),Dayton, Ohio.Open to the public, free. Marc Abrahams will discuss the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize winners (who will have been announced just a few days earlier) and previous winners. Details to be announced. (This is a joint meeting of the Ohio-Region Section of the APS, the Southern Ohio Section of the AAPT, and the Dayton Section of the American Chemical Society, co-hosted by the Department of Engineering Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology and the Physics Department, Wright State University.) |
| October 22, 2008, Wednesday, 8:00 pm | KW-Cafe, SCC Muzeval, Eersel, Noord-Brabant, the NetherlandsIg Nobel prize winner Kees Moeliker will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel prizes, including his own prize winning achievement. Improbable investigator Erwin Kompanje will present forgotten discoveries in 18th century medicine. Language: Dutch (fluently) Tickets 8 euro. Click here for location. |
| October 24, 2008, Friday, 9:00 pm | Festival della Scienza, Genoa, ItalySala del Maggior Consiglio, Palazzo Ducale. Marc Abrahams will introduce several Ig Nobel Prize winners, and officiate at at special ceremony.Two Ig-winning teams will receive their Ig Nobel Prizes. (Both teams were unable to travel to the Ig Nobel Ceremony at Harvard.)2008 Ig Nobel Nutrition Prize winner Massimiliano Zampini will receive his (and Charles Spence’s) Ig Nobel Prize for their potato-chip-sound-modification work).2008 Ig Nobel Biology Prize winners Marie-Christine Cadiergues and Christel Joubert will receive their Ig Nobel Prize (for their comparative-flea-jumping work).2008 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize winner Dan Ariely will explain how he and his team demonstrated that high-priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine. [NOTE: Professor Ariely will also give a longer talk, earlier that evening, in the same room, about the full range of his research into irrational economic behavior.]2007 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize winners Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer will then explain and demonstrate their prize-winning study “Swordswallowing and Its Side Effects.”David Gross, 2004 Nobel Laureate in physics, will be on hand to help honor the Ig Nobel Prize winners. |
| November 12, 2008 | Congreso Nacional de Divulgacion de la Ciancia y la Tecnica Nayarit, Tepic, MexicoMarc Abrahams will discuss Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| November 22, 2008, Saturday, 10.00 – 11.45 am | SciCom08 Vienna, Technical University Vienna, AustriaKarlzplatz 13, 1040 Wien, AustriaIg Nobel prize winner Kees Moeliker will talk about: ‘Science communication with a laugh: Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes‘ |
| November 28, 2008, Friday | “Science Friday” Ig Nobel radio specialClick here for broadcast time on your local station, or to listen to it on the web.Annual special broadcast—a specially edited version of the 2008 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. (“Science Friday’ is a two-hour program. The Ig special will be the first of those two hours. |
| February 13, 2009, Friday, 8:00 pm(Plus: press briefing earlier in the day, at 5:00 pm) | AAAS Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USAChicago Fairmont Hotel (200 N Columbus Dr), in the Moulin Rouge Room. Annual special Improbable Research session. Marc Abrahams will review the past year’s improbable research and Ig Nobel Prize winners. Several Ig winners (and/or colleagues) will try to explain what they did and why they did it, and will field questions. Participants include: Joe Cychosz (world’s quickest barbeque ignition, using liquid oxygen); Theo Gray (the periodic table table); Dan Meyer (swordswallowing and its side effects).Also featuring: the introduction of the 1,000th Steve to join Project Steve. (And click here to download a copy of the AIR article “The Morphology of Steve“)Also featuring a performance of the mini-opera “Atom & Eve”, starring Genevieve Thiers and Opera Moda.Free, and open to the public.NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A few hours earlier, there will be a special press briefing, including a swordswallowing demonstration — with most or all of the performers. The briefing is open only to newsroom registrants; it will happen at 5:00 pm, in the news briefing room.The opera performance is made possible by a generous grant from the Illinois Science Council. |
| March 7-12, 2009 | Ig Nobel Tour of the UKAnnual tour for National Science and Engineering Week, with events in Oxford (March 7), Newcastle (March 9), Portsmouth (March 10), Bristol (March 11), and London (March 12). Click here for details. |
| March 25-26 2009, Wednesday-Friday | SciFest Africa, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South AfricaMarc Abrahams will give a lecture and a talkshop about “Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes.”Mar 26, Wed, 6:30-7:30 pm, at the Gary Butler TheatreMar 27, Thu, 9:30-10:30 am, at the Olive Schreiner Hall |
| April 22-25, 2009 | Ig Nobel Tour of DenmarkHeld in conjunction with The Festival of Research.All events are free—but you must obtain tickets (click here for details, in Danish).Aarhus, April 22, 7:00 pm.Søauditorierne, Aarhus University, Wilhelm Meyers Alle 1251, 8000 Aarhus. (Click here for a map) (Click here to book tickets.)Odense, April 23, 2:00 pm.University of Southern Denmark, in the main campus restaurant, half an hour after the opening ceremony of the Days of Science. The campus is situated on the Campusvej 55, 5300 Odense M outside the city. (Click here for a map.)Copenhagen, April 24, 7:00 pm.Lundbeck auditorium Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200 København N. (Click here for a map.) (Ticketscan be obtained at the Zoological and Geological Museum.)Odense(again), April 25, 11:30 am.Municipal hall in central Flakhaven, Odense.Kerteminde, Fjord&Bælt, April 25, 2:30 pm.Marine research station, University of Southern Denmark, Hindsholmsvej 11, Kerteminde. (This will be a special, and brief, show. Only about 200 ticketsare available—you are advised to get them in advance.)Participants: Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners Bart Knols (malarial mosquitoes are attracted equally to limburger chees and smelly feet), Kees Moeliker (homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck), Dan Meyer (sword-swallowing and its medical side-effects), Magnus Wahlberg and Håkan Westerberg(herrings apparently communicate by farting). Further details to be announced. (Info: Magnus Wahlburg, magnus AT fjord-baelt.dk)Each show will be a slightly different mix of performers. Click here for a preview. |
| May 2 , 2009, Saturday, 3:00 pm | Cambridge Science Festival, Massachusetts, USAImprobable Research Cabaret, Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue.Featuring Marc Abrahams, Ig Nobel Prize winners Lynn Halpern (why people dislike the sound of fingernails on a blackboard), and (Deborah J. Anderson (Is Coca-Cola an effective spermicide?). Also featuring Studmuffins of Science Calendar creator Karen Hopkin will explain why astrology is just as reliable for bacteria as it is for humans, Julia Lunetta performing songs from the Ig Nobel Operas accompanied by Neara Russell, the Performing Scientists from Harvard and MIT. Illumination will be provided by the Human Spotlights. Speeches will be kept to promptitude thanks to Miss Sweetie Poo.This event will be doing double duty — It’s a festival event, and also a fundraiser for the Central Square Theater, Greater Boston’s newest theatrical arts center in the heart of Central Square. TICKETS: Adults: $35. Students: $20. Tickets include post-performance reception with Cabaret scientists.To reserve tickets: buy online, or phone KC Forcier at 617.576.9278 x 208, or email her at kcf@centralsquaretheater.org |
| May 4, 2009, Monday, 9:00 am | Council of Science Editors Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USAHilton Hotel and Towers. Marc Abrahams will give a plenary talk on “Improbable Research—Less and More Than Meets the Eye.” Info: Diane Sullenberger (DSullenb AT nas.edu) |
| May 6, 2009, Wednesday, 6:30 pm. | Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USAWean 7500, School of Computer Science.Marc Abrahams will give a profusely illustrated talk: “Update on Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes.” Free, open to the public. (Click here to see a map.) INFO: Catherine Copetas (copetas@cs.cmu.edu) |
| June 5, 2009, Friday | Dead Duck Day, Natural History Museum Rotterdam13th annual commemoration of the sudden and dramatic death on June 5th, 1995 of the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) that entered the scientific literature as the first victim of homosexual necrophilia in this species. In 2003, the incident was also commemorated with the awarding of the Ig Nobel Biology Prize. Details to be announced. |
| June, 13, 2009, Saturday, 9.30 pm | De Nacht van Kunst en Wetenschap, Universiteitsmuseum Groningen, the NetherlandsKees Moeliker will explain how and why he won the Ig Nobel Prize. Entrance free.Click for location and details. |
| July 31, 2009, Friday | Tickets go on sale for the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize CeremonyTickets will be available at the Harvard Box Office in Holyoke Center, Harvard Square, and also online. |
| August 4, 2009, 7:00 pm. | “Summer in the City” series—Temple Israel, Boston 477 Longwood Avenue. (click here for directions). Marc Abrahams will discuss “Improbable Research and the Strangeness of Everyday Life.” Free to all. |
| October 1, 2009, Thursday, 7:15 pm | 2009 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASanders Theatre. Purchase tickets from the Harvard Box Office in Holyoke Center (Harvard Square) and online. |
| October 3, 2009, Saturday, 1:00 pm | 2009 Ig Informal Lectures, MIT building 10, room 250, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USAMIT. The new winners each briefly try to explain what they did, and why. |
| October 10, 2009, Saturday, 5:00 pm | Parisscience International Film Festival, Paris, France.Auditorium of the Grand Galerie de l’Evolution, 36, rue Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Paris 5e.Improbable Research European bureau chief (and Ig Nobel Prize winner) Kees Moeliker will be part of a special debate on “Humor and Science” . |
| October 24, 2009, Saturday, 9:00 pm. | Genoa Science Festival, Genoa, ItalySala del Maggior Consiglio, Palazzo Ducale. Annual Ig Nobel special event featuring Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners Prof. Dr. Johanna E.M.H. van Bronswijk and Dan Meyer. |
| February 19, 2010, Friday, 8:00 pm. twitter: #igAAAS10 | AAAS Annual Meeting, San Diego San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina, Seaview Room.Annual Improbable Research show at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting.With Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners Dr. Elena Bodnar (emergency bra/mask), Dr. Donald Unger (60 years of knuckle-cracking), Dorian Raymer (string inevitably tangles itself into knots); and Dr. Hagop Akiskal(romantic love is biochemically indistinguishable from obsessive-compulsive disorder) as well as:Miriam Sach, Ph.D., who will dance her dissertation; Dr. Beatrice Golomb(objects found in patients’ rectums); and others to be announced.[NOTE: We have invited 1998 Ig winner Deepak Chopra(quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness), but do not yet know if he can join us.](Click here for a preview by Scott LaFee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and here for a press account of last year’s show.)Free, open to the public.PRESS NOTE: Most of these individuals will also appear at a special press briefing at 5:30 pm in the Press Briefing Room, in theSan Diego Convention Center (restricted to registered journalists only) |
| March 11-19, 2010 twitter: #IGUKTOUR | Ig Nobel Tour of the UKEighth annual tour for National Science & Engineering Week. Oxford, Dundee, Portsmouth, Liverpool, London, Bristol. See UK Tour page for details. |
