This is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens, and Other WTF Research

Thinking seriously about outlandish problems has yielded many advances in science. Sometimes. Sometimes, not. Marc Abrahams, the mind behind the internationally renowned Ig Nobel Prizes, is on a mission to gather the bizarre, the questionable, the brilliant, the downright funny, the profound - everything improbable - from the research annals: What's the best way to slice a ham sandwich, mathematically? What makes Bobs look especially Bob-like? Is the right or left ear better at discerning lies? Could mice be outfitted with parachutes to kill tree snakes? Abrahams' wry tour through these strangest of strange investigations of animals, plants, and minerals (including humans) will first make you laugh, and then make you think about your world in a completely new way.