On the importance of irreverence
Dr. Michael Wilkinson obtained an MSc in astronomy from the Kapteyn Laboratory, University of Groningen in 1993, and has since then stayed in Groningen. He now works as a senior lecturer at the Johan Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science, and is specialized in the analysis of digital images. One of his personal interests, however, is improbable science: Research that makes people laugh, and then think; Research that’s maybe good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless. In his lecture, he will discuss the urgent need to take humor seriously, and serious matters humorously, illustrated by examples from quantum homeopathy, the theory of relativistic finance, the evolutionary ecology of superstition, and new results in pasta-anti-pasta collision experiments. Apart from his own work in improbable research, he will also discuss work of C. Northcote Parkinson, David E.H. Jones, and others.
Attend, laugh, and think!