| April 14, 2010, Wednesdaytwitter: #iguksg10 | UK Serials Group Annual Conference, Edinburgh, ScotlandMarc Abrahams will talk about improbable research, for conference attendees. |
| April 17, 2010, Saturday, 6:00 pm.twitter: #igesf10 | Edinburgh Science Festival, Edinburgh, ScotlandInformatics Forum, 10 Crichton St.Marc Abrahams will discuss some of the most spectacular Ig Nobel Prize winners. |
| April 20-24, 2010twitter: #IGNOBEL | Ig Nobel Tour of ScandinaviaShows in Gothenburg (April 20, several events), Copenhagen (April 22), Odense (April 23, 3:00 pm), Kerteminde (April 24, afternoon), Aarhus (April 24, evening).Click here for details of where, when, and who.Research opportunity: If time permits, we might conduct research on The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent. |
| May 1, 2010, Saturday.Four events: 10:00 a.m., noon, 2:00 pm, 3:30 pm.twitter: #IGNOBEL | Cambridge Science Festival, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA., Cambridge Public Library.Improbable Readings from the Ig Nobel PrizesFour separate sessions, each with a different theme:
All four events are FREE. Ig Nobel Prize winners and other splendid persons will read short selections from their, our, and your favorite, juiciest Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies and books. Organizer: Katherine Meusey. Click here for DETAILS. |
| September 6, 2010, Monday, 7:00 pm | Coolidge Corner Cinema, Brookline, MA, USAMarc Abrahams (the man in the blue suit — an Ig Nobel Prize-winning self-perfuming business suit) will introduce a special showing of the classic Alec Guinness film “The Man in the White Suit“. Daniel Rosenberg (the man in the white lab coat) will add insights about the chemistry of the white suit. Special appearances by Human Spotlight Jim Bredt (the man in the silver suit) and Boston Globe Miss Conduct columnist Robin Abrahams (the woman in the little black dress). |
| September 23, 2010, Thursday, 4:30 pm | Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA,Bornstein Family Amphitheater.Marc Abrahams will do a talk for National Postdoc Appreciation Week. Details to be announced. |
| September 28, 2010, Tuesday, 11:00 am | MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA, USA,Dr. Elena Bodnar, 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize winner, will hold a press conference to announce that her Emergency Bra is now available to the public. |
| September 30, 2010, Thursday, 7:30 pm. | Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USATwentieth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. The event will be webcast live on YouTube. |
| October 2, 2010, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USAThe new Ig Nobel Prize winners (and also a few past winners) explain, as best they can, what they did and why they did it. Details to be announced. |
| October 23, 2010, Saturday, 1:30 pm | USA Science & Engineering Festival, Washington, D.C., USAAndrew W. Mellon Auditorium at 14th and Constitution St. NW. Marc Abrahams will do a talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| October 31, 2010, Sunday | w00tstock, Boston, MA, USA Marc Abrahams will do something or other about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| November 3, 2010, Wednesday, 6:00 pm | Agronomy, Crops, and Soil Science Societies International Annual Meetings, Long Beach, CA, USAMarc Abrahams will do a talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes, completely contradicting everything said by the previous speaker, Jared Diamond. |
| November 5, 2010,Friday evening | National Association of Science Writers 75th Anniversary Meeting, New Haven, Connecticut, USAMarc Abrahams will emcee the evening party that features star turns by some of America’s most performance-oriented science writers. Details to be announced. |
| November 10, 2010,Wednesday evening | Raytheon Employees Assn, Waltham, MA, USAMarc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| November 26, 2010, Friday | Ig Nobel Prize broadcast, Science Friday program, National Public Radio Annual day-after-Thanksgiving broadcast — a specially edited version of the year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. It will be the first hour of the two-hour “Science Friday” program. In most—but not all!—cities this will be from 2:00-3:00 pm. (Some NPR stations schedule it at other times.) Many stations also stream the broadcast online. |
| February 12, 2011, Saturday, 4:00 pm. | Capricon, Chicago, Illinois, USA Panel discussion: “Ig Nobel Prizes / The Emergency Bra”, led by Improbable Research designer Geri Sullivan. Open to all con registrants. |
| February 19, 2011, Saturday, 7:00-9:00pm | AAAS Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA Renaissance Downtown Hotel (999 Ninth Street NW), in the Renaissance West AB room.Annual Improbable Research show at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Featuring:
Open to the general public. Free. #AAASmtg |
| March 10-20, 2011 | Ig Nobel Tour of the UK Ninth annual tour for National Science & Engineering Week, featuring Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers. For details see the tour page. Shows in:
Twitter: #IGUKTOUR |
| April 9 (Saturday), and then a week later: April 17 (Sunday — two events, back-to-back, on same night), April 18 (Monday), 2011 Four events.twitter: #EdSciFest | Edinburgh Science Festival, Scotland Four events. (Preview: BBC interview)
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| April 29, 2011, Friday | GEL Conference, New York, NY, USA —Marc Abrahams will do a talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| May 4, 2011, Wednesday, 5:30 pm | UMass Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Alumni Hall, 5:30 pm — Marc Abrahams will be the banquet speaker at the annual Physics Department banquet. INFO: Soumitra Satapathi <Soumitra_Satapathi@student.uml.edu> |
| Two events:May 2 (Monday), 7:30 pm andMay 7 (Saturday), 2011 , 11:00 pm | Cambridge (Massachusetts) Science Festival Improbable research will present two events:1. Scientists (and friends) Sing Improbable Science Songs — MONDAY NIGHT, May 2, 7:30 pm. Central Square Theater.TICKETS are on sale at the Central Square Theater and online. This will be a benefit for the Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Science Theater Project.Some of the world’s great scientists (and some friends from the Boston area’s theater and music communities) perform songs by Tom Lehrer, songs from Ig Nobel Prize ceremony mini-operas, and other beloved and hated purportedly funny songs about science. Songs include: The Elements, Lobachevsky, Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Dress, the mini-opera Atom & Eve, The Coffee Diet, and much more. Featuring:
2. Improbable Research After Dark — Saturday night, May 7, 11 pm (After “Breaking the Code“).Central Square Theater. TICKETS are on sale at the Central Square Theater and online. This will be a benefit for the Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Science Theater Project and Improbable Research. Dramatic, two-minute-long readings from studies and patents that have won Ig Nobel Prizes, performed by some of the Boston area’s leading scientists, actors, and journalists. These are studies that make people laugh, then think. WARNING: Do not come to this event if you are easily offended by anything. Studies include The Effect of Coca-Cola as a Spermicide; The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow; The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Duck; and many more. Featuring:
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| May 16, 2011, Monday,1:00 pm | NIH Office of History, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA — Marc Abrahams will discuss some improbable medical research, and collect nominations for the Ig Nobel Prize. Info: Kristofor Langlais <langlaik@mail.nih.gov> |
| May 17, 2011, Tuesday, 1:00 pm | NIH Eunice Shriver Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) 7th Annual Fellows Retreat, Airlie Center, Warrenton, VA, USAMarc Abrahams will deliver the keynote address. Info: Kristofor Langlais <langlaik@mail.nih.gov> |
| June 4, 2011, Saturday | De Nacht van Kunst & Wetenschap [The Night of Arts and Science], Groningen, The NetherlandsKees Moeliker will talk about ‘Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel prizes’at the Academiegebouw, Senaatskamer 21:45-22.15h.Then Kees will join the talkshow DWDD at Forum Images, Zaal 2, 23:45-00.15, with a concert of ‘Dead Duck Day’ after midnight |
| June 5, 2011, Sunday, 5:55 pm exactly | Dead Duck Day, Natural History Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands — Join museum curator Kees Moeliker (who is also an Ig Nobel Prize winner and also Improbable Research’s European Bureau Chief) as he and other citizens of Rotterdam reenact the historic collision of a mallard duck with the side of the museum building, and the subsequent events that were later documented in the study “The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos“, which was subsequently honored with the awarding of the 2003 Ig Nobel prize in biology. Afterwards, everyone will go to a restaurant to enjoy a good duck dinner. |
| June 29, 2011, Wednesday | World Conference of Science Journalists, Doha, Qatar — Marc Abrahams and Reto Schneider and Jennifer Ouellette will argue strenuously in a special session on the theme: humor in science reporting. |
| August 2, 2011, Tuesday, 12:00 noon. | Tickets will go on sale for the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony.Tickets will go on sale at noon(Cambridge, Massachusetts time) from the Harvard Box Office, in Holyoke Center and online. |
| August 28, 2011, Sunday, 9:00-11:30 am. | American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting, Denver, Colorado —. Colorado Convention Center, Four Seasons Ballroom 4. Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes as they pertain to chemistry, at a President’s Session panel discussion called “Empowering Tomorrow’s Science Super Heroes“. |
| September 4, 2011, Sunday, 5:30 pm. | HUPO 10th Annual World Congress, Geneva, Switzerland — Marc Abrahams will give a plenary lecture, a little about translational proteomics and a lot about the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| September 7, 2011, Wednesday, 7:00 pm | Life Science Network Basel, Basel, Switzerland — The Transbarent bar, next to the Basel SBB station (Viaduktstrasse 3, CH-4051 Basel)Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes. Info: Philipp Angerer, philipp.angerer@lsnb.ch |
| September 10, 2011, Saturday, 2:00 pm. | Memorial event for William Lipscomb, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA — This will be at Memorial Church, on the Harvard campus. All are welcome. |
| September 25, 2011, Sunday | Memorial event for Jerry Lettvin, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA — MIT room 32-123 (on the site of old building 20, where Jerry had his lab). A mix of Jerry stories and Jerry-ish technical talks. |
| September 29, 2011, Thursday, 7:30 pm | Twenty-first 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — The Twenty-first 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Webcast live on YouTube begins at 7:30 pm (US Eastern time) |
| October 1, 2011, Saturday, 1 pm | Ig Informal Lectures, MIT Building 26, room 100, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — The new winners present brief public lectures. Free, but seating is limited. [Map and directions] |
| October 13, 2011, Thursday | TEDx, Rotterdam, Nieuwe Luxor Theater, Rotterdam, The Netherlands — Improbable Research European Bureau Chief Kees Moeliker will discuss his research on homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck, the now-immortal Domino Day Sparrow, the decline of pubic lice, and other remarkable animal behavior. |
| November 25, 2011, Friday | Ig Nobel Prize broadcast, Science Friday program, National Public Radio. — Annual day-after-Thanksgiving broadcast — a specially edited version of the year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. It will be the first hour of the two-hour “Science Friday” program. In most—but not all!—cities this will be from 2:00-3:00 pm. (Some NPR stations schedule it at other times.) Many stations also stream the broadcast online. |
