Have you ever heard of the Ig Nobel Prizes? Yes, they are satirical, having been established in 1991 by Marc Abrahams and the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, but they are real and taken very seriously in some quarters. According to the Improbable Research website, “The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements so surprising that they make people LAUGH, then THINK. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.” (https://improbable.com/ig/about-the-ig-nobel-prizes/)
This year’s winners were introduced at the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 3, 2026. The categories were:
Biomechanics: “Non-agonistic interactions involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer.” In other words, kissing.
Economics: “for amassing evidence that upper class people are more likely to