Banana skins and rabbit cartilage mucus – with an Ig Nobel connection

Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai, were jointly awarded the 2014 Ig Nobel Physics Prize for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that’s on the floor. REFERENCE: “Frictional Coefficient under […]

Ig Nobel event TONIGHT—Ishikawa Prefectural University

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour has its final event tonight, with an event at Ishikawa Prefectural University on Thursday, September 27. WHERE: Ishikawa Prefectural University, Hokkoku Shimbun Interchange Hall (2-1 Minami-cho, Kanazawa City). WHEN: 17:30 Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners Yukio Hirose, and Hidehiko Kumagai (who is also president of the university) & Shinsuke Imai will discuss the […]

Ig Nobel event—with Two/Too Lectures!—at Hokkaido U

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour continues, with an event at Hokkaido University on Wednesday, September 26. Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners — Prof. Toshiyuki Nakagaki (winner of two Ig Nobel Prizes, for discovering that slime mold can solve puzzles and that slime mold is more efficient than human engineers at designing railway routes), and Prof. Kazunori […]