Marc Abrahams's Blog, page 171

Ig Nobel event TONIGHT—Ishikawa Prefectural University

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour has its final event tonight, with an event at Ishikawa Prefectural University on Thursday, September 27.

WHERE: Ishikawa Prefectural University, Hokkoku Shimbun Interchange Hall (2-1 Minami-cho, Kanazawa City).
WHEN: 17:30

Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners Yukio Hirose, and  (who is also president of the university) will discuss the Igs, and answer (and ask) questions. Paper airplanes will fly.

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour

This is, as noted above, the final event of Ig Nobel Japan Tour. The tour celebrates the opening (which happened a few days ago) of the Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition, in the Tokyo Dome Complex.

The exhibition is open to the public September 22-November 4, 2018.

The Duck Guy discusses the new Ig Nobel Prize winners (in Dutch)

Kees Moeliker discusses the new Ig Nobel Prize winners, in this video interview.

The interview happens in Natuurhistorisch Museum, of which Kees is the director. The museum is also the home of one of the ducks involved in the famous incident documented in described in Kees’s scientific study “The First Case of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)” C.W. Moeliker, Deinsea, vol. 8, 2001, pp. 243-7. That study earned Kees the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize for biology.

Kees also serves as Improbable Research‘s European Bureau Chief.

Nasality in Homosexual Men, Compared to Heterosexual Men and Women

Do homosexual men sound different from other people, when they talk? This Belgian study is a new attempt to answer that question:

“Nasality in Homosexual Men: A Comparison with Heterosexual Men and Women,” Belle Vanpoucke [pictured here], Marjan Cosyns, Kim Bettens, and John Van Borse, Archives of Sexual Behavior, epub 2018. The authors, at Ghent University, Belgium, explain:

“Several studies reported that pitch and articulation may vary according to a person’s sexual orientation. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether homosexual males also demonstrate differences in nasal resonance compared to heterosexual males. Speech samples of 30 self-identified homosexual males, 35 heterosexual males, and 34 heterosexual females were compared both instrumentally and perceptually. Nasalance scores were calculated for the sounds /a/, /i/, /u/, and /m/ and for an oronasal, oral, and nasal text. In addition, the Nasality Severity Index was determined. Spontaneous speech samples were used for a perceptual evaluation of nasal resonance. Neither the nasalance scores nor the Nasality Severity Index were significantly different between the homosexual and heterosexual males. Heterosexual females, on the other hand, showed significantly higher nasalance values for the oronasal and oral text and a significantly lower Nasality Severity Index than both the homosexual and the heterosexual males. The perceptual judgment revealed no significant differences between the three groups. The results of this study suggest that, in contrast to pitch and articulation, nasality does not tend to vary with sexual orientation.”

Ig Nobel event—with Two/Too Lectures!—at Hokkaido U

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour continues, with an event at Hokkaido University on Wednesday, September 26.

Marc Abrahams and Ig Nobel Prize winners — Prof. Toshiyuki Nakagaki (winner of two Ig Nobel Prizes, for discovering that slime mold can solve puzzles and that slime mold is more efficient than human engineers at designing railway routes), and Prof. Kazunori Yoshizawa (winner for discovering a female penis and a male vagina, in a cave insect) — will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes. They will also answer (and ask) questions. Paper airplanes will fly.

A new experiment: The Two/Too Lectures

Professor Nakagaki and Professor Yoshizawa will also become the first people to try a new kind of Improbable Research public activity. Each will present a Two/Too Lecture.

In a Two-Too Lecture, the lecturer explains their research in just two (2) minutes — and then explains the same thing again, in two (2) minutes, but using a completely different metaphor.

The/Too This Lectures are a new descendant of the 24/7 Lectures that have long been a featured part of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. You can think of each of these — the 24/7 Lectures and the Two/Too Lectures — as new kinds of science communication. Indeed, they are new forms of public communication. Each is designed to make people LAUGH, then THINK.

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour celebrates the opening (which happened a few days ago) of the Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition, in the Tokyo Dome Complex. The exhibition is open to the public September 22-November 4, 2018.

The final event of the Ig Nobel Japan Tour will happen at the University of Kanazawa, on Friday.

Ig Nobel events TODAY at Miraikan in Tokyo

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour continues. Today (Sunday, September 23) there will be two events at Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation). The first, talk and questions and answers with Marc Abrahams, will be at 15:30. The second event will be webcast at 17:30-19:00 (Tokyo time).

Marc will participate in other special Ig Nobel activities in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Kanazawa, during the coming week.

Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition opens TODAY, Sept 22, in Tokyo

The Ig Nobel Prizes Exhibition opens today, in Tokyo, at the AaMo Gallery at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan.

Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, will take part in the festivities. The exhibition will run from September 22-November 4, 2018.

It is chock full of Ig Nobel items, photos, sounds, and activities from many of the Ig Nobel Prize winners.

At the press opening, yesterday, ten Ig Nobel Prize winners performed for and talked with 50 journalists from throughout Japan (and a few from beyond). Here’s  the first press accounts: AFP (Agence France Presse).

Marc will participate in other special Ig Nobel activities in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Kanazawa, during the next week.

