Marc Abrahams, "Annals of Improbable Research" - The Ig Noble Awards

Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Annals of Improbable Research (A.I.R.), and the Ig Noble Prize. His new book is This is Improbable Too: Synchronized Cows, Speedy Brain Extractors and More WTF Research. He recently spoke at the TED Convention, and he also stopped by Google tlo talk about his book.

Marc Abrahams: A science award that makes you laugh, then think

Published on Oct 24, 2014


As founder of the Ig Nobel awards, Marc Abrahams explores the world’s most improbable research. In this thought-provoking (and occasionally side-splitting) talk, he tells stories of truly weird science — and makes the case that silliness is critical to boosting public interest in science.

* * * * *

Talks at Google: Marc Abrahams, "Annals of Improbable Research"

Published on Oct 23, 2014


Marc Abrahams visited Google's office in Cambridge, MA to discuss his new book This is Improbable Too: Synchronized Cows, Speedy Brain Extractors and More WTF Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes.

He has long collected odd, imaginative, and brilliantly improbable scientific discoveries from around the world. In his new book, he investigates research on the ins and outs of the very improbable evolutionary innovation that is the human body (brain included):

• What’s the best way to get a monkey to floss regularly?
• How much dandruff do soldiers in Pakistan’s army have?
• What is the real meaning of the finger?

Marc Abrahams is the editor and co-founder of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, a weekly columnist for the Guardian, and author of This Is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens, and Other WTF Research. He is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony, which are presented annually at Harvard.

@MarcAbrahams | www.improbable.com

"The Stinker", the official mascot of the Ig Nobel Prizes

It's that yearly event that many scientists likely dread - the awarding of the IgNoble prizes for improbable research.

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. Every year, in a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1200 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel laureates.

The 23rd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will happen happened on Thursday, September 12, 2013. The ceremony will be was webcast live. TICKETS for the ceremony are sold out. 

And, from The Scicurious Brain at Scientific American, here are the 2013 winners:

IgNobels 2013! And the Winners Are…

By Scicurious | September 12, 2013 

 

TONIGHT, the 2013 IgNobels Prizes were held in Saunders Theatre at Harvard University! Winners traveled at their own expense, and received the prize from the hands of…real Nobel Prize winners. This year the prizes were accompanied by a new Opera, “The Blonsky Device”. 

And the winners are…*drumroll*

MEDICINE PRIZE
“Auditory stimulation of opera music induced prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival and maintained generation of regulatory CD4+CD25+ cells,” Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito Hirai, Atsushi Amano, Hisashi Bashuda and Masanori Niimi, Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, vol. 7, no. 26, epub. March 23, 2012.

PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE
REFERENCE: “‘Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beer Holder’: People Who Think They Are Drunk Also Think They Are Attractive,” Laurent Bègue, Brad J. Bushman, Oulmann Zerhouni, Baptiste Subra, Medhi Ourabah, British Journal of Psychology, epub May 15, 2012.

JOINT PRIZE IN BIOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
REFERENCE: “Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Orientation,” Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke H. Scholtz, Eric J. Warrant, Current Biology, epub January 24, 2013. The authors, at Lund University, Sweden, the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the University of Pretoria 

SAFETY ENGINEERING PRIZE
The late Gustano Pizzo [USA], for inventing an electro-mechanical system to trap airplane hijackers — the system drops a hijacker through trap doors, seals him into a package, then drops the encapsulated hijacker through the airplane’s specially-installed bomb bay doors, whence he parachutes to earth, where police, having been alerted by radio, await his arrival. 

US Patent #3811643, Gustano A. Pizzo, “anti hijacking system for aircraft”, May 21, 1972.

PHYSICS PRIZE
REFERENCE: “Humans Running in Place on Water at Simulated Reduced Gravity,” Alberto E. Minetti, Yuri P. Ivanenko, Germana Cappellini, Nadia Dominici, Francesco Lacquaniti, PLoS ONE, vol. 7, no. 7, 2012, e37300.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE
REFERENCE: “Plant Biochemistry: An Onion Enzyme that Makes the Eyes Water,” S. Imai, N. Tsuge, M. Tomotake, Y. Nagatome, H. Sawada, T. Nagata and H. Kumagai, Nature, vol. 419, no. 6908, October 2002, p. 685.

ARCHAEOLOGY PRIZE
REFERENCE: “Human Digestive Effects on a Micromammalian Skeleton,” Peter W. Stahl and Brian D. Crandall, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 22, November 1995, pp. 789–97.

PEACE PRIZE
Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, for making it illegal to applaud in public, AND to the Belarus State Police, for arresting a one-armed man for applauding.

PROBABILITY PRIZE
REFERENCE: “Are Cows More Likely to Lie Down the Longer They Stand?” Bert J. Tolkamp, Marie J. Haskell, Fritha M. Langford, David J. Roberts, Colin A. Morgan, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol. 124, nos. 1-2, 2010, pp. 1–10.

PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE
REFERENCE: “Surgical Management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam,” by Kasian Bhanganada, Tu Chayavatana, Chumporn Pongnumkul, Anunt Tonmukayakul, Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, Krit Komaratal, and Henry Wilde, American Journal of Surgery, 1983, no. 146, pp. 376-382.

In the words of the wonderful Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of “Annals of Improbable Research,” “If you didn’t win an Ig Nobel Prize tonight — and especially if you did — better luck next year.”

I will be writing individual posts for all winners over the next few days!! Look forward tomorrow to more from the IgNobel Prizes!!!

 

About the Author: Scicurious is a PhD in Physiology, and is currently a postdoc in biomedical research. She loves the brain. And so should you. Follow on Twitter @Scicurious.

More »

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.