THEATRE

Is Coca-Cola an effective spermicide? Why do people dislike the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard? Why do sheets wrinkle? Find out at The Improbable Research Cabaret on Saturday, May 2 at 3 PM at the Central Square Theater! Join the scientists and creators of the Ig Nobel Prizes for the wildly hilarious performance during the Cambridge Science Festival. Featuring Marc Abrahams, Ig Nobel Prize winners Mahadevan (The Physics Of How Sheets Wrinkle), Lynn Halpern (Why People Dislike the Sound of Fingernails on a Blackboard), and Deborah J. Anderson (Is Coca-Cola an Effective Spermicide?), the performance also includes "Studmuffins of Science" calendar creator Karen Hopkin, Michael Ricca performing songs from the Ig Nobel Operas, the Performing Scientists from Harvard and MIT, and more. The Improbable Research Cabaret is a Cambridge Science Festival event and also a fundraiser for the Central Square Theater, where The Life of Galileo is playing April 10 - May 17. Improbable Research is an organization that collects (and sometimes conducts) improbable research, research that makes people laugh and then think. They publish a magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research, and administer the Ig Nobel Prizes, which honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. The 2008 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on October 2 at the 18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. The Improbable Research Cabaret takes place Saturday, May 2 at 3 PM at the Central Square Theater. Tickets, which include a post-performance reception with Cabaret scientists, are priced at $35; $20 for students. To reserve tickets, call KC Forcier at 617.576.9278 x 208, or email kcf@centralsquaretheater.org.