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Science Friday > Archives > 1997 > November > November 28, 1997

Hour Two:  The Ig Nobel Awards:
As featured in the Washington Post, and dishonerably mentioned on the Howard Stern show

It's the day after Thanksgiving - and that means that it's time for Science Friday's annual broadcast of the Ig Nobel Awards ceremony. The Igs are awarded each year by the staff of the Annals of Improbable Research to scientists that have distinguished themselves in their fields -- for all the wrong reasons. Some awards go to scientists that have deliberately done silly things. Others go to scientists that have caught the eye of the awards committee unintentionally.

This year's awards were presented in October at a star-studded ceremony at Harvard University, and included song, drama, and dance. Here are some of the highlights! 

The 1997 Ig Nobel Award winners...
The libretto for Il Kaboom Grosso, a mini-operetta for Nobel Laureates, sopranos, and baritones, in three acts....sing along at home!

CYMBALIC DUET   Photo: Enzo Crivelli.		Dudley Herschbach and scientist/supermodel Symmetra perform the world premiere of "Fanfare for Heaven's Gate." Reverend Peter Gomes (seated) looks askance.
We're not quite certain, but we think this portion of the proceedings was named - or misnamed - after Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. In the Heisenberg Certainty Lecture, Nobel Laureates (left to right) Richard Roberts, Dudley Herschbach, Robert Wilson, and William Lipscomb deliver their a capella tribute to 99 bottles of beer. They exceeded the time limit of thirty seconds, forcing the referee to whistle them off stage.		FOUR LAUREATES GIVE A HEISENBERG    Photo: Rob Page.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES AND THE PRIZE    Photo: Suzy Watson.		Master of Ceremonies Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, holds an Ig Nobel Prize. Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach looks on.
God (baritone Benjamin Sears) gives a definitive account of the Big Bang. Note the paper airplanes littering the stage. After he finished singing, God joined the Nobel Laureates and other authority figures seated on stage, where he spent the rest of the evening playing dice.		Il Kaboom Grosso, ACT 1   Photo: Suzy Watson.
Il Kaboom Grosso, ACT 2   Photo: Suzy Watson.		A lovely galaxy (soprano Margot Button) sings dismissively of the universal gossip about missing mass and other cold, dark matters. Note the paper airplanes littering the stage.
In the rousing conclusion to the opera, the missing mass turns out to be neutrinos (left to right: Nobel Laureates Richard Roberts, Dudley Herschbach, Robert Wilson, and William Lipscomb). As billions and billions of neutrinos flooded on stage, images of Carl Sagan were projected above their heads. Then images of ten Carl Sagans were projected. Then images of a thousand Carl Sagans were projected. Note the paper airplanes littering the stage.		Il Kaboom Grosso, ACT 3   Photo: Ed Hajj.
NOBEL FOOT CASTING		Scientist/supermodel Symmetra attempts to remove a plaster cast from the left foot of Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach. The operation was successful. The resulting plaster replica was auctioned off at the 7th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Plaster left feet of Nobel Laureates William Lipscomb (visible rear of this photo) and Walter Gilbert also were auctioned, as was a set of five toes of Symmetra. All proceeds from the auction went to the science programs of the Cambridge public schools.

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