The Ig Nobel Prizes honour achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

What and who: The shows feature Marc Abrahams, organizer of the Ig Nobel Prizes, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and Guardian columnist, together with a gaggle of Ig Nobel Prize winners and other improbable researchers.

Marc Abrahams will review the past year's improbable research and Ig Nobel Prize winners. Several Ig winners (and/or colleagues) will try to explain what they did and why they did it, and will field questions. Many of the speakers are new to the tour. Some are returning after previous appearances, now armed with surprising new topics.

Each show will include a unique combination of individuals. Here are some of the stars of the Oxford event:

Elena Bodnar, a physician, is a 2009 Ig Nobel Prize winner in public health, for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.

Chris McManus wrote the study "Scrotal Asymmetry in Man and in Ancient Sculpture" for which he later received the 2002 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize. He is Professor of Psychology and Medical Education at University College London. On this year's tour he will explain some of the ways left and right get mixed up through honest error, stupid incompetence, and malicious intent to deceive.

Dan Meyer, a sword swallower, shared the 2007 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize for the penetrating medical report "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects". In 2010 he will present evidence of some of the unexpected physical objects people have swallowed.

David Sims, 2008 Ig Nobel Literature Prize winner for his study "You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations".

Thursday 8th Week (March 11th) 7:00pm - 8:45pm. Doors open 6.30pm. PLEASE NOTE THE EARLY STARTING TIME Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford

You can turn up on the day, but capacity is limited so PLEASE RESERVE A PLACE IN ADVANCE to be sure of getting in. There's a charge of 3 pounds per person (cash on the door) as a contribution towards the costs of the tour this year. Organised in association with the Oxford University Physics Society.

Free reservations (honoured till 6.50pm): https://www.ox.compsoc.net/ignobel/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=347021463456

http://improbable.com/improbable-research-shows/ig-uk-tour/