The Ig Nobel awards – an annual award for real science that seems just a bit weird when you first hear about it – also hosts a series of shows around the UK, and the London tour details have been announced.

This is truly one of my annual highlights as it is a fantastically enjoyable evening of weird science and humour.

Click here for my review of last year’s show

This year, the show will include:

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.

Catherine Douglas of Newcastle University shared the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize in veterinary medicine with Peter Rowlinson for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.

Erwin Kompanje studies overlooked spectacular medical history. He is a clinical ethicist at Erasmus University Rotterdam. On this year’s tour her will show scientific investigations of Rudolph’s red nose.

John Hoyland created and edits the “Feedback” column in New Scientist Magazine. He will present a fresh batch of oddities.

And Dan Meyer, a swordswallower, 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.

Time limits will be enforced by twin eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poos.

Tickets are free, but limited to two per applicant.

To request tickets, simply fire off an email to events@imperial.ac.uk with your name and address. Tickets will be confirmed and posted out at the beginning of March.

The show itself is on Thursday March 18th, 2010, at 6pm.

Look forward to seeing you there on the night.

There is a moderately poplar photographic technique, a derivative of tilt-shifting which enables photos of real places to be modified in such a way as they look as if they are photos of scale models.

It’s quite a bizarre effect when done well, and using an online tool, I had a play with some of the photos I have taken over the past few years. You can use more sophisticated cleverness to get a more pronounced effect, but the online tool gives a good idea of what can be achieved.

You can click on each to see the original photo (over at Flickr).

A 1938 tube train on a special outing to High Barnet station

Side Street near the Brunswick Center

Soldiers passing under Wellington Arch by Hyde Park
(open on London Open House Weekend)

London from the top of Northala Park

From the top of a car park just off Oxford Street

Another photo of the 1938 train at the same location as above

And finally – St Giles in the Fields as seen from one of the upper floors of CenterPoint
(taken on London Open House Weekend)

This event is being held at Southend on Sea – but I thought it would interest people in London.

–

An exhibition by Maxwell Roberts

Since revolutionising map design in 1933, Henry Beck’s iconic London Underground diagram has set the standard for the mapping of transport network worldwide.

The exhibition explores the success of the Beck map and the rules that it adopted, and asks whether the increasingly complex networks of today demand fresh approaches.

Roberts presents a collection of his own work: maps that are easier to use; maps that teach us about good design; maps that challenge our preconceptions; and maps that are purely decorative.

Runs: Fri 25th Feb to Mon 8th March.

Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm
Sat: 9am-4:30pm

The artist will be “in residence” on 26 & 27 Feb and 6th March.

Admission: Free

Address: Campus Gallery, South Essex College of Further & Higher Education, Luker Road, Southend on Sea, Essex.

Thanks to London Reconnections for letting me know about this.

An early map

Inspired by the Art Nouveau movement?

A slightly redesigned version of the modern map (note the changes to the Bakerloo and Victoria lines).

Maps from other metro networks will also be on display.

Being a moderately signed up geek, I am quite keen on Dr Who. Unlike some people I know (glares!), for me, it is just a bit of light entertainment, not The Meaning of Life™ as some seem to treat it.

Also, slightly heretical, but I prefer the pre-2005 episodes as they had a lot less special effects and generally more interesting plots!

However, I was still rather excited to see that Bonhams are going to sell off some of the BBC’s Dr Who memorabilia – which usually means public viewing days to have a look at the goodies. As usual, I can’t afford to buy anything, but I can go for a look.

Although public viewing days for auctions are normally free, this time they are being charged for – I guess Bonhams guessed it would be rather popular and spotted the opportunity to cash in on it – damn!

Entrance to the view and to the sale will be by catalogue only. Catalogues cost £15 and each catalogue admits two people. Children go free if accompanied by an adult, and a minimum of £5 from each catalogue sale will be donated to ‘Children in Need’.

Still, you do get the catalogue to keep, and sales catalogues do tend to be rather good quality – expect a lot of glossy photos and history about each prop.

PS: Yes, they are selling a DALEK – if you have a spare £5-£7,000 lying around.

The viewing days are:

Sun 21 February 11am – 3pm
Mon 22 February 9am – 4.30pm
Tue 23 February 9am – 4.30pm
Wed 24 February 9am – 12noon

More details on the Bonham’s website – the auction house is on Montpelier Street, just across from Harrods.

I think I might try to go on the Monday – as I suspect the place will be PACKED on the Sunday with lots of adult sized children ohhing and ahhing over the props.

Managed to acquire this line drawing of the Old Houses of Parliament made in 1760 before they burnt down in 1834 and were replaced with our “modern” Gothic building.

Click on the image for a larger (much larger!) version. Enjoy.

Scanned in using an A4 scanner hence the slight misalignments of some “segments” and colour differences. I need to learn how to blend scanned images better, and probably invest in a larger scanner – anyone want to buy me an A2 sized scanner?