http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081003/full/news.2008.1150.html
An Ig Nobel diary
Nature reports from the awards that celebrate the silliest science around.
Steve Nadis
IgNobel award ceremonyThe Ig Nobels: a festival of daftness.Improbable ResearchI’ve been told to get a life any number of times, and one day I will. But until that happens, you’ll know where to find me on the first Thursday night of October: here at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, waiting for the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony to begin. This is the 18th year that the Igs have celebrated some of the more dubious achievements of science, with an unruly yet appreciative crowd.
7:31 p.m. The lights dim and a stage manager informs us that unauthorized chicken flights will be banned at this year’s event. Damn! Why didn’t they tell me that before I bought my ticket?
7:35 p.m. We’re off to a novel start. A Harvard Medical School dean pulls a sword out of the throat of another man (a previous Ig Nobel winner), who shouts: “Welcome to the Igs!”
7:42 p.m. The event’s organizer and master-of-ceremonies, Marc Abrahams
