IG DAY!!!

Today is the biggest day of the year in the Improbable-Conduct household: Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Day!

Surely, by now, you’ve all heard me talk about this enough. Let me just point your attention to a lovely article that came out a few days ago, that I think really gets at what the Igs are all about:

Not everyone has seen the funny side of the Ig Nobels, however. In 1995 a team of British researchers won the physics Ig for research into why breakfast cereal goes soggy – prompting some newspapers to ask why taxpayers’ money was being wasted on such trivial research. In fact, the project had been funded by a leading cereal maker rather than the UK taxpayer and had an entirely serious purpose: consumers prefer cereal that keeps crunchy as long as possible.

Even so the controversy led Britain’s chief scientist, professor Sir Robert May, to ask the organisers not to award any more Igs to UK researchers, who were emerging as embarrassingly frequent winners of the prizes.

With maintenance of reputation being so important among scientists these days, Sir Robert’s request was understandable. But it also ignores the fact that many major scientific advances have come from research into “trivial” questions.

Have a nice read, and I’ll be back with the list of winners for you tomorrow morning!

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