Improbable Science
The Infinite Monkey Cage
BBC
4.7 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2012
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian Cox and Robin Ince discuss some of the more unlikely and odd avenues of research travelled down in the name of science. For example, the British physicist who calculated the optimal way to dunk a biscuit into a cup of tea without it disintegrating too quickly. Or the brain researchers who demonstrated that they could detect meaningful brain activity... in a dead salmon. All these academics share something in common, not just a slightly quirky application of the scientific method. They have also been a recipient of the now infamous Ig Nobel prizes, awarded each year as a parody of the Nobel Prize, to research that seems at first glance, entirely improbable, and possibly pointless. Robin and Brian are joined on stage by the organiser of the Ig Nobels, Marc Abrahams, comedian Katy Brand and biologist Professor Matthew Cobb, from the University of Manchester, to ask whether all scientific exploration is valid, no matter how ridiculous it may seem at first glance, or whether there is genuinely something to be learned from observations that to many, may seem pointless.
Producer: Alexandra Feachem Presenters: Robin Ince and Brian Cox.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a download from the BBC. To find out more, visit bbc.co.uk slash radio4. |
| 0:30.0 | It's time to find the most of the series covered there. |
| 0:40.0 | It doesn't have to be correct, we're an entertainment science show, not a proper one, |
| 0:50.0 | so facts don't need to get in the way of conversation. |
| 0:52.0 | And as you will discover over the ensuing 27 minutes. |
| 0:56.0 | Tonight, we're going to be looking at the cutting edge of improbable scientific research. |
| 1:00.0 | We'll be asking if all scientific research, however ridiculous it seems, is worthwhile. |
| 1:04.0 | We'll be examining papers published in peer-review journals, papers such as |
| 1:08.0 | walking with coffee, why does it spill from physical review E-volume-85? |
| 1:14.0 | A colonic gas explosion during therapeutic colonoscopy during electro-cautory. |
| 1:20.0 | Think about that one and what that does in time. |
| 1:24.0 | We're joined by a panel of experimenters and researchers, Matthew Cobb is a professor of zoology. |
| 1:30.0 | He's currently researching how maggots with a limited number of olfactory sensors |
| 1:34.0 | are able to detect the variety of aromas that they can and hence the popular joke which we all remember. |
| 1:40.0 | My maggot has only 21 olfactory receptors, how does it smell? |
| 1:44.0 | We're not entirely certain at the moment, we're looking into it. |
| 1:48.0 | Mark Abraham's is the editor and co-founder of the annals of improbable research |
| 1:54.0 | which collects seemingly bizarre research and every year awards the ignoble prize for such insights as |
| 2:00.0 | a leaning to the left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller. |
| 2:04.0 | That won the psychology prize this year and the literature prize, this is my favourite. |
| 2:08.0 | It went to a US government general accountability office for their report. |
| 2:12.0 | Actions needed to evaluate the impact of efforts to estimate costs of reports and studies. |
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