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The 2005 Ig Nobel Awards

Charlie in Dayton

Rabid radioactive stargazer and JREF kid
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
1,086
from the September 2005 issue of
The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The Fifteenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The new winners will be journeying, from slightly more than four
continents, to attend the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony on

Thursday night, October 6, at Harvard University.

This year's theme is INFINITY. The ceremony will include three
Infinite Lectures, as well as the premiere of the mini-opera "The
Count of Infinity," and the Win-a-Date-with-a-Nobel-Laureate
Contest.

TICKETS: Tickets for the ceremony are on sale from the Harvard Box
office: <http://140.247.170.40/tickets/details.cfm?EVENT_ID=4537>
Telephone: (+1) 617-496-2222.

WEBCAST: The live webcast is at <http://www.improbable.com>.

TIME: The webcast will begin at 7:15 pm. with a special pre-
concert ("Infinite Chopsticks") by pianist Nicholas Carstoiu.
The ceremony proper begins at 7:30 pm.

AUDIENCE DELEGATIONS: If you have five or more tickets and wish to
register as an audience delegation, please do. The registration
deadline is FRIDAY, SEPT. 30.
<http://www.improbable.com/ig/2005/2005-details.html#delegations>

DETAILS: are at < http://www.improbable.com/ig/2005/2005-details.html>
 
Just a bump to remind y'all...

The Fifteenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

Thursday night, October 6, at Harvard University.

WEBCAST: The live webcast is at <http://www.improbable.com>.

TIME: The webcast will begin at 7:15 pm. with a special pre-
concert ("Infinite Chopsticks") by pianist Nicholas Carstoiu.
The ceremony proper begins at 7:30 pm.
 
The Fifteenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony was held Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at Sanders Theatre on the Harvard University campus.

Every Ig Nobel Prize winner has done something that first makes people LAUGH, then makes them THINK.

A quick instant report of the winning...projects...

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY
awarded for research on The Significance Of Mr Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers
http://www.wbateman.demon.co.uk/asa2sums/sum1.7/story1.7.htm

PHYSICS
awarded for an experiment on how long a glob of black tar takes to drip through a funnel, begun in 1927

MEDICINE
awarded for the invention of 'Neuticles' -- artificial replacement testicles for dogs

LITERATURE
awarded to the Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria for their inventiveness in the various stories that have collectively come to be known as The 419 Scam

PEACE PRIZE
awarded for an experiment that electrically monitored brain cell activity in a locust while the locust was watching 'Star Wars'

ECONOMICS
awarded for the invention of an alarm clock that repeatedly runs away and hides, thereby insuring that you actually do get out of bed

BIOLOGY
for research that included smelling the peculiar odors of 131 different species of frogs whilethe frogs were feeling stressed

NUTRITION
for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal the winner has consumed for 34 years and counting

FLUID DYNAMICS
for the use of basic principles of physics in determining the buildup of pressures in penguins when they poo. (The winners were unable to attend because the US Government wouldn't grant them a visa.)

EXTRA-SPECIAL NOTE
The prize in the 'Win A Date With a Nobel Laureate' contest was Robert Wilson, co-winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (please note that he was not the winner of the contest, he was the PRIZE -- and the winner was a real hottie...)


A full report with winners' names and links to the projects will be available very soon on
http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html
 
Did the Nigerians responsible for the 419 scam actually show to claim their prize?
 
Did the Nigerians responsible for the 419 scam actually show to claim their prize?

No :( But, the show was AWESOME! I highly recommend it to everyone. Larry B and I already decided we're totally going next year, because it was great.

After the show, we met the woman who created the "Studmuffins of Science" Calendar. We talked to her for a bit (she was very cool, and really seems to like the idea of a Skepchick calendar) and then were preparing to leave when she asked us if we were going to "the thing downstairs," which turned out to be a little afterparty for winners and special guests, such as about a half dozen Nobel Prize winners and big time scientists. So we went and ate all their cookies and (I) drank all their wine. Woo!
 
I would just like to congratulate the magnificent showing by Australians in the awards this year. Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!

Yeah, the Aussies and New Zealanders were everywhere! At the party, Larry and I were mere inches from the scientist responsible for the study on Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers. Inches! I think I got mustard on him.
 
Well dang! I went to the link provided and tried to read the paper on "Orthopteran DMCD Neuron: etc. etc." and all I got was the dreaded "The Page Cannot Be Displayed" error. I really wanted to see what the locusts thought of the movie! :D
 

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