Marc Abrahams, the founder of the famous Ig Nobel Prize, offers an addictive, wryly funny expose of the oddest, most imaginative, and just plain improbable research from around the world. He looks into why books on ethics are more likely to get stolen and how promoting people randomly improves their work, to what time of month generates higher tips for Vegas lap dancers and how mice were outfitted with parachutes to find a better way to murder tree snakes in Guam. Abrahams' tour through these unlikeliest investigations of animals, plants, and minerals, including humans, will first make you laugh, then make you think about the globe in a new way.