| Saturday, January 14, 2012, 2:30 pm. | ARISIA, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Westin Waterfront Hotel, 425 Summer Street. Room: Lewis (3E). With:
Highlights from Ig Nobel Prize winning studies and patents, presented in dramatic mini-readings by luminaries and experts (in some field). Between presentations, members of the audience will be challenged to divine the intended purpose of diagrams from certain research papers. |
| February 18, 2012, Saturday, 7:00-9:00 pm | AAAS Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Mackenzie Room. — Annual Improbable Research show at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [Read Pete McMartin’s preview in the Vancouver Sun.] Featuring:
This event, unlike most of the AAAS Annual Meeting, is open free to the public. #AAASmtg |
| March 8-17, 2012 | Ig Nobel Tour of the UK — This will be the tenth annual tour, in conjunction with the UK’s National Science Week. Events in:
Featuring Ben Wilson, Miriam Tuk, Charles Spence, Claire Rind, Mason Porter, Michael Lewis, Makoto Imai, John Hoyland, David Gadian, Desmond Donovan, Sergio Della Sala, Stevyn Colgan, Piers Barnes, and Many others. For details see the UK Tour page. |
| March 17-18, 2012 | Ig Nobel mini-Conclave, APOGEE Festival, BITS, Pilani, India. With Ig Noobel Prize winners:
NOTE: The Ig Nobel winners are engaged in a spirited contest with India’s government bureaucracy, about visas and such. UPDATE: After a long war of attrition, the Ig Nobel winners won! All made it to India for the show. |
| March 23-28, 2012 | Ig Nobel Scandinavia Tour — Shows in:
Featuring (in slightly different combinations in each city:
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| Friday, March 30, 2012, 7 pm | Texas A&M University, USA, Hawking Auditorium — Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach will speak about: “Silly Serious Science: Homage to Ig Nobel and Ben Franklin”, as part of the 2012 Physics & Engineering Festival. Free—no tickets required. |
| Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 4 pm | Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA — Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach delivers the Annual Ferguson Science Lecture: “Silly Serious Science: Homage to Ig Nobel and Ben Franklin“ |
| April 13, 2012, Friday | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams will make the first of a regular series of appearances, discussing improbable research. [On this occasion, the segment is scheduled to begin during the first hour of the live broadcast, at about 2:40 pm EST.] |
| April 16, 2012, Monday,8:00 pm | “Vetenskapens Värld” program on Sweden’s Swedish SVT2 network. — A report about the recent Ig Nobel Tour of Sweden. |
| April 26, 2012, Thursday, 6:00 pm | Cambridge [MA] Science Festival, Voltage Coffee & Art, 295 Third Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. — “Improbable Research Reports” — Dramatic 2-minute-long readings from bizarre studies and patents that resulted in Ig Nobel Prizes, recited by an all-star cast of scientists, journalists, and other enlightening entertainers. Performer include: Marc Abrahams, Robin Abrahams, Jean Berko Gleason, Gary Dryfoos, Corky White, Gus Rancatore, Marcia Bartusiak, Daniel Rosenberg, Katherine Meusey, David Kessler, Mary Carmichael, Jenny Gutbezahl, Carly Carioli and others TBA. DETAILS. |
| May 15, 2012, Tuesday, 6:00 pm (or so) | Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. — Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes. The event will also include a 24/7 Lecture competition for medical science writing students; The competition judges are Diana Sugg (Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist), Albert Wu (director of JHU’s Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research), and Marc Abrahams. Info: Mary Knudson. |
| May 18, 2012, Friday, 3:45 pm | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss some improbable research. |
| May 22, 2012, Tuesday | Seoul Digital Forum, Seoul, Korea. — Marc Abrahams will talk about “Research that makes people laugh, then think”. |
| May 24, 2012, Thursday | Kolon Company, Seoul, Korea. — Marc Abrahams will talk about “Creativity related to the Ig Nobel Prizes”. |
| June 1, 2012, Friday, noon. | Langer Lab, MIT, 500 Main Street, Building 76 Room 661, Cambridge, MA, USA. — Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. All welcome. Info: Tuli Saha <t_saha@MIT.EDU>, 617.253.3123. |
| June 5, 2012, Tuesday. | Dead Duck Day, Rotterdam, The Netherlands — Annual commemoration of the incident documented in the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize-winning report “The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos“, followed by traditional group walk to a nearby restaurant to enjoy a duck dinner. [Here’s a look back at an earlier Dead Duck Day). Details TBA. |
| June 6, 2012, Wednesday | Raytheon BBN Technologies, Cambridge, MA, USA. — Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| June 15, 2012, Friday (approx 3:50 pm EDT live) | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss some improbable research: This time: Chernoff Faces. It will be in Hour 2 of the program, in the final ten minutes. |
| June 28-29 2012#IgNobel | Ig Nobel Tour of the The Netherlands
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| July 9, 2012, Monday | Raytheon BBN Technologies, Columbia, MD, USA. — Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| July 13, 2012, Friday (approx 3:50 pm EDT live) | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss some improbable research: This time: Strange Effects of Various Things on the Flavor of Food. It will be in Hour 2 of the program, in the final ten minutes. |
| August 1, 2012 — Wednesday, NOON (US eastern time) | Tickets for the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will go on sale. — Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office, online, in person, and by telephone. |
| August 10 2012, Friday (approx 2:50 pm EDT live) | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss some improbable research. This time: the Tom Swift novels. It will be in Hour 1 of the program, in the final ten minutes. |
| September 6, 2012, Thursday | Publication day for the new book This Is Improbable, in the UK and the US. |
| September 7, 2012, Friday | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss (1) some of the research in the new book This Is Improbable and (2) the upcoming Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. It will be the final 20-minute segment of Hour 2 of the broadcast. |
| September 20, 2012, Thursday, 7:30 pm. | The 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA — Tickets are available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office. [NOTE: There will be webcast-watching events in other, distant including gala events in Leiden, The Netherlands, Paris, France, and elsewhere.] [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| September 22, 2012, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | The Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, Building 10, room 250, Cambridge, MA, USA — Free, but seating is limited, so get there early. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| September 28, 2012, Friday, 9:30 pm. | France 5 TV — Premiere of Quand la Science Fait Rire, a documentary about the Ig Nobel Prizes. Episode 1 features French, Dutch, Swedish and American Ig Nobel Prize winners in their natural habitats, and an Ig Nobel visit to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. TWITTER: #IgNobel |
| September 28-Oct 9 | Events in the UK to celebrate the new book This Is Improbable. [TWITTER: #IgNobel]
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| October 19, 2012, Friday | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss a new batch of improbable research. This month: A professor’s obsessive research about annoying behavior. — The segment will be at the end of the program’s second hour. |
| October 27, 2012, Saturday, 1:00-2:00 pm | Boston Book Festival, Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts, USA — Marc Abrahams will sign copies of the new book This Is Improbable, at the MIT Press Bookstore‘s booth. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| November 5, 2012, Monday | Museum of Curiosity, BBC Radio 4 — Marc Abrahams, Buzz Aldrin and Sara Pascoe are the guests, w hosts John Lloyd and Jimmy Carr. The broadcast will be repeated on November 11. [TWITTER: #IgNobel, @Curiositwitty, @TheRealBuzz, @sarapascoe, @jimmycarr] |
| November 13, 2012, Tuesday, 12:30 | Berkman Center Luncheon Series (and live webcast), Wasserstein Hall, Milstein West B room (on the 2nd floor), Harvard Law School, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA [map] — “Improbable Research Reports” — Marc Abrahams and an all-star lineup will do dramatic readings from bizarre studies featured in the book This Is Improbable. Featuring:
RSVP required for those attending in person. Free. This event will be webcast live at 12:30pm. Organizer: Amar Asher. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| November 14, 2012, Wednesday, 6:30 pm | Churchill College, the Wolfson Hall, University of Cambridge, UK — Ray Goldstein, co-winner of the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize in physics, will discuss his research on the physics of pony tails. Free. |
| November 19, 2012, Monday, 7:00 pm | University of Leeds, Western Lecture Theatre, Business School, Leeds, UK. — Patrick Warren, co-winner of the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize in physics, will discuss his research on the physics of pony tails. Free. |
| November 23, 2012, Friday | Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony Broadcast on “Science Friday“, National Public Radio — Specially edited radio presentation of the 22nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. This will be Hour 1 of the 2-hour program. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| November 26, 2012, Monday | “Infinite Monkey Cage“, BBC Radio 4 — Marc Abrahams and Matthew Cobb, and Katy Brand are the guests on a special episode where the topic is Improbable Research”. The broadcast will be repeated on November 27. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| November 28, 2012, Wednesday | World Congress of Science & Factual Producers, Washington, DC — Marc Abrahams and Maria Ferrante will perform a small sample of Ig Nobel Prize material on an evening cruise. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| December 4, 2012, Tuesday, 12:15-1:00 pm | Emmanuel College, Yawkey Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA — “Improbable Research Reports” — Marc Abrahams and an all-star lineup will do dramatic readings from bizarre studies featured in the book This Is Improbable. Details TBA. Organizers: Eliza Kosoy, Faina Ryvkin. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| December 7, 2012, Friday, 3:30 pm | Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), Maxwell Dworkin building, room G-115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — “Improbable Research Reports” — Marc Abrahams and an all-star lineup will do brief dramatic readings from bizarre studies featured in the book This Is Improbable. Featuring:
Wine & cheese at 3:30. The performance begins at 4:00. Organizers: Ros Reid, Sandra Klemm, Michael Rutter. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| December 14, 2012, Friday | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio, at the beginning of Hour Two of the broadcast. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss a new batch of improbable research. |
