As noted on its blog (here you go), NPR’s “Science Friday” will broadcast an edited version of the Ig Nobel Awards, which were held last month at Harvard.

This was the first Ig Nobels in 15 years that I didn’t attend, due to family stuff, so I guess I’d better listen (Except that I’m at work … thank goodness for podcasts.)

I’ve been told by attendees that it was the best ceremony in several years, which is saying something.

In honor of the Ig Nobel awards happening tomorrow, my column today in the Telegraph re-examines the contentious issue of past Ig winners from New Hampshire. By doing some creative number-crunching, I have made a 180 degree turn from my long-held position: Instead of lamenting the lack of NH winners, I now celebrate New Hampshire as an Ig Nobel factory!

Harvard will host the 19th first-annual Ig Nobel prize on Thursday (hope you have a ticket; they’re virtually sold out). In the 16 years that I have attended the Igs have gone from obscure to globally celebrated within a certain demographic, and it’s very rare to encounter any criticism of them.

But here’s an interesting and mildly critical take from a visiting reader - sort of an associate professor, I think - at a British university, who argues that we must be careful not to make too much fun of trivial research because sometimes it leads scientists into unexpected depths:

The 2009 Ig Nobel ceremony is Oct. 1, a mere 2 1/2 weeks away! Here is all you need to know, from the folks who run the award. I’ll assume you know all about it - who doesn’t? - but you may not know to check Improbable.com every weekday for one of the most surprisingly entertaining blogs around.

Time to plan that social calender, New England geeks: Tickets for the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony are now on sale!. They’re available at the Harvard Box Office and at the Box Office in Holyoke Center in Harvard Square.

This most unusual of ceremonies happens Thursday night, October 1, at Sanders Theatre in Harvard, honoring ten new winners whose achievements “make people laugh then think,” in the award’s (presumably trademarked) phrase. If you’ve never attended, you really should.

The always entertaining and often intriguing Improbable Research blog (from the frazzled brain of Marc Abrahams, the head honcho behind the Annals of Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel awards down in the Boston area) is about the best blog around. Marc usually puts up just one post per weekday, but they’re invariably posts that [...]

Regular readers of Granite Geek(that vast, literate mob) know that New Hampshire’s first connection to the Ig Nobel awards is that we had two of the writers on the 2003 winner for literature: a medical study on heart problems that had 976 co-authors - in other words, 100 times as many authors as pages.
Well, as [...]

I have long lamented (in column and blog) New Hampshire’s poor showing in the Ig Nobel awards, but it seems I have been overly lamentatious - which should be a word, even if it isn’t. (By the way, the video of this year’s Igs, which were held two weeks ago at Harvard, has been posted [...]

Once again, nobody from New Hampshire won an Ig Nobel, the tongue-in-cheek science awards held at Harvard by the folks behind the Annals of Improbable Research magazine. (The only NH connection to an earlier Ig Nobel is discussed in this old column of mine.)
This was the 15th of the 18 Igs that I have [...]

Boy, how the time flies. The 2008 Ig Nobel Prize awards are just 2 weeks away! As always, it will be in Harvard’s ridiculously elegant Sanders Theater, which makes the goofiness all the more delightful.

How did I miss earlier mention of this? Marc Abrahamas and other zany Ig Nobel types will wow them at 8 p.m. tonight (Friday, Feb. 15) at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. It’s free; if you’ve never seen the Igs (or even [...]