UK Tour

2012 Ig Nobel Tour of the UK

VIDEO: Watch the 2010 show at Imperial College London.

The 2012 tour will span March 8-17, 2012. It’s all about research that makes people laugh, then think. This will be the tenth annual tour in conjunction with National Science & Engineering Week.  twitter: #IgUKTour #Sciweek

Preview: Ian Visits
Previous tours: 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
Host an event: Download this brochure, and email <improbableuktour@gmail.com>

March 8, 2012, Thursday, 6:00 pm.
 Leeds. Leeds Festival of Science, University of Leeds, Conference Auditorium 1. Featuring: Marc Abrahams, Claire Rind, John Hoyland, David Gadian, Charles Spence, Piers Barnes. —Ticket info to be announced soon.
March 9, 2011, Friday, 5:55 pm London. Imperial College. Great Hall, Level 2, Sherfield Building, South Kensington campus. (Click here for a map.) Featuring: Marc Abrahams, Mirjam Tuk, John Hoyland, Steve Colgan, Mason Porter. —Tickets available now.
March 10, 2011, Saturday, 7:00 pm Teddington. NPL [National Physical Laboratory] Sports Club, Queens Road. This is an Improbable After Dark show, with an all-star cast of scientists, journalists, and entertainers each doing exceedingly-brief readings from genuine, improbable scientific studies. If you are easily offended by anything, do not come to this show. Co-sponsored by Skeptics in the Pub. Featuring: Marc Abrahams; Dan Schreiber (BBC’s Museum Of Curiosity & QI Elf); Helen Arney (Musician, physicist, comedian); Stuart Clark (Astronomer, journalist & Author); Stevyn Colgan (Author and QI contributor);  James Harkin (QI Elf);  Laurie Winkless (NPL Materials Scientist);  Adam Kay (Physician, writer, comedian. One half of the Amateur Transplants);  Elaine Snell (Science communicator and organizer); Alom Shaha (Physicist, writer, film-maker); Geoff Carr (science & tech editor of The Economist); Chloe Kembery (head of media relations, Natural History Museum) and Others to be announced. —Tickets available now
March 14, 2012, Wednesday, 5:00 pm
 Hewlett Packard, Bristol. Long Down Avenue, Stoke Gifford. Featuring: Marc Abrahams, Makoto Imai, David Gadian, Desmond Donovan, Michael Lewis. —Ticket info to be announced soon.
March 15, 2012, Thursday
 London. Imperial College. Press event with Makoto Imai,  Inventor of the Wasabi-fume Fire Alarm. Details to be announced.
March 16, 2012, Friday, 7:00 pm.
 Edinburgh. Counting House, 36 West Nicolson Street. This is an Improbable After Dark show, with an all-star cast of scientists, journalists, and entertainers each doing exceedingly-brief readings from genuine, improbable scientific studies. If you are easily offended by anything, do not come to this show. Co-sponsored by Skeptics in the Pub. —Tickets available now.
March 17, 2011, Saturday, 6:00 pm. Dundee. University of Dundee, Lecture Theatre, Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill.  Featuring: Marc Abrahams, Makoto Imai, Ben Wilson, Sergio Della Sala, and a bit of the works of the wretched poet McGonagall [whose finest bad works were created, premiered and to some extent tolerated in Dundee, and whose picture is reproduced here]. —Tickets available now.

And other events to be announced. 

What and who: The shows feature Marc Abrahams, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prizes, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and Guardian columnist, together with a gaggle of Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers.

Marc Abrahams will review the past year’s improbable research and Ig Nobel Prize winners. Several Ig winners, and other scientists who have done things just as improbably impressive, will try to explain what they did and why they did it, and will field questions.

Each show will include a unique combination of individuals. Performers include:

  • Piers Barnes (the maths of taking photos in which no one is blinking)
  • Stevyn Colgan (the London police technique for learning complex territory)
  • Sergio Della Sala (Bulgarian cinema seating in right, mixed, and left handers)
  • Desmond Donovan (the gradual diminution of the human head)
  • David Gadian (the difference between London taxi drivers’ brains and those of passengers)
  • John Hoyland (new discoveries by New Scientist‘s Feedback editor)
  • Makoto Imai (the wasabi-fume fire alarm)
  • Michael Lewis (crossword puzzles and crime)
  • Mason Porter (synchronization of cows)
  • Claire Rind (locust brain activity whilst watching Star Wars)
  • Charles Spence (electronically modifying the sound of carefully bitten potato crisps)
  • Miriam Tuk (the effects of a full bladder on the quality of decision-making)
  • Ben Wilson (Herrings probably communicate by farting)
  • An entire gang of other performers at the Teddington “After Dark” show
  • and more to be announced soon

Here are some highlights from last year (2011)’s show at the University of Dundee;