FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
====================================IG NOBEL PRIZE NOMINATIONS ARE DUE====================================
* Prizes for Improbable Science, Literature, Economics, Peace
* All of Earth's 6 Billion People Invited to Submit Nominations
* Gala, Goofy Ceremony October 4 at Harvard
MARCH 30, 2001 CAMBRIDGE, MA., USA It's nomination-gathering season for the most improbable of all awards --- the Ig Nobel Prizes.
A good-natured take-off on science and the Nobel Prizes, the Igs celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative, and spur interest in science -- both good and bad. Now in their eleventh year, the Igs (as they are familiarly known) honor achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced." Each year ten new winners are invited to travel -- at their own expense -- to Harvard University for a gala, pomp-and-paper-airplanes ceremony. There, a group of genuine Nobel Laureates personally hand the Ig Nobel Prizes to the winners while 1,200 giddy spectators salute them with cheers and flying objects.
In recent years half or more of the winners have participated in the ceremonies. Last year five of the ten winners journeyed to Harvard -- at their own expense --to accept their Prizes.
Past winners include George and Charlotte Blonsky, who invented a device (US Patent #3,216,423) to aid women in giving birth ¥ the woman is strapped onto a circular table, which is then rotated at high speed; the British Standards Institution for its six-page specification (BS-6008) of the proper way to make a cup of tea; Jasmuheen, an Australian author who has (sheclaims) gone ten years without food or water; physician/philosopher Deepak Chopra; self- cloning advocate Richard Seed; Martha Kold Bakkevig, who conducted research on the effects of wearing wet underwear in the cold; a team of Japanese psychologists who taught pigeons to discriminate between the paintings of Picasso and those of Monet; Ivette Bassa, the inventor of bright blue JELL-O; Michael Milken, the father of junk bonds; Sanford Wallace, the father of junk email; Don Featherstone, the creator of the plastic pink flamingo; and many more.
"Anyone can nominate anyone for an Ig Nobel Prize," explains Marc Abrahams, the event's founder and master of ceremonies, "and they do. Some people even nominate themselves, though so far only one prize has gone to a self-nominee." That was in 1996, when the Norwegian team of Anders Barheim and Hogne Sandvik won the Ig Nobel Biology Prize for publishing a research report (in the British Medical Journal) entitled "The Effect of Ale, Garlic, and Soured Cream on the Appetite of Leeches."
A list of all the past winners is on the web at http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html
The Igs are administered by the science humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research" (AIR).
The awards ceremony, held on the first Thursday in October, is also co-sponsored by the Harvard Computer Society, the Harvard- Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students. Duck(tm) brand Bubble Wrap (tm), the Official Substance of the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, also helped sponsored last year's ceremony. The event is webcast live with generous assistance from BioMedNet (http://www.bmn.com) and ChemWeb (http://www.chemweb.com/).
==================== HOW TO NOMINATE SOMEONE ====================
Want to nominate a deserving person, group, or institution to win one of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes? Send the pertinent info (name, Ig-worthy accomplishment and contact information) by email to [email protected], or by traditional mail to:
IG NOBEL NOMINATIONS
c/o Annals of Improbable Research
PO Box 380853
Cambridge MA 02238
USA
======LINKS:======
Ig home page: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-top.html
Past winners: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html
How to nominate someone: http://www.improbable.com/ig/nominate.html
Video of last year's ceremony: http://webevents.broadcast.com/biomednet/2000ignobelprizes/
Annals of Improbable Research: http://www.improbable.com
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The science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) is published six times per year. A year's subscription costs $24.95 in the US, $28.95 in Canada and Mexico, and $41.95 elsewhere.
A free email newsletter, called mini-AIR, is available via the AIR web site.
PRESS CONTACT:
MARC ABRAHAMS, EDITOR, ANNALS OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCHPO Box 380853, Cambridge MA 02238 USA 617-491-4437 FAX: 617-661-0927 [email protected] or [email protected]www.improbable.com