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.
• This event is free and open to the public

• March 11, Wednesday—Manchester University, UK —Marc Abrahams and
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Minna Lyons (relation between night owls, early risers, and psychopaths)
  • 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 21, Saturday—Imperial College London, UK, in the Great Hall.—This is the first half of a special double-event day, together with BAHFest London. 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 (a new study: Referee Height Influences Decision Making in British Football Leagues}
• March 24, Tuesday, 8:00 pm—Stadtsaal, Vienna, AUSTRIA—TICKETS are now on sale—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—University of Graz, AUSTRIA
• March 30, Monday, 6:00 pm—EPFL, Lausanne, SWITZERLAND
• April 6, Monday, 6:00 pm—University of Duisberg-Essen, GERMANY—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—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—University of Southern Denmark, DENMARK—Marc Abrahams and 
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Sindre Eftestol
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner’s colleague Eva Bertilsson
  • Ig Nobel Prize winner Peter Witzgall
• April 20, Monday—Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
• April 21, Tuesday—Stockholm Universtity, Sweden
• April 23, Thursday—Gothenburg, Sweden. Details TBA.
• Date TBA—Oslo University, Norway
• …and more events TBA