| January 2, 2013, Wednesday, 9pm US eastern time. | Virtually Speaking, BlogTalkRadio [Internet] — Marc Abrahams and host Alan Boyle will discuss Cosmic Log’s annual Weird Science awards, and the Ig Nobel Prizes, and some of the past year’s other improbable research. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| January 19, 2013, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | ARISIA, Westin Boston Waterfront, 425 Summer Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in Harbor Ballroom II — Marc Abrahams will introduce an all-star lineup. The performers will do dramatic, two-minute readings from bizarre studies collected by the Annals of Improbable Research. Each performer will be unfamiliar with the study she or he is reading aloud, aside from skimming through it immediately before the show begins. The performers will then entertain entertaining questions from the audience. Dramatic readers include:
[TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| January 25, 2013, Friday | “Science Friday” program on National Public Radio. — Marc Abrahams‘s monthly appearance on the program to discuss a new batch of improbable research — this month about some odd experiments with graphene. This will be in the middle of HOUR 2 of the program |
| February 16, 2013, Saturday, 8:00-9:30 pm. | AAAS Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, USA — Sheraton Boston Hotel (near the Prudential Center), Constitution Ballroom B — Annual Ig Nobel show will be a featured part of the meeting. This show is free, and open to the general public — but space is limited, so get there a bit early. Featuring:
[TWITTER: #AAASmtg] |
| March 4-7, 2013 | Ig Nobel Tour of DENMARK — with these shows:
Featuring:
Further details TBA. Sponsored by Carlsbergs Mindelegat. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| March 11, 2013, Monday, 5:30 pm | Ig Nobel in SWEDEN — The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Berzelius väg 3, Solna, Vesalius — [DETAILS] — Featuring:
Details TBA. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| March-April 2013 | Ig Nobel Tour of the UK [click here for DETAILS]
Details TBA. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| April 7, 2013, Sunday | British Festival of Neuroscience, London, UK, Barbican Centre — Marc Abrahams will do a talk about improbable brain research. [TWITTER: #BNAneurofest] |
| May 3, 2013, Friday, 2:00 pm. | TEDx CERN, Geneva, Switzerland — Marc Abrahams will do a TEDx talk. Between talks, Soprano Maria Ferrante and pianist Alice Martelli will perform songs from Ig Nobel operas.This event will be webcast starting at 1:45 pm [7:45 am US eastern time]. [TWITTER: #TEDxCERN] |
| May 7, 2013, Tuesday, 6:30 pm | University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, Uni Dufour, Rue Général-Dufour 24 — Ig Nobel show, Sponsored by the University of Geneva and CERN, featuring:
This event is FREE. [Preview in Le Temps] [TWITTER: #IgNobelGVA] |
| May 28, 2013, Tuesday | Raamsteeg2, Leiden, The Netherlands — will feature the Ig Nobel 24/7 Battle, introduced by Kees Moeliker. The battle will be between:
Further details here in Dutch and in English. |
| June 4, 2013, Tuesday. | Oxford University, St Hilda’s College, Oxford, UK. Summer Meeting of the Institute of Physics’s Nonlinear & Complex Physics Group — Ig Nobel prize winner Robin Ball will give the keynote address, on ‘Ponytails, Catapults and Chaos: Physics of Hair‘. |
| June 4, 2013, Tuesday, 8:00 pm | Story Collider, Cambridge Science Festival, Johnny D’s, Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA — Marc Abrahams and six other scientificalistic persons will each talk about something or other. [This was originally scheduled for April; tickets purchased then will be honored on June 4.] [TICKETS]. [TWITTER: #StoryCollider] |
| June 5, 2013, Wednesday, 5:55 pm | Dead Duck Day, Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands — Annual public celebration/commemoration of the historic event described in the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)“ |
| July 1, 2013, Monday, 6:30 pm | Hakodate, Japan — Two of the most eloquent Ig Nobel Prize winners will give free public talks at Future University Hakodate, Japan, on July 1, starting at 6:30 pm:
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| July 16, 2013, Tuesday, NOON (US eastern time) | TICKETS GO ON SALE for the 2013 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office (via the web, by telephone, or in person). |
| September 12, 2013, Thursday, 6:00 pm. | The 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts — Tickets are available from the Harvard Box Office. Webcast live. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| September 14, 2013, Saturday, afternoon | Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, Building 26, room 100, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — Details TBA. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| September 14, 2013, 8:30 pm | Der Nederlandse Ig Nobel Night, Stadsgehoorzaal Leiden, Breestraat 60, Leiden, The Netherlands — an official satellite event of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| September 28, Saturday, 2013, 9:00 pm | Perugia Science Fest, Sala di Notari, Perugia, Italy — Science journalist Silvia Bencivelli will introduce and dialogue with Marc Abrahams. The evening features Ig Nobel Prize winners Alberto Minetti (new Italian Ig Nobel winner!, for discovering the conditions under which people could run across a pond, if those people and that pond were on the moon) and Kees Moeliker (homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck).[TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| October 1, Tuesday, 2013, 7:30 pm | Rome, Italy, Libreria Assaggi di San Lorenzo, Via degli Etruschi, 4 (06 8865 9458). — “Ig Nobel a Roma”. Marc Abrahams, Gilberto Corbellini (Sapienza University of Rome), Mario De Caro (University of Roma Tre), Armando Massarenti (Sunday Sole 24 Ore) discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes. This event is organized in collaboration with University Roma TRE and Museum of the History of Medicine (Sapienza University of Rome). [Preview] [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| October 28, 2013, Monday, 4:15 pm | Emmanuel College, Boston, MA, USA. In Wilkens Science Center (WSC) room 102 — Improbable Research Reports (dramatic readings from bizarre, genuine research studies). Plus cupcakes. Details TBA. Organized by Prof. Faina Ryvkin and Eliza Kosoy. |
| November 29, 2013, Friday | Science Friday, National Public Radio. Annual special edited broadcast of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. (This will be the first hour of the 2-hour-long Science Friday program.) For time in your location, check the SciFri web site |
| January 18, 2014 Saturday, 11:00 am | ARISIA, Boston, MA, USA. Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel — Dramatic Improbable Readings (dramatic readings, by celebrated persons, from bizarre, genuine research studies). |
| February 6, 2014, Thursday, 2:00-3:00 pm | American Chemical Society webinar — “Ig Nobel Prizes for Discoveries in Chemistry – The Improbables” with Marc Abrahams. Available online to everyone, FREE. |
| February 9, 2014, Sunday | BITS Quark, Goa, India — Talks by Ig Nobel Prize winners Elena Bodnar, Kees Moeliker, Dan Meyer, Ilja van Beest, and Lal Bihari. |
| February 15, 2014, Saturday, 8:00-10:00 pm. | AAAS Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA — Fairmont Chicago Hotel, Moulin Rouge Ballroom — Featuring Marc Abrahams, and:
Open to the public, free. |
| March 6, 2014, Thursday | Publication day for the new book This Is Improbable Too, in the UK. [US publication will happen on August 12] |
| March 14-April 2, 2014 | Ig Nobel Tour of the UK [see MORE DETAIL]—
The tour also celebrates publication of the new book This Is Improbable Too. The Imperial College show will include the world premiere of “The Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera” by Daniel Gillingwater, with a cameo appearance by Kees Moeliker, the Ig Nobel Prize-winning discoverer of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. UPDATE: A review of the Imperial College London show |
| March 24, 25, 26, 2014, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday | Ig Nobel Tour of DENMARK —
Featuring Marc Abrahams, and these Ig Nobel Prize winners who will explain and perhaps demonstrate their prize-winning achievements:
Special thanks to Carlsbergs Mindelegat for supporting this tour! UPDATE: A review of the Copenhagen show, by Lab Times, a review by Videnskab and further info from them, and a review of an Aarhus show, by Jutland Station. |
| March 27, 2014, Thursday. (Two shows at different locations.) | STOCKHOLM, Sweden—two shows:
Featuring Marc Abrahams, and several Ig Nobel Prize winners who will explain and perhaps demonstrate their prize-winning achievements:
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| April 24, 2014, Thursday, late morning | USA Science & Engineering Festival, X-STEM Extreme STEM Symposium, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC, USA — Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| April 25, 2014, Friday, 10:30 am. | NIST, Gaithersburg Maryland, USA — Marc Abrahams will give a NIST Colloquium talk: “A Measure of Improbable Research — haphazardly selected samples of Ig Nobel Prize-winning and other research that makes people LAUGH then THINK”. The talk will be broadcast live to NIST facilities in Boulder, CO, labs and Charleston, SC. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] [UPDATE: video of the talk, which also featured Ig Nobel Prize winner Theo Gray, inventor of the 4-legged periodic table table] |
| April 25, 2014, Friday, 8:00 pm. | The Lost Lectures, New York, USA. [Book TICKETS] — Marc Abrahams will be the first of the Lost Lecturers. Exact location to be announced to ticket-holders shortly before the event, as per the tradition of Lost Lectures. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| May 24, 2014, Saturday. | An Ig Nobel Night, (part of De Nacht van Kunst & Wetenschap), Groningen, The Netherlands. Presentations by Ig Nobel Prize winners Kees Moeliker, Chris McManus, Bart Knols, and Pek van Andel. Also featuring eight Groningen scientists competing against each other in 24/7 Lecture battles. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| June 5, 2014, Thursday. | Dead Duck Day. Natural History Museum Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Annual commemoration of the day the famous mallard duck crashed into the glass wall of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, precipitating the denouement of what became the first scientifically documented case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker will preside, aided by the dead duck. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| June 22 (Sunday) and 24 (Tuesday), 2014, 7:00-9:00 pm both days. | Science in the City, ESOF, Copenhagen, Denmark — in The Rethink District, Carlsberg Byen, Enghave Plads. — Featuring Marc Abrahams, and these Ig Nobel Prize winners who will explain and perhaps demonstrate their prize-winning achievements:
Preview and preview and preview. [And a note of historical interest: The program for the very first ESOF, which also included an Ig Nobel show] |
| July 8, 2014, Tuesday, noon. | TICKETS go on sale for the 24th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office, beginning at noon (12 pm) US eastern time. |
| July 10, 2014, Thursday | Readercon, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. Details TBA. |
| August 12, 2014, Tuesday | Publication day for the new book This Is Improbable Too, in the US. |
| September 5, 2014, Friday, 7:00 pm. | Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, MA, USA. A Dramatic Improbable Readings performance, to celebrate the new book This Is Improbable Too. Marc Abrahams will dramatically read brief passages from bizarre-but-genuine scientific studies, joined by guest dramatic readers Robin Abrahams (“Miss Conduct” columnist), Melissa Franklin (Harvard professor of physics, and frequent Ig Nobel performer), Corky White (Boston University professor of anthropology, and author of Cooking for Crowds and co-author of The Ig Nobel Cookbook, volume 1), and Gus Rancatore (proprietor of Toscanini’s Ice Cream,and co-author of The Ig Nobel Cookbook, volume 1) |
