Improbable Research

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• Theresa McKeon, 2019 Ig Nobel Prize winner for using a simple animal-training technique— called “clicker training” —to train surgeons to perform orthopedic surgery.
• Kazutaka Kurihara, 2012 Ig Nobel Prize winner for creating the SpeechJammer — a machine that disrupts a person’s speech, by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay.
• (Brief!) Dramatic readings from improbable research studies, some of which have won Ig Nobel Prizes.
• This event (unlike most of the events at the AAAS meeting) is free and open to the public.

• March 11, Wednesday—University of Manchester, UK —TICKETS—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Minna Lyons, and colleague Gayle Brewer (a new study: Referee Height Influences Decision Making in British Football Leagues)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Francis McGlone (the pleasurability of scratching an itch)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Herbert Crepaz (dead magnetized cockroaches behave differently than living magnetized cockroaches)
• March 12, Thursday—Lake Maggiore, ITALY [private event]—Marc Abrahams
• March 13, Friday, 2 pm—Istituto Mario Negri, Milan, ITALY—Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winner Silvano Gallus (evidence that pizza might protect against illness and death, if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy)
• March 18, Wednesday, 5:00 pm—University of Liverpool, UK—Central Teaching Hub, Lecture Theatre C [MAP]—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Oberzaucher (whether and how Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Richard Stephens (Does Swearing Relieve Pain?)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Minna Lyons, and colleague Gayle Brewer (a new study: Referee Height Influences Decision Making in British Football Leagues)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Francis McGlone (the pleasurability of scratching an itch)
• March 21, Saturday, 4:00 pm—“Peculiar“, Imperial College London, UK, in the Great Hall—The Improbable Research show (at 4 pm) is the first half of a special double-event day; the second half is BAHFest London (at 7 pm)—TICKETS (you can buy tickets for one event or, discountedly, for the entire Peculiar day)—With Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Silvano Gallus (evidence that pizza might protect against illness and death, if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Francis McGlone (the pleasurability of scratching an itch)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Minna Lyons and colleague Gayle Brewer (a new study: Referee Height Influences Decision Making in British Football Leagues)
  • Andrew J.T. George with a dramatic inquiry into the work of bad poet William Topaz McGonagall
• March 24, Tuesday, 8:00 pm—Stadtsaal, Vienna, AUSTRIA—TICKETS—Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Oberzaucher (whether and how Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children)
• March 25, Wednesday, 6:00 pm—University of Graz, AUSTRIA—Aula of the University Graz; Universitätsplatz 3—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Marc-Antoine-Fardin (Can a cat be both a solid and a liquid)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Ilaria Bufalari (many identical twins cannot tell themselves apart visually)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Herbert Crepaz (dead magnetized cockroaches behave differently than living magnetized cockroaches)
• March 30, Monday, 6:00 pm—EPFL, Lausanne, SWITZERLAND—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Minna Lyons (a new study: Referee Height Influences Decision Making in British Football Leagues)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Silvano Gallus (evidence that pizza might protect against illness and death, if the pizza is made and eaten in Italy)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winners Peter Witzgall and Sebastien Lebreton (detecting, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine)
• April 1, Wednesday, 5:00 pm—University of Zurich, SWITZERLAND—Irchel Campus, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zürich—Marc Abrahams, joined by Ig Nobel Prize winner Milo Puhan (using didgeridoo playing to treat sleep apnea).
• April 6, Monday, 6:00 pm—University of Duisberg-Essen, GERMANY—Audimax (building R14)—TICKETS—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winners Sabine Begall and Pascal Malkemper (when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth’s north-south geomagnetic field lines)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Oberzaucher (whether and how Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Andreas Voss (which country’s paper money is best at transmitting dangerous bacteria)
  • Nicolas Wöhrl and Reinhard Remfort
• April 14, Tuesday—Aarhus University, DENMARK—(This event will be livestreamed to a large number of cinemas, libraries, public universities, cultural houses, associations, assembly houses, colleges and schools, etc. in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Germany)—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Sindre Eftestol (how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner’s colleague Eva Bertilsson (using a simple animal-training technique— called “clicker training” —to train surgeons to perform orthopedic surgery)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Peter Witzgall (wine experts can reliably identify, by smell, the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine)
• April 15, Wednesday, 4 pm—University of Southern Denmark— Odense, Campusvej 55, Odense M., room is U45,—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Sindre Eftestol
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner’s colleague Eva Bertilsson
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Peter Witzgall
  • Irina Elena Antonescu and Liza Sopina (Should you tap a beer can before opening it?”)
• April 20, Monday—Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, SWEDEN—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Sindre Eftestol (how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Emily Baird (dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate)
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Fritz Strack (discovering that holding a pen in one’s mouth makes one smile, which makes one happier — and then discovering that it does not)
• April 21, Tuesday—Stockholm Universtity, SWEDEN—Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Sindre Eftestol
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Emily Baird
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Fritz Strack
• April 22, Wednesday, 7:30 pm—International Science Festival Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SWEDEN—Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winner’s colleague Eva Bertilsson
• April 23, Thursday, 3:45 pm—Forum for Science Communication, Gothenburg, SWEDEN—Lindholmen Conference Center—Marc Abrahams will talk about the Ig Nobel Prizes.
• …and more events TBA