Science and Society

Ig Nobel banter

Last night, I got to engage in something of a treat.

science on top

At 10:30pm (my time*) I sat down with Skype and three lovely Australians to chat about this year’s Ig Nobel prize winners.

The Ig Nobels, started in 1991, are designed to lampoon (quite sweetly, I think) their more serious counterpart, the Nobels.  However, as their tagline states, they’re given to research which ‘first makes you laugh, then makes you think’.  In that respect, they show not only that science has a sense of humour (amongst other things), but also act as a brilliantly engaging gateway for science for people who aren’t already science enthusiasts :)

The chat in question was for Science on Top, a weekly Aussie science podcast. Unlike TOSP**, in which Elf and I throw as much information at our listeners as we can in half an hour, Science on Top takes the form more of a conversation between 4 (or so) hosts each week.

The episode, titled “Bugs Bonking Bottles – The Ig Nobel Prizes” is available here.  We cover all the prizes this year, from wasabi fire alarms to the end of the world, from yawning tortoises to procrastination, and more besides!

AND there’s a small moment where I talk about a previous Ig Nobel, awarded to research into a problem faced some decades ago by New Zealand farmers: exploding pants***.

——-

* Sometimes somewhat of a special time.  In this instance, though, NZT.

** Youtube videos for this week’s podcast are UP!

*** I am not joking.

  • Seth Wagoner

    Great podcast. Mehinks you deserve some sort of comentariat igignobel for “beware what you think, you could be having sex with a beer bottle”

  • aimee Whitcroft

    Metaphorically speaking, she then exclaimed several times, accompanied by hilarity :p

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