| September 10-12, 2014 | TEDMED, Washington, DC, USA. Marc Abrahams will do a TEDMED talk about medical winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| September 18, 2014, Thursday, 6:00 pm. | The 24th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and webcast, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. |
| September 20, 2014, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | The Ig Informal Lectures, MIT building 26, room 100, Cambridge, MA, USA. The new Ig Nobel Prize winners — and past winner Dr. NakaMats! — give brief public talks, and answer questions. Free, but seating is limited, so get there early. |
| September 26, 2014, Friday, 7:00 pm. | Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA, USA. A Dramatic Improbable Readings performance, to celebrate the new book This Is Improbable Too. Marc Abrahams will dramatically read brief passages from bizarre-but-genuine scientific studies, joined by guest dramatic readers Robin Abrahams, Jean Berko Gleason, and Gary (pork-up-his-nose) Dryfoos. |
| September 26, 2014, Friday, 9:45 pm. |
New Horizons Festival (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Kees Moeliker will explain ‘How do you win an Ig Nobel Prize?’ with improbable contributions by Wouter de Herder (About ‘The Rotterdam Giant’) and Erwin Kompanje (‘Health benefits of wearing a Scottish Kilt’). All speakers are fluent in Dutch. |
| October 1, 2014, Wednesday, midday. | Google, New York City, USA. Marc Abrahams will talk about This Is Improbable Too. |
| October 2, 2014, Thursday, midday. | Google, Cambridge, MA, USA. Marc Abrahams will talk about This Is Improbable Too. |
| October 12, 2014, Sunday, 7:00 pm US Eastern | Star Talk Radio Show (and podcast) with Neil deGrasse Tyson. Marc Abrahams will be a guest. |
| October 20-22, 2014, Monday-Wednesday. | Conference on Scientific Culture, Santiago, Chile, Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda. Rich Roberts will explain “Why do I love bacteria?”, on Monday. Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes, on Tuesday. Ig Nobel Prize winner Diego Golombek will talk about time, on Wednesday. |
| October 28, 2014, Tuesday, 7:30-8:30. | Harvard Writers At Work series, Harvard University, Barker Center, Thompson Room, Cambridge, MA, USA. Marc Abrahams will talk about writing about improbable things. Free. Open to the public. |
| November 19, 2014, Wednesday, 5:30 pm. | MIT Press Bookstore, 292 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, USA. A Dramatic Improbable Readings performance, to celebrate the new books This Is Improbable Too. and The Ig Nobel Cookbook, volume 1. Marc Abrahams will dramatically read brief passages from bizarre-but-genuine scientific studies, joined by several guest dramatic readers: biomedical researcher Chris Cotsapas; science journalist Cara Giaimo; science journalist Michael Greshko; etiquette columnist Robin Abrahams; bookstore maestro John Jenkins. |
| November 28, 2014, Friday. | Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony Radio Broadcast on “Science Friday“, PRI — Specially edited radio highlights from the 24th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. [“Science Friday” is broadcast in two separate hours — the Ig Nobel special will be HOUR ONE. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| December 4-7, 2014. | Belgrade Science Festival, Belgrade, Serbia — Ig Nobel Prize winners Erich Pascal Malkemper and Sabine Begall from the Duisburg-Essen University in Germany “will be the stars of the festival“. [TWITTER: #IgNobel] |
| January 7, 2015, Wednesday, 8:00 pm [US Eastern]. | “Virtually Speaking Science,” blog/radio broadcast hosted by NBC News’ Alan Boyle. Marc Abrahams will be the guest, discussing the past year’s weird happenings in science. |
| January 17, 2015, Saturday, 12:30 pm. | ARISIA, Boston, MA, USA. Westin Waterfront Hotel, 425 Summer Street, in Grand Ballroom DE. Marc Abrahams will host a variety of colorful ARISIANS who will each perform dramatic short readings from bizarre-but-genuine scientific studies. |
| January 29, 2015, Thursday, 6:30 pm. | University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. Main Building, Auditorium 41. Marc Abrahams will do a talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes. INFO. |
| January 31, 2015, Saturday, 8:00 pm until 4:00 am. | Vienna Ball of Sciences, City Hall, Vienna, Austria. Marc Abrahams will be a Guest of Honor, and will perform, at midnight, a 24/7 Lecture about “Vienna’s scientists and their impact on the world!” UPDATE: Reports about what happened at the ball. |
| February, 12 2015, Thursday. |
The Nueva School, Hillsborough, California, USA. [Special event for students of the school]. |
| February, 14 2015, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | AAAS Annual Meeting, San Jose, California, USA. Hilton San Jose Hotel, Almaden Ballroom. The Annual Improbable Research Session will feature Marc Abrahams with:
Open FREE to the public. |
| February, 24, 2015, Tuesday. |
Graduate Program in Science Journalism, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. Marc Abrahams will drone on and on about the Ig Nobel Prizes and many other things. [Special event for students]. |
| March 4, 2015, Wednesday. |
Premiere of the weekly Ig Nobel Podcast, distributed by CBS on Play.it and iTunes. |
| March 12-30, 2015. | Ig Nobel Tour of Europe: UK, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden.
The Boulevardteatern event was recorded for later broadcast on Swedish public television. |
| April 14, 2015, Tuesday, 6:00 pm. | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburgh, South Africa. Senate Room, 2nd Floor, Senate House, Braamfontein. Ig Nobel Prize winner Marcus Byrne will deliver his inaugural lecture. Dung beetles are obsessed with dung. They carve it into neat balls and roll it away under the toughest of circumstances; including the strange experimental trials set up for them by equally infatuated scientists. |
| April 27, 2015, Monday, 7:00 pm. | St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas. Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| May 5, 2015, Tuesday, 8:00 pm. | Liverpool, UK. Psychology in the Pub, The Liverpool Pub, 14 James Street. Ig Nobel Prize winner Richard Stephens (“does swearing relieve pain?”) will discuss his research on swearing and pain. Open free to the public. |
| June 5, 2015, Friday, 5:55 pm. |
Natural History Museum Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 20th annual Dead Duck Day, commemorating the incident that led to publication of the study “The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)” [published in the journal DEINSEA, vol. 8: 9 November 2001. pp. 243-247], and subsequently to the awarding of the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology. |
| June 6 2015, Saturday, 3:00 pm. |
Hulst, The Netherlands, Vestrock 2015. Ig Nobel prize winner Kees Moeliker will lecture for Vestrock University about ‘De eend, zijn maat en de schaamluis’ [in Dutch] |
| June 15, 2015, Monday, 9:00 am. |
Lisbon, Portugal, ESHRE Annual Meeting. Ig Nobel Prize winner Kees Moeliker will present the Robert G. Edwards’ Memorial Keynote Lecture, titled ‘How a dead duck can be fertile’. |
| June 26 (Friday)-July 5 (Sunday), 2015. | Ig Nobel Events in Japan. With Marc Abrahams, Ig Nobel Prize winner Dr. Nakamats, and other Ig Nobel Prize winners. Here is a sparse outline and preview of what will happen:
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| July 9, 2015, Thursday, noon. | Tickets go on sale for the 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office, online, by telephone, and at the ticket counter. |
| August 8 & 9, 2015, 7:30 pm. | Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, King’s Cross, London, UK. Performances of Daniel Gillingwater’s “The Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera“, based on Kees Moeliker‘s Ig Nobel Prize winning paper “The First Case Of Homosexual Necrophiliac in the Mallard Duck“. TICKETS. |
| September 17, 2015, Thursday, 6:00 pm. | The 25th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and live webcast. TICKETS. |
| September 19, 2015, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | The Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, building 10, room 250, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. |
| September 25, 2015, Friday. |
Seewiesen, Germany (International Max Planck Research School for Organismal Biology, location Seewiesen),’Grand Challenges in SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION Symposium 2015’. Kees Moeliker will lecture on “The Duck, his Mate and (other) Improbable Research” |
| September 27, 2015, Sunday, 5:00 pm. | “Dr. Nakamatsu contest of special program – Ig Nobel Prize knowledge” — special broadcast on Japan’s BS-SKY-PerfecTV channel. Highlights from the June 2015 show at the University of Tokyo, with Marc Abrahams, Dr. Nakamats, and several other Ig Nobel Prize winners. |
| October 3, 2015, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | European Ig Nobel Show, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Science Center NEMO. DETAILS. TICKETS. |
| October 6, 2015, Tuesday,6:00 pm. | Ig Nobel Prize Night in Vienna,Vienna Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria. Several Ig Nobel Prize winners will explain the research that won them the prize. Marc Abrahams and museum director Christian Koeberl will unsuccessfully attempt to maintain some sense of decorum. Details: in GERMAN and ENGLISH. Free entry. RSVP: einladung@nhm-wien.ac.at |
| October 8, 2015, Thursday. | Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) and Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna, Austria. Marc Abrahams will speak at the annual retreat meeting of the (IMP) and the IMBA. |
| October 10, 2015, Saturday, 3:15 pm. | National Association of Science Writers annual meeting, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Marc Abrahams will be part of a panel discussion: “Four writers sat in a bar: Humor and voice in science writing“. |
| October 15, 2015, Thursday, 9:00 am. | St. Jude – Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Marc Abrahams will deliver this year’s Ruby Cook Lecture. |
| October 20, 2015, Tuesday, 6:30 pm. | Fall Innovation Seminar, Acera School, 5 Lowell Avenue, Winchester, Massachusetts, USA. Marc Abrahams will be one of several people doing short talks about unusual science and technology. Open to the public, free. |
| November 18, 2015, Wednesday, 10 am. | CrossRef annual meeting, Taj Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Marc Abrahams will give the keynote address. |
| November 27, 2015, Friday. | “Science Friday with Ira Flatow” annual Ig Nobel special radio/web broadcast. Annual (since 1992!) day-after-Thanksgiving broadcast of the year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, specially edited for radio. This will be HOUR 2 of the two-hour broadcast. See the SciFri web site for broadcast stations and times, and for online streaming. |
| December 8, 2015, Tuesday, 7:00 pm. | University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA. Edwards Hall. Marc Abrahams do a talk on “Humor in Science”, as part of the URI Honors Colloquium lecture series. Open to the public, free. |
| December 10, 2015, Thursday. | PINC Conference, Sarasota, Florida, USA. Marc Abrahams will talk about some Ig Nobel Prize winners. |
| January 5, 2016, Tuesday, 8:00 pm. | Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting, Portland, Oregon, USA. Oregon Convention Center. Marc Abrahams will be part of a panel discussing research the public is sometimes urged to consider as “oddball”. The discussion is part of a symposium about the morphological diversity of intromittent organs. |
| January 15, 2016, Friday, 9:30 pm. | Arisia, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Luminaries (of various wattage) will each do brief dramatic readings from seemingly absurd, genuine research studies and patents. |
| February 13, 2016, Saturday, 8:00-10:00 pm. |
American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, Washington, DC. USA — Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St NW, in the Diplomat Ballroom. The meeting will include the annual Improbable Research show, with:
This special evening session is open free to the public. |
