Date: Mon, 20 Nov 95 11:15:52 -0500
From: marca@wilson.harvard.edu (Marc Abrahams)
Message-Id: <9511201615.AA05397@wilson.harvard.edu>
To: BOURBAKI@NEU.EDU
Subject: Ig Nobel Prize Broadcast -- Fri Nov 24

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Ig Nobel Prize Broadcast -- Fri Nov 24

The 1995 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will be broadcast on Friday, 
November 24 (the day after Thanksgiving) on National Public 
Radio's "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday." The program is 
broadcast to North America and to Europe. The Ig will be the 
second hour of the two-hour broadcast. Check your local station 
for exact time.

WHAT, WHO, WHY
Ten Prizes are awarded. They honor people whose achievements 
"cannot or should not be reproduced."  
This year's Ceremony was manufactured and tested by The Annals of 
Improbable Research (AIR), and co-sponsored by the Harvard 
Computer Society and by Tangents (the Harvard-Radcliffe 
mathematical bulletin). AIR is, of course, "the journal of 
inflated research and personalities." This broadcast is a 
recording of the event held at Harvard University on October 6.
You can hear the Prizes being handed out by Nobel Laureates 
Sheldon Glashow (Physics '79), Dudley Herschbach  (Chemistry '86), 
William Lipscomb (Chemistry '76), Joseph Murray (Physiology or 
Medicine '90) and Richard Roberts (Physiology or Medicine '93).   
You can also hear one of the Laureates being given away in the 
Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest.  

IN HONOR OF DNA
The theme of this year's ceremony is "DNA."  The five Nobel 
Laureates pay tribute to deoxyribonucleic acid by collaboratively 
reading a new Dr. Seuss-like poem, "DNA and Green Eggs and Ham," 
and join with the Nicola Hawkins Dance Company in the world 
premiere of "The Interpretive Dance of the Nucleotides." 12-year-
old Kate Eppers delivers a tribute to DNA and Mariah Carey. Nobel 
Laureate James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, 
delivers a tribute to DNA cologne. Yale Professor Jon Marks 
performs an analysis of DNA Cologne.

HEISENBERG CERTAINTY LECTURES
Nobel Laureates Herschbach and Roberts also deliver 30-second 
Heisenberg Certainty Lectures (the time limit was strictly 
enforced by a professional referee), as do Tom and Ray Magliozzi 
of NPR's "Car Talk" program, and Harvard Astronomy Department 
Chairman Robert Kirshner (the so-called "David Letterman of 
Astronomy") and Bijan's Fragrances President, Sally Yeh (Bijan 
created DNA Cologne and DNA Perfume).

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The keynote address is delivered by Dr. Robert Lopez, who won a 
1994 Ig  Nobel Prize for experimentally placing cat ear mites into 
his own ear.  Dr. Lopez's topic: "Dare to Be Bold."   

FOR MORE INFO
A list of winners, and further info about the Ig Nobel Prizes and 
about The Annals of Improbable Research, can be obtained by 
sending e-mail to: INFO@IMPROB.COM    

===============================================================
Marc Abrahams, Editor, The Annals of Improbable Research
PO Box 380853, Cambridge MA 02238  USA    
617-491-4437       FAX: 617-661-0927
info: info@improb.com       editorial: marca@wilson.harvard.edu
http://www.improb.com/
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