Recalling the US Fifth Circuit’s first ‘Haircut’ case

If you have been wondering along the lines of – ‘When was the first haircut case heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ?’ The answer could well be : Ferrell v. Dallas Independent School District, 261 F. Supp. 545 (N.D. Tex. 1966)

The Ferrell plaintiffs were members of a musical group called ‘Sounds Unlimited’. According to the band, their recording contract required them to maintain ‘Beatle – style’ haircuts, The principal of the school which they attended objected to their mop-top hair, and banned them from entry to the school. The court documents reveal that :

“It was also developed by the defendants that immediately after being refused admittance the ‘Sounds Unlimited’ proceeded to a local recording studio and recorded a song entitled, ‘Keep Your Hands Off of It.’ Copies of the record were produced and distributed by the agent to the various radio stations in the area, and was subsequently played on the air by these stations. This record was played in open court, and to say the least, it was an excursion into cacaphony. The words went something like this:

“Went to school, got kicked out,

Said it was too long, now we’re going to shout.

(Chorus)

“Keep your hands off of it,

Keep your hands off of it,

It don’t belong to you.

“Bopped upon the steps, Principal I met,

You’re not getting in, now what do you want to bet.

(Chorus)

“Went this morning, tried to get in, The kids were for us, but we still couldn’t win.

(Chorus)

“HAIR, THAT IS.” (Defendants’ Ex. #1)

See/hear the exhibit above. To sum up the proceedings then :

“[The] Appellants contend that the action of the school authorities was unlawful under the constitution and laws of the State of Texas.”

The court’s decision, however, was :

“We do not agree.”

Further reading : A lengthy description of the band and its exploits can be found here at the On The Road South blog.

[ Research research by Martin Gardiner ]

How Aesthetically Pleasing Is Your Country’s Diffraction Pattern?

You may be wondering how aesthetically pleasing is your country’s diffraction pattern. This new physics study proves that Albert F. Rigosi shares your mental hobby:

“Analysis of Fraunhofer Diffraction Patterns’ Entropy Based on Apertures Shaped as National Borders,” Albert F. Rigosi, Optik, vol. 172, November 2018, pp. 1019-1025. (Thanks to John Ng for bringing this to our attention.) The author, at Columbia University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, reports:

“How aesthetically pleasing is your country’s diffraction pattern? This work summarizes the calculated and experimental Fraunhofer diffraction patterns obtained from using apertures lithographically formed into shapes of national borders. Calculations are made based on the fast Fourier transform of the aperture images. The entropy of a diffraction pattern image, based on its two-dimensional gradient, for each of 113 nations has also been computed. Results suggest that most nations’ diffraction patterns fall under one of two prominent trends forming as a function of geographical area, with one trend being less entropic than the other.”

The top images here shows shows a diagram of the experimental setup. The bottom collection of images show: “Three example nations. (a) The aperture for the continental USA is depicted. (b) is the FFT calculation of the aperture above, and the corresponding experimental data is shown below in (c). (d) The aperture for Egypt is depicted, along with its FFT and experimental data in (e) and(f), respectively. (g) The aperture for Papua New Guinea is shown with its (h) calculated FFT and (i) experimental diffraction data.”

Additional everything can be found in an appendix.

The Ig Nobel Japan Tour — September 20-28

Please join us for any or all of the Ig Nobel events in Japan:

Ig Nobel Japan Tour

September 20, Thursday—Nerd Nite Tokyo, Nagatacho GRID, Tokyo, Japan.— A very jet-lagged Marc Abrahams will discuss the Ig Nobel Prizes.
September 22, Saturday—Ig Nobel Exhibition—AaMo Gallery at the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan. —Marc Abrahams and several Ig Nobel Prize winners will take part in the opening, on September 22.—The exhibition will run from September 22-November 4, 2018. [The image you see here is from the 2-part manga (1, 2) about Marc and the Ig Nobel Prizes, published ten years ago. The illustrious writer of that manga will take part in the exhibition opening.]
September 23, Sunday— Miraikan  (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation).
September 26, Wednesday—Hokkaido University —Marc Abrahams and several Ig Nobel Prize winners will discuss the Igs, and answer (and ask) questions. Details TBA.
September 28, Friday—Kanazawa University —Marc Abrahams and several Ig Nobel Prize winners will discuss the Igs, and answer (and ask) questions. Details TBA.

For additional detail and links (we will be adding them, bit by bit), check our Upcoming Events page.

SATURDAY: The 2017 Ig Informal Lectures, at MIT

The Ig Informal Lectures

Saturday, Sept 15, 2018, 1:00 pm.

MIT, building 10, room 250 — 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Planet Earth.

You are invited. It’s free, no tickets needed. Come early to assure a seat.

A half-afternoon of improbably funny, informative, informal, brief public lectures and demonstrations:

The new Ig Nobel Prize winners  have each done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. That’s why they were awarded Ig Nobel Prizes. In these lectures, the winners will attempt to explain what they did, and why they did it. Everyone will be available for you to talk with, both before and after the lectures.

We will webcast the event:

The Ig informal Lectures are a free event, organized in cooperation with the MIT Press Bookstore.

Here’s video of last year’s (2017) Ig Informal Lectures:

The Ig informal Lectures are a free event, organized in cooperation with the MIT Press Bookstore.