| March 4-23, 2016 |
The 2016 Ig Nobel Eurotour: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, UK, Switzerland. Marc Abrahams and a gaggle of Ig Nobel Prize winners will do shows in five countries:
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| March 29, 2016, Tuesday. | Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA. Marc Abrahams will be guest speaker at the annual Research Recognition Dinner. |
| April 6, 2016, Wednesday. | Planon Internet of Things Conference, Boston, MA, USA. Marc Abrahams will give the keynote address. |
| May 26, 2016, Thursday, 10:30 am. | IBM Research THINKLab Second Anniversary Celebration, Yorktown Heights, New York, USA. — Marc Abrahams will be guest speaker, on the obvious topic: Improbable Research. |
| June 5, 2016, Sunday, 5:00 pm. | Dead Duck Day, Natural History Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. — Kees Moeliker will lead the annual commemoration of the event that led to the published scientific study that led to the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology. |
| June 24, 2016, Friday, 18:25 and 20:40. | “The Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera“, Natural History Museum, London, UK. — Two performances of the opera, by Daniel Gillingwater, based on the event that led to the published scientific study that led to the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology. Kees Moeliker, author of that study, will be present and will play a small part in the opera. |
| June 26, 2016, Sunday. | Geek Picnic, Gorky Park, St. Petersburg, Russia. — Kees Moeliker will give a talk about “Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes”. |
| July 7, 2016, Thursday, noon [US east coast time] | TICKETS GO ON SALE for the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office (both online and at the physical box office). |
| July 22, Friday, noon. | University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, Háskólatorg, Sæmundargata 2, 101. — Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes and Iceland’s Ig Nobel Prize-winning bankers. Free admission, even for current and ex-bankers. |
| July 23, 2016, Saturday, 3:00 pm. | Blue Dot Festival, Jodrell Bank, UK. — Marc Abrahams and friends — QI elves James Harkin, Dan Schreiber, et al,; Ig Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Oberzaucher; and others — will perform Dramatic Readings from Ig Nobel Prize-winning and other seemingly bizarre studies. |
| July 24, 2016, Sunday, 1:30 pm. | Science in the City, 70 Oxford Street, Manchester UK. — Dramatic Improbable Readings, with Marc Abrahams and friends — Intriguing science persons will perform Dramatic Readings from Ig Nobel Prize-winning and other seemingly bizarre studies. [NOTE: Science in the City is part of ESOF] |
| July 25, 2016, Monday, 2:15 pm. | ESOF, Manchester, UK. — at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, in the Charter 1 room — Roundtable discussion on “What’s So Funny About Science?” with:
TOPIC: Can a piece of scientific research be both important and humorous? Our inspiration comes from the popularity and media coverage of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, the mantra of which is “First they make you laugh, then they make you think.” |
| September 22, 2016, Thursday, 6:00 pm. | 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. TICKETS are available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office. The ceremony will be webcast live on YouTube. |
| September 24, 2016, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, Building 26, room 100, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Free admission (but seating is limited!) |
| October 20, 2016, Thursday. 7:00 pm, and 7:30 pm, and 8:00. | Innovators Symposium, Acera School, 5 Lowell Avenue, Winchester, Massachusetts, USA. The evening will include three sets of Improbable Dramatic Readings — Marc Abrahams, Jean Berko Gleason, and Daniel Rosenberg will do brief dramatic readings from studies that have won Ig Nobel Prizes. Everyone is welcome to come! |
| October 21, 2016, Friday. 12:30 pm. | FILSA, Santiago, Chile. Bruno Grossi, 2015 Ig Nobel biology prize winner, will speak about the “pollosaurus” (“chickenosaurus”) and biomimetics. |
| November 22, 2016, Tuesday. 10:45 am. | Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Portland, Oregon, USA. David Hu, 2015 Ig Nobel physics prize winner, will speak about “Ants, eyelashes, and the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics“. Improbable Research podcast star Nicole Sharp will present her new fluid dynamics research about the Boston molasses flood. |
| November 25, 2016, Friday | “Science Friday” program on public radio (and the internet). 25th annual broadcast of a specially edited recording of the year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The Ig will be hour 2 of the two-hour-long Science Friday program. BUT IN BOSTON, by special arrangement, the Ig will be hour 1 — on WBUR-FM 90.9, at 2:00 pm.) For broadcast times, see the Science Friday web site. |
| January 13, 2017, Friday, 9:00 pm. | ARISIA, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Improbable Dramatic Readings from genuine, seemingly bizarre research studies. The studies will all concern Friday-the-13th-related subjects, including of course triskadekophobia. DETAILS. |
| February 5, 2017, Sunday, 8:00 pm. | 92nd Street Y, Buttenwieser Hall, Lexington Avenue at 92nd St., New York, NY, USA. — [TICKETS]— “Bang! Bang! The Big Bang Theory meets The Big Bang Theory”, a discussion of humor in science, with Claudia Dreifus (New York Times), Eric Kaplan (The Big Bang Theory TV program), Robert Wilson (Nobel laureate, co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background), and Marc Abrahams (Ig Nobel Prizes, and author of the opera about the Big Bang). |
| February 18, 2017, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | AAAS Annual Meeting, Sheraton Boston Hotel (in the Prudential Center), in Constitution Ballroom A, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The annual Improbable Research session will feature, this year:
This evening special session is open free to the public. BUT NOTE: Every year this session fills rapidly, so we suggest you arrive a little early, if you want to get into the room. |
| February 24, 2017, Friday, 5:00 pm. | Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London, UK — Professor Atsuki Higashiyama will give First Overseas Lecture in London on His Ig Nobel Prize-winning “Viewing the World Upside-Down From Between Your Legs” Perception Research. |
| February 26, 2017, Sunday. | Chelsea Arts Club, 143, Old Church Road, Chelsea, London, UK — Performance of “The Homosexual Necrophiliac Duck Opera,” composed by Daniel Gillingwater, with words from Kees Moeliker‘s Ig Nobel Prize-winning biology study. |
| March 1, 2017, Wednesday. | Harvard University — Science Communication Skills Workshop for biology grad students, with Carmen Nobel (Harvard Business School) and Marc Abrahams. |
| March 15-April 14, 2017. | Ig Nobel Spring EuroTour. (twitter: #IgNobel) Events at
NOTE: The tour will feature tributes to the Ig Nobel Prize-winning (in the year 2000) study of the Dunning-Kruger effect. That study is called “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments“. |
| April 23, 2017, Sunday, 7:00 pm. | BAHfest, Kresge Auditorium MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Marc Abrahams will be the keynote speaker. |
| April 27, 2017, Thursday. | Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s 37th Annual Scientific Meeting, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Marc Abrahams will do a talk about “Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes, and Cardiology”. |
| June 5 2017, Monday, 5:55 pm. | Dead Duck Day, Natural History Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. — Kees Moeliker will lead the annual commemoration of the event that led to the published scientific study that led to the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology. SPECIAL APPEARANCE: The world’s second officially homosexual necrophiliac duck will make his first posthumous public appearance. |
| July 20 2017, Thursday, noon (US eastern time). | TICKETS GO ON SALE for the 27th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office (both online and at the physical box office). |
| September 14, 2017, Thursday, 6:00 pm (US eastern time). | 27th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. |
| September 16, 2017, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | The Ig Informal Lectures, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. |
| October 11, 2017, Wednesday, 7:30 pm. | Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, USA — Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, room 152, 266 4th Street NW. Frontiers-of-Science lecture by Marc Abrahams, with special appearance by Ig Nobel Prize winner Patricia Yang (urination duration). |
| November 4, Saturday, 2017, 7:30 pm. | Benefit Dinner for the Second Step, Newton, Massachusetts, USA — Marc Abrahams will be the dinner entertainment. |
| November 22, Wednesday, 2017, 4:00 pm. | Imperial College London, UK — RSM 2.28, Level Two, Bioengineering, Royal School of Mines, South Kensington Campus —Ig Nobel Prize winner David Hu will present a seminar on “Elephant trunks, cat tongues, and the Ig Nobel Prize.” |
| November 24, Friday, 2017, 2:00 pm. (Note: some radio stations broadcast at a different time) | “Science Friday” Ig Nobel Prizes Special, public radio in the United States (and online). Specially edited version of the 27th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. |
| November 29, Wednesday, 2017, 6:00 pm. (Reception at 6:00. The show begins at 6:30) | University of Manchester, UK — Lecture Theatre B, University Place, Oxford Road — featuring:
The event is free of charge, and includes refreshments and a drinks reception. Paper airplanes will not be discouraged, should you bring paper to construct some. [Here’s video of that evening.] |
| December 4, Monday, 2017. 3:00 pm. | EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany — Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. [Preview] |
| January 12, 2018, Friday, 9:30 pm. | ARISIA, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. — Westin Boston Waterfront,Grand Ballroom CD. Dramatic Improbable Readings from studies that have won Ig Nobel Prizes, and more. |
| January 20, Saturday, 2018, 9:30 am. | Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey, USA — Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. Free, open to all (but adults do have to bring a government-issued picture ID). |
| February 7, 2018, Wednesday, 3:40 pm. | Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Annual Conference, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA. Marc Abrahams will give the keynote address. |
| February 9, 2018, Friday, 2:00 pm. | Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, USA. Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| February 17, 2018, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Hilton Austin Hotel— Salon H, Austin, Texas. The annual Improbable Research session will include:
This special session is open to the public, free of charge. We suggest you arrive a little early, to ensure finding a seat. UPDATE: A spectator’s review of this event, by Nathan Matisse, in Ars Technica. |
| February 28, 2018, Wednesday. | Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia — Scientists who do off-the-beaten-path research tell stories—to kids—about curious things that happened while they were growing up. Organized by David Hu and Marc Abrahams. With:
[Attendance at this event is by invitation only. Sorry!] |
| March 1, 2018, Thursday, 9:30 am. | ComScicon, Atlanta, Georgia — Panel discussion “Outside of the Box: SciComm in Creative Outlets” will include Marc Abrahams, Nicole Sharp (FYFD creator, and Ig Nobel organizer), Ig Nobel Prize winner David Hu, and others who work outside of boxes. |
| March 9-April 11, 2018. |
Ig Nobel EuroTour — shows in the UK, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and other countries.
