Professor Richard Morris, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, will be helping to introduce this unusual event that will help to launch National Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) week in the U.K.

Unusual, sometimes weird but always fun, the Ig Nobel celebrates that, like true love, the path of science ne'er runs straight. As the creator of these awards given at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University Marc Abrahams describes them: "It is science that makes you laugh, and then makes you think".

The Ig Nobel tours have occurred throughout the world and met with great acclaim, and not a little bafflement. "They show science in its true colours, it is not just that it can be fun, but it is fun," according to Professor Morris, though he admits to some trepidation about items that are promised to be part of this year's show:

• The Dutch "domino murder" victim sparrow
• Courtship behaviour of ostriches toward humans under farming conditions in Britain
• How Executives Overcome the Fear of Reading Books
• Feline reactions to bearded men
• What happens in a locust brain when the locust watches "Star Wars"
• The Great Intelligence Debate ,in which each participant explains why he or she is the smartest person in Britain
• The mini-opera "The Countess of Infinity"

In Edinburgh, the show will be compered by the creator of the Ig Nobel Awards, Marc Abrahams, and will feature Ig Nobel winners Pek Van Andel, Kees Moeliker, Charles Paxton, Claire Rind and Peter Simmons, Ben Wilson, and collaborators of winner Theo Gray, Max Whitby and Fiona Barclay. It will include "The Great Intelligence Debate" in which members of th
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Contact: Linda Menzies
linda.menzies@ed.ac.uk
44-131-650-6382
University of Edinburgh
9-Mar-2006