An Improbable Plug

If you're in or around London on the 30th September, do consider popping along to the Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, Holborn, to watch the World's Most Improbable Event.

To celebrate the launch of my good chum Marc Abrahams' new book This is Improbable, a great big bunch of scientists, comedians, writers and TV/Radio presenters (including me) are going to turn up and regale you with tales of the weirdest fringe science; what Marc would call 'Science that makes you laugh, then think'. You'll learn all sorts of fascinating stuff about the velocity of ejected penguin poop, the efficacy of cola contraceptives, digital rectal massage as a cure for hiccups, and 'Farting as a defence against unspeakable dread'. No, really.

You can see the full list of speakers, and book tickets, on the Conway Hall website here.

It's only a tenner. And it's going to be a grand afternoon out.

The 2012 Ig Nobel Prizes UK Tour - London

As you may have read in this previous blogpost, on 9th March 2012 I took part in the Ig Nobel Prizes Uk Tour by speaking at Imperial College in the 800-seater Great Hall of the Sherfield Building. The event was completely sold out. The speakers included Oxford University mathematician Dr Mason Porter discussing his paper on synchronisation in cows, Ig Nobel winner Mirjam Tuk on her paper that explores improved decision-making when you have a full bladder, New Scientist magazine's John Hoyland with some extracts from its ever-excellent Feedback pages, and myself talking about how police officers once used a form of cryptic hide-and-seek during the 'dead' hours on night duty (between 3am and 5am) as a memory aid to learning the fastest routes to various locations. As a bonus we had Professor Andrew George from Imperial reading some terrible poetry by William Topaz McGonagall. A tremendously fun evening hosted brilliantly by Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobels and the Annals of Improbable Research. And now you can see it (I'm on at 48 minutes in).

Same event, different perspectives

Yesterday's Wasabi Fire Alarm demonstration has been reported by several people who were there. Here's how Tom Whipple of The Times reported it:

Fire alarm that sets your lungs burning as well

Tom Whipple at the receiving end of the fire alarm that uses Japanese wasabi

There are, I suppose, things to be grateful for. First, that I was testing a wasabi-based fire alarm, rather than a rotten eggs or smelly socks fire alarm. Both were tried as prototypes. Second, that inhaling a fine aerosol of Japanese horseradish is considerably better than being burnt alive.

But neither of those thoughts occurred as the fiery spray hit my nose, made its way down my windpipe and entered my lungs. Doubled up, coughing and crying a little, my main thought was: “This is a very silly way to save people from fire.”

On that, however, I was wrong. The wasabi fire alarm is the winner of this year’s Ig Nobel award, awarded for discoveries that “first make you laugh, then make you think”.

Makoto Imai, the Japanese co-inventor, has installed a working model in the Science Museum in London and is taking it on a nationwide tour to coincide with British Science Week. In doing so he is demonstrating a solution to a deadly serious problem: how do you wake deaf people in a fire? “By delivering a stinging sensation to your mucus,” answered Professor Imai.

The Ig Nobels were created by the American writer Marc Abrahams in 1991 as a way of rewarding scientific research that happens to be funny.

Special commendations this year went to a study investigating contagious yawning in tortoises and another testing how decision-making is affected by the need to urinate.

In past years, Britain has done particularly well in the awards. “Japan and the UK are the only countries I know of where, if you’re eccentric, people are proud of you,” Mr Abrahams said. “In other countries, they want you to go away."

The wasabi fire alarm will be demonstrated at the Ig Nobel roadshow, which is in Edinburgh tonight, and tomorrow visits the University of Dundee, where Ben Wilson, a Scottish marine biologist and Ig Nobel laureate, will give a talk on his studies into communication in herrings via the medium of farts.

And there's a great write-up by Faraz Mainul Alam on his always entertaining Memoirs of a Defective Brain blog. He also provided me with this video:

Wasabi ... but, thankfully, no waaaaffer thin mint

Another fascinating day today starting at the Science Museum in London where I met up with Marc Abrahams - the brains behind the Ig Nobel Prizes - microbiologist Faraz Mainul Alam and Roger Highfield, author, broadcaster and former editor of New Scientist magazine and now the museum's head of PR.

We were there to meet inventors (and Ig Nobel winners) Makoto Imai and Hideaki Goto who had travelled over from Japan to meet various people and to present an example of their Wasabi Fire Alarm to the museum. Their research into 'what smells will wake you up' led to the discovery that a potent aerosol made from the pungent Japanese horseradish will irritate the mucus membranes to such a degree that you have no choice but to wake up. The practical application of this is a fire alarm for the deaf.

Here we see Hideaki Goto and Makoto Imai with their alarm, and Roger Highfield and the museum's Content Developer Jessica Bradford. It was also great to get a tour of the museum with Roger and see some of the newest acquisitions including one of the capsules used to free the trapped Chilean miners in 2010. Stephenson's Rocket, Model T Fords and moon rock ... what's not to like?

From the museum we went on to a couple of photo ops at a Wasabi chain restaurant and at Knightsbridge Fire Station where Tom Whipple, science writer for The Times, foolishly asked for a demonstration of the wasabi spray's potency ...

Then it was on to the Paramount for lunch and a meeting with one of my all-time heroes, Monty Python's Terry Jones. The restaurant is on the 32nd floor of Centrepoint - that huge tower block at the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road - and, even in the muggy sunshine, the views were breathtaking. Rather like the wasabi spray in fact.

Myself with Terry and Marc. The wine had just started to flow.

Another good day. And some great content for a new book I'm working on.

The Ig Nobel Awards

The entire 2010 Ig Nobel Awards ceremony is on YouTube. Wonderful! The awards are coming to London in March and I will be speaking at the event this year.