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| June 5, 2018, Tuesday. | Dead Duck Day, Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Comemmorating the incident that led to the publication of the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae).” |
| July 10, 2018, Tuesday, noon (Boston, Massachusetts time). | Tickets go on sale for the 28th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Tickets will be available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office. |
| July 16, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk— Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. The very first in a new series of events—a cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study about “The physics of walking backwards while carrying coffee“. Free. All welcome. |
| July 23, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Can a cat be both a liquid and a solid?” Free. All welcome. |
| July 30, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “The Neural Bases of Disgust for Cheese: An fMRI Study.” Free. All welcome. |
| August 6, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Is That Me or My Twin? Lack of Self-Face Recognition Advantage in Identical Twins.” Free. All welcome. |
| August 13, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study on the Effectiveness of Vagina Music. Free. All welcome. |
| August 20, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Did the Emperor of Morocco Really Father 888 Children?” Free. All welcome. |
| August 27, 2018, Monday, 10:00 am. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit.” Free. All welcome. |
| August 31, 2018, Friday, 2:30 pm. | Improbable Research Table Talk— streaming worldwide on Facebook Live. [Part of a new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Deborah Henson-Conant and Deborah’s carbon-fibre electric harp. At this session we will talk about the study “Electrocortical Activity in a Pianist Playing ‘Vexations’ by Erik Satie Continuously for 28 Hours.” |
| September 4, 2018, Tuesday, 6:00-8:00 pm. | Science Cafe—The Draft Sports Bar, 67 South Main Street, Concord, New Hampshire, USA—Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes, with David Brooks. |
| September 11, 2018, Tuesday, 4:30-6:00 pm. | Knight Science Journalism seminar—MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA—Marc Abrahams will discuss the upcoming Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and the history of the Ig. (private event) |
| September 13, 2018, Thursday, 6:00 pm. | The 28th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony— Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. TICKETS available exclusively from the Harvard Box Office. |
| September 15, 2018, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | The Ig Informal Lectures—MIT, Building 10, room 250, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Free, but seating is limited, so get there early. |
| September 20-28, 2018. | Ig Nobel Japan Tour
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| September 22-November 4 2018. | Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition—AaMo Gallery at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan. [AND NOTE: The exhibition has its own twitter feed.] |
| October 3, 2018, Wednesday. | FSTech—Orlando, Florida, USA.—Marc Abrahams will give the keynote address: “Improbably Good and Bad Innovations in Food and Food Service.” |
| October 4, 2018, Thursday, 1:00 pm. | “The History, Uses, and Future of the Ig Nobel Prize,” Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.—25 Shattuck Street, Gordon Hall, Waterhouse Room—Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes, as part of the symposium. |
| October 10, 2018, Wednesday, 5:30 pm. | Hartford County Medical Association Annual Meeting, Farmington Gardens, Farmington, Connecticut, USA —Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes and some improbable medical research. |
| November 23, 2018, Friday. | “Science Friday” Ig Nobel radio broadcast. |
| December 8, 2018, Saturday. | “Science & Us” , MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA—Marc Abrahams will be part of a panel discussion with high schoolers, about science communication. |
| January 18, 2019, Friday, 10 pm. | Arisia, Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in ballroom Grand A.— This session is open to all attendees of Arisia
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| January 22, 2019, Tuesday, 7:00 pm. | Harvard Club of New York City, USA—Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes. [Private event for members and guests]. |
| February 14, 2019, 11 am. | NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA—Marc Abrahams will talk about improbable research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| February 16, 2019, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | Improbable Research show at the AAAS Annual Meeting, Omni Shoreham Hotel (in the Diplomat Ballroom), Washington DC—The annual Improbable Research session will include:
This session is open free to the public. (Seating is limited. Arrive early if you want a seat.) #AAASmtg |
| March-April, 2019. | Ig Nobel EuroTour 2019—Events in Scotland, England, Austria, The Czech Republic, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and Italy (again):
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| June 5, 2019, Wednesday, 5 pm. | Dead Duck Day celebration, Natural History Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands—commemorating the incident documented in the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Duck“. |
| June 19, 2019, Wednesday, 7 pm. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of another new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about Gustano Pizzo’s Ig Nobel Prize-winning patent (US patent 3,811,643) “Anti-hijacking system for aircraft.” Free. All welcome. |
| July 8, 2019, Monday, 7 pm. | Improbable Research Table Talk—Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 159 First St., Cambridge, MA, USA. [Part of another new series of events] A cozy, brief talk about a research study that makes people laugh, then think. With Marc Abrahams and Gus Rancatore. At this session we will talk about the Ig Nobel Prize-winning study “Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men“. Free. All welcome. |
| July 10, 2019, Wednesday, noon (U.S. eastern time). | TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS go on sale for the 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony—available exclusively from the Harvard Box office, online and in Harvard Square. |
| July 12-14, 2019, Fri, Sat, Sun. | Readercon, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA—Marc Abrahams will be part of several events:
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| August 16, 2019, Friday. 14:00. | Dublin2019, an Irish Worldcon, Dublin, Ireland—Convention Centre Dublin, in Wicklow Hall-1—Geri Sullivan will compere Dramatic Readings from Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies, performed by Liz Zitzow, Mason A. Porter, and Dave O’Neill |
| August 22, 2019, Thursday. 18:00. | Titancon/Eurocon, Belfast, Northern Ireland—Hilton Belfast, in the Waterfront Room—Geri Sullivan will compere Dramatic Readings from Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies. Dramatic readers TBA |
| September 10, 2019, Tuesday. | Knight Science Journalism seminar—MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA—”The best science stories are improbable (at first glance).” [private event] |
| September 12, 2019, Thursday, 6:00p pm. | The 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony—Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.—TICKETS are available from the Harvard Box Office. |
| September 14, 2019, Saturday, 1:00 pm. | Ig Informal Lectures—MIT, building 10, room 250, Cambridge, MA, USA.—The new Ig Nobel Prize winners give free public talks, and answer questions. No tickets are necessary (or even exist), but seating is limited, so it’s good to arrive a bit early. |
| September 23, 2019, Monday. | BEworks Summit—Toronto, Ontario, Canada—Marc Abrahams will talk about improbable research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| October 6, 2019, Sunday | New York City, New York, USA. [private event] |
| October 8, 2019, Tuesday, 6:00 pm | Georgia Tech—Atlanta, Georgia, USA—Room 152, Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, 266 4th St NW—David Hu, winner of two Ig Nobel Physics Prizes, will talk about “Cube-Shaped Poo and Georgia Tech’s Second Ig Nobel Prize“. |
| October 9, 2019, Wednesday | Red Hat—Boston, MA, USA. [private event] |
| October 18, 2019, Thursday | Tanween, the Creativity Season—Ithra, Dhahran, Saudia Arabia—Marc Abrahams will talk about playful scientific research that led to interesting happenings. |
| October 25, 2019, Friday | Texas Section American Physical Society meeting—Lubbock, Texas, USA—Marc Abrahams will be the banquet speaker, speaking about things other than the banquet. |
| November 7, 2019, Thursday, 5:00 pm | Vienna BioCenter PhD Symposium, Vienna, AUSTRIA— Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes and Improbable Research. |
| November 13, 2019, Wednesday, 7:00 pm | Science Salon, Copenhagen, DENMARK—Hofteatret, Christiansborg Ridebane 18— Marc Abrahams and Line Friis Frederiksen will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes and Improbable Research. TICKETS. |
| November 14, 2019, Thursday, 3:00 pm | Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, SWEDEN— Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winner Susanne Åkesson will talk about biodiversity and the Ig Nobel Prizes and Improbable Research. TICKETS. |
| November 18, 2019, Monday | Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA— “Surprise-Filled Detective Stories — How to Trigger Curiosity, About Science, in Non-Scientists,” with Marc Abrahams and Carey Goldberg and Melissa Franklin. [Open to Harvard faculty only] |
| November 22, 2019, Friday, 4:00 pm | Institute of Science and Technology, Klosterneuburg, AUSTRIA —David Hu, winner of two Ig Nobel Physics Prizes, will talk about “A wombat’s cube-shaped poo and other mysteries of animal movement“ |
| November 29, 2019, Friday | “Science Friday“—Public radio— Broadcast of specially edited version of this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Check your local station for the time, or listen online at the SciFri web site. |
| December 3, 2019, Tuesday | “Spreading Facts” Conference—MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA—Marc Abrahams will moderate a session on “The Art and Practice of Science Communication”. |
| December 25, 2019, Wednesday | Re-launch of the Improbable Research Podcast — The podcast, which began as a cooperative venture with the CBS Radio network, has been in hibernation since CBS Radio dismantled itself. We are bringing it back for a new life. |
| January 12, 2020, Sunday | Tencent Youth Science Festival—Beijing, CHINA—Marc Abrahams will discuss some of the physics-related Ig Nobel Prize winners. |
| January 17, 2020, Friday, 9:30 pm | Arisia—Boston, Massachusetts, USA—Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, grand ballroom CD—Dramatic readings from improbable research studies, many of which have won Ig Nobel Prizes. Marc Abrahams and:
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| January 23, 2020, Thursday, 6:00 pm | “Having Difficult Conversations About Science” panel discussion—MIT building 56, room 162—Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA—Marc Abrahams will be on the panel. |
| February 15, 2020, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | AAAS Annual Meeting—Seattle, Washington, USA—Grand Hyatt Seattle, 71 Pine Street, in Princessa Ballrooms 1 & 2 —This year’s AAAS Improbable Research session has Marc Abrahams and:
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| February 16, 2020, Sunday, noon-12:45 pm | Archie McPhee, 1300 N 45th St, Seattle, Washington, USA—Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. Special guests will do dramatic readings from improbable research studies. Free, almost everyone welcome. With dramatic readers:
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| February 19, 2020, Wednesday, 3:00 pm | NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS), NIH Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA—Masur Auditorium, NIH Building 10—Marc Abrahams will talk about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. This event is free and open to the public, and it will be webcast. [report] |
| March/April, 2020 | Ig Nobel Euro (and Brexitannia) Tour 2020
