Ig Nobel Prize – Denmark tour. Priser for årets mest tossede forskning

Ig Nobel Prize – Denmark tour

The lecture is taught in English/Foredraget afholdes på letforståeligt engelsk.

Hvad er Ig Nobel?

Ig Nobelprisen er en parodi på Nobelprisen og uddeles hvert år i oktober omkring samme tidspunkt, som de rigtige Nobelpriser offentliggøres. Ig Nobelpriserne uddeles for at hædre bedrifter, der "først får folk til at le, derefter til at tænke". Priserne er til tider udtryk for kritik eller satire, men også regulær - men mærkelig - videnskabelig forskning. Prisuddelingen arrangeres af det videnskabelige, humoristiske tidsskrift Annals of Improbable Research og uddeles af en gruppe, der inkluderer rigtige Nobelprisvindere ved en ceremoni i Harvard University's Sanders Theater.

We are again able to invite the alternative Nobel Prize – the Ig Nobel Prize – to Aarhus University. Meet three researchers who have received the Ig Nobel Prize and the founder of the prize – mathematician Marc Abrahams.

It is hard to describe the Ig Nobel Prize and not least lectures of the prize winners – it needs to be experienced. Here is a try though:
The award ceremony: Orchestrated by Marc Abrahams the ten Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded for the 24rd time in a blaze of publicity at a great gala ceremony at Harvard University, USA on September 18, 2014. 
The prize brings into focus ten research results of the year that are exceptionally creative, unlikely and bizarre, though still serious. To put it in another way: The prize goes to “peculiar research” that in the first place makes us laugh and then afterwards gives us food for thought.
   The prize covers a wide range of sciences yet with main emphasis on natural science, medicine and social science. In general the prizes are given to respected serious research which has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

• The evening will begin with a lecture from the founder of the prize Marc Abrahams who, with a twinkle in the eye, will tell about the prize, the ceremony at Harvard University and some of the latest years prize winners and their research “which neither can or should be repeated”. After this, three Ig Nobel Prize winners will explain and perhaps demonstrate their prize-winning achievements:
• Professor, RNDr. Jaroslav Flegr, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic – for investigating whether it is mentally hazardous for a human being to own a cat. (Ig Nobel Prize in public Health, 2014).
  (Ig Nobel vinder Jaroslav Flegr har dokumenteret, at det er mentalt risikabelt for et menneske at eje en kat).
• Professor Eigil Reimers, Universitetet i Oslo, Norway – for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears. (Ig Nobel Prize in Arctic science, 2014).
  (Ig Nobel vinder Eigel Reimers har testet, hvordan rensdyr reagerer på at se mennesker, der er forklædt som isbjørne).
• PD Dr. Sabine Begall and Professor, Dr. Hynek Burda, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany – for carefully documenting that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth's north-south geomagnetic field lines. (Ig Nobel Prize in biology, 2014).
  (Ig Nobel vinder Hynek Burda har dokumenteret, at når hunde har afføring og urinerer, så foretrækker de at rette deres kropsakse ind efter jordens nord-syd geomagnet).
• Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a period of 34 years (and counting). (Ig Nobel Prize in nutrition, 2005).
  (Ig Nobel vinder Dr. Nakamats har fotograferet hvert eneste måltid, han har indtaget over en periode på 34 år).

Warning: The lectures are not suitable for the humorless. :-)

OBS: Foredraget starter kl. 19.00, men billetten er bortfaldet ved fremmøde efter kl. 18.45. Afkrydsning sker i nærheden af elevatoren på etagen på samme niveau som søen. 

Seminaret afholdes i samarbejde med Offentlige foredrag i Naturvidenskab, Aarhus