Further information
This event is now fully booked and the waiting list is closed.
The Ig Nobel Tour of the UK is sponsored by the British Science Association as part of the National Science and Engineering Week, March 6-15, 2009.
The show features Marc Abrahams, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prizes and Guardian columnist, together with a gaggle of Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers. Marc 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.
In this show are: Piers Barnes, Mahmood Bhutta, Marie-Christine Cadiergues, John Hoyland, Erwin Kompanje, Chris McManus, Dan Meyer, Kees Moeliker, David Sims and Charles Spence.
Time limits will be enforced by eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo
Marie-Christine Cadiergues, 2008 Ig Nobel Biology Prize winner for discovering that fleas that live on a dog can jump higher than fleas on a cat. She is a professor at Ecole Nationale Veterinaire de Toulouse.
Kees Moeliker is curator of birds at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. Moeliker won the 2003 Ig Nobel Biology Prize for documenting the first scientifically recorded case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck. He is also the Annals of Improbable Research European Bureau Chief. On this year’s tour he will present new cases of avian necrophilia and a forgotten study on birds and buttons.
David Sims, 2008 Ig Nobel Literature Prize winner for his study “You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations.”
Charles Spence, 2008 Ig Nobel Nutrition Prize winner for electronically modifying the sound of a potato chip to make the person chewing the chip believe it to be crisper and fresher than it really is. He is a professor at the University of Oxford.
Brian Witcombe and Dan Meyer shared the 2007 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize for their penetrating medical report “Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects.” On this year’s tour they will present newly discovered medical cases of (a) swordswallowing mishaps and (b) unlikely (even more unlikely than swords) objects that non-swordswallowers have swallowed.
Piers Barnes, who shared the 2006 Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed. He is a research associate in chemistry at Imperial College London.
Chris McManus wrote the study “Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture” for which he later received the 2002 Ig Nobel Medcine Prize. He is Professor of Psychology and Medical Education at University College London. On this year’s tour he will explain some of the ways left and right get mixed up through honest error, stupid incompetence, and malicious intent to deceive.
John Hoyland created and edits the “Feedback” column in New Scientist Magazine. He is a repository of improbable discoveries.
Erwin Kompanje studies overlooked spectacular medical history. He is a clinical ethicist at Erasmus University Rotterdam. On this year’s tour he will explain “Alien abduction and devil conquest in 17th century and modern medical literature”.
Mahmood Bhutta does innovative research on the acoustics effects of speaking with a hot potato in one’s mouth. He is a surgeon at Wexham Park Hospital.
Tickets for this show are free but are limited to 2 per person and must be booked in advance, email events@imperial.ac.uk with your name, email and postal address. Tickets will be mailed approximately one week before the show.
Each tickets entitles you to one free drink (beer, wine or soft drink) at the reception following the show.