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| April 20, 2020, Monday, 1-3 pm US eastern time. | AAAS Twitter discussion about Surprising Things—Twitter, hashtag #AAASmtg. With Marc Abrahams, David Hu, Patricia Yang, Olga Shishkov, Nicole Sharp, Mark Dingemanse, Dany Adams, Kees Moeliker, Marc-Antoine Fardin |
| May 26, 2020, Tuesday, 9:30 pm London time (4:30 pm Boston time) | “Show Us Your Shit” Show on INSTAGRAM—Host Dan Schreiber will internetally visit Marc Abrahams for an informal tour of Marc’s office, including the Improbable Research Museum. |
| May 28, 2020, Thursday, 4 pm US pacific time. | University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CANADA—Physics&Astronomy Department colloquium: Marc Abrahams, in a Zoom talk about “Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes” |
| September 17, 2020, Thursday, 6:00 pm US eastern time. | 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony WEBCAST—The 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen a little differently than its 29 predecessors, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the ceremony will happen entirely online. There will be special versions of the webcast in Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and British English. |
| October 2, 2020, Friday, 6:00 pm. | Gothenburg Science Festival, Gothenburg, SWEDEN—Marc Abrahams will teledistantly talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes. (This was originally scheduled to happen during the 2020 Ig Nobel EuroTour, but was postponed because of the pandemic.) |
| October 3, 2020, Saturday, 6 pm. | Bergamoscienza, Bergamo, Italy—Marc Abrahams will be part of the opening night festivities, teledistantly. |
| October 22, 2020, Thursday, 4 pm Australian Eastern Time. | Q&A Session with the 2020 Ig Nobel Physics Prize winners, Swinburne University, online.—Ivan Maksymov and Andrey Pototsky will answer any and all questions about how and why they vibrated an earthworm at high frequency. |
| November 19, 2020, Thursday, 7 pm. | Harvard Club of Cape Cod, USA—Marc Abrahams will discuss Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes, teledistantly. |
| November 27, 2020, Friday. | “Science Friday“—Public radio— Broadcast of highlights from this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, with discussion by Ira Flatow and Marc Abrahams. Check your local station for the time, or listen online at the SciFri web site. In most cities (and online) the Ig will be in hour 2 of the two-hour SciFri broadcast, but in some cities it will be in hour 1. |
| December 3, 2020, Thursday, 5 pm. | Harvard Club of Merrimack Valley, USA—Marc Abrahams will discuss Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes, teledistantly. |
| December 9, 2020, Wednesday, 6:30 pm. | Café Scientifique, Muret, France USA—Marc Abrahams will be part of a discussion about the Ig Nobel Prizes, teledistantly. [Free, but you must register in advance] |
| December 10, 2020, Thursday, 67:000 pm. | Royal Society, London, UK—Double Ig Nobel Prize winner (physics 2015 and 2019) David Hu will do a talk about “How to walk on water and climb up walls“, teledistantly. [Free, but you must register in advance] |
| November 2020—February 2021. | Ig Informal Lectures (WEBCASTS)—The new Ig Nobel Prize winners each briefly explain what they did, and why they did it. We will release the lectures, one at a time, on www.improbablecom.wpcomstaging.com and YouTube. Here are the release dates:
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| January 11, 2021, Monday, 6 pm. | Intersci, Edinburgh, Scotland— Intersci will interview Marc Abrahams, teledistantly. |
| January 16, 2021, Saturday, 6:00 pm. | Arisia, Boston, Massachusetts, USA—Dramatic readings from Improbable Research studies. Each study has won an Ig Nobel Prize, or might some day. With Sonya Taafe, Mason Porter, Robin Abrahams, Dean Grodzins, David Kessler, and Marc Abrahams. This session is open to all registered Arisia attendees. This year, Arisia is happening entirely teledistantly. |
| February 11, 2021, Thursday, 2:15-3:15 pm. | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, USA—This year’s Improbable Research session is a special presentation about the current crop of Ig Nobel Prize winners (and a look back at Dr. Elena Bodnar’s 2009 Ig Nobel Prize-winning Emergency Bra). This year, the AAAS annual meeting is happening entirely teledistantly. Navigate to the AAAS Meeting live channel <https://virtual.aaas.org/landing> |
| February 22, 2021, Monday, 5 pm. | Israel Physical Society (IPS) Conference , Israel—Marc Abrahams will give the closing talk, teledistantly, about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| June 7, 2021, Monday | DNB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands—Improbable Research talk/discussion with Marc Abrahams, teledistantly. |
| August, 14, 2021, Saturday, 8:00 pm [US eastern time] | Readercon—Improbable Dramatic Readings from improbable research studies. with Marc Abrahams and dramatic readers Rose Fox, Sonya Taafe, Robin Abrahams, Claire Cooney, and Sara Dion. Open to all attendees of Readercon (which is entirely online this year, because of the pandemic). |
| September 9, 2021, Thursday, 6:00 pm (US eastern time). | The 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony—This year’s ceremony will happen entirely online, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| October 19, 2021, Tuesday, 6:30-8:00 pm. | Kavli Conversations on Science Communication at NYU, New York City, USA—Marc Abrahams, Cara Giaimo, and Jessica Boddy and will discuss “Reporting Weird Science—from fluorescent wombats to the Ig Nobel Prizes”. This event will be livestreamed. |
| September 9-November 3, 2021 | Ig Nobel Exhibition, Fukuoka, Japan—Gala exhibition, at the Fukuoka City Science Museum, of Ig Nobel Prize-winning achievements, things, and people. The exhibition has a curious Twitter handle: @ignobel_fuk. On October 16 there will be a special talk by this year’s Kinetics Prize laureate Hisashi Murakami, and 2003 Chemistry Prize laureate Yukio Hirose. |
| Sept/Oct/Nov, 2021. | 2021 Ig Informal Lectures—The new Ig Nobel Prize winners try to explain what they did and why they did it. Because of the pandemic, this year’s lectures are happening entirely online. The videos of these lectures are and will be collected on the 2021 ceremony web page. Here is the release schedule:
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| November 10, 2021, Wednesday, 6:30 pm. | Café Scientifique, Muret, France—Marc Abrahams will be part of a discussion about the Ig Nobel Prizes, teledistantly. |
| November 26, 2021, Friday. | “Science Friday” radio program. Specially edited version of the 2021 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. See the Science Friday web site for broadcast times. PLEASE NOTE: In most (but not all) cities, Science Friday is a two-hour-long program. In those cities, the Ig Nobel ceremony will be in the SECOND hour of the two-hour program. |
| January 14 (more or less), 2022. | Arisia—Dramatic Readings from Improbable Research studies. Our annual dramatic readings (from improbable research studies) has been part of Arisia for many years. Arisia 2022 was canceled because of the pandemic. Undaunted, we performed and recorded a new dramatic readings session in honor of Arisia, with dramatic readers Mason Porter, Sonya Taafe, Dean Grodzins, and Gary Dryfoos, and with Marc Abrahams compering. The video will be posted on YouTube.
UPDATE: Here is recorded video of the event. |
| January 20, 2022, Thursday, 4:00 pm (U.S. eastern time). | “(Improbable) Conversation: Physics and Psychology of Cats“. The premiere of a new kind of conversation: Two researchers, in different fields, explore each other’s worlds a little bit. With physicist (and Ig Nobel Prize winner, for exploring whether cats can be both liquid and solid) Marc-Antoine Fardin, and psycholinguist (and inventor of the Wug Test) Jean Berko Gleason. Marc Abrahams will compere. This is the first in a collaborative series by The Conversation and Improbable Research. Free. Reserve a place in advance.
UPDATE: Here is recorded video of the event. |
| February 19, 2022, Saturday, 5:30 pm (U.S. eastern time). | Annual Meeting of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). In 2022, as in 2021, the meeting is entirely virtual. Nonetheless, the annual (since about 1995) special Improbable Research session will be a featured part of it. |
| March/April, 2022. | CANCELLED: 2022 Ig Nobel Euro (and maybe Brexitannia) Tour—With mild optimism about the taming of the COVID-19 pandemic, we tentatively planned to resume the annual Ig Nobel Euro (and maybe Brexitannia) Tour. But the pandemic kept on pandemicking. So, we reluctantly cancelled the 2022 tour. We hope to resume the tour, come 2023! |
| June 25—September 11, 2022 | Ig Nobel Prize Special Exhibition, Taiwan |
| August 18, 2022, Thursday, 6:30 pm CDT | Council Bluffs Library, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA — “Improbable Cats & Dogs Research” online event for library patrons |
| September 1, 2022, Thursday, 5:30 pm CDT. | Chicon 8, Chicago, Illinois, USA — Improbable Dramatic Readings session. Marc Abrahams will compere a special session with Diane Kelly and these improbable dramatic readers: Mason Porter, Thiago Ambrosio Lage, Sharon Lee, Jack Glassman, Sarah Pinsker, S.E. Mulholland. Session is open to all Chicon attendees, in Chicago and virtual. |
| September 13, 2022, Tuesday. | Knight Science Journalism Fellowship office, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA — Marc Abrahams will do a seminar about the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| September 15, 2022, Thursday. | The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony — Webcast. |
| September 30, 2022, Wednesday. | Sharper Night, Italy — Students, together with experienced scientists and science communicators, in collaboration with Improbable Research, tell stories about unexpected discoveries and uncommon questions. This will happen in 14 Italian cities: Ancona, Camerino, Cagliari, Catania, Genoa, L’Aquila, Macerata, Nuoro, Palermo, Pavia, Perugia, Sassari, Terni and Trieste. |
| October 12, 2022, Wednesday. | Café Scientifique, Muret, France — Marc Abrahams will be part of a discussion about the Ig Nobel Prizes, teledistantly. Details TBA. |
| October 1-November 13, 2022. | Ig Nobel Prize Special Exhibition, Osaka Japan, at the Shinsaibashi Parco. |
| November 24, 2022, Thursday, 7:30 pm (Central European Time). | Heinz Oberhummer Award Ceremony, Stadtsaal, Vienna, Austria — The Heinz Oberhummer Award is for “outstanding scientific communication”. In 2022 it will be awarded to the Ig Nobel Prize. Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners Lisa Oberzaucher, David Hu, Sabine Begall, and Minna Lyons will participate in the ceremony, which will be webcast live. |
| November 25, 2022, Friday. | “Science Friday” radio program — Specially edited version of the 2022 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. See the Science Friday web site for broadcast times. |
| December 14, 2022, Wednesday. | Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Research Group for Nurses — Marc Abrahams will talk, remotely, about improbable research. |
| March 5, 2023, Sunday, 1:00 pm. | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, USA — Annual special Improbable Research session. |
| March 22, 2023, Wednesday, 1:00 pm. | Stanford University, California, USA — Stanford University Rotunda E241 (Chem-H + Wu Tsai Building) — “Ig Nobel Face-to-Face“, with Marc Abrahams and several eminent persons — Genie Scott, Alvin Roth, Dakota McCoy, and Seung-min Park — discussing each other’s improbable research. Organized by Stanford Data Science. This event is open to everyone, free. |
| June 5, 2023, Monday, 5:55 pm (Central European time). | Dead Duck Day celebration, Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, The Netherlands — The celebration, led by Kees Moeliker, honors the incident that led to the 2003 Ig Nobel Biology Prize. |
| June 8, 2023, Thursday, 7:30 pm (US Pacific time). | Bay Area Skeptics, California, USA — Marc Abrahams will yack tele-distantly about Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
| July 1, 2023, Saturday, 8:00 pm. | Improbable Dramatic Readings, Bazyliszek, Warsaw, Poland — Mikołaj Kowalewski will compere the first Improbable Dramatic Readings event ever held in Poland. |
| July 29, 2023, Saturday, 7:30 pm. | East Bay Astronomical Society, Oakland, California, USA — Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes. |
(Click here to see list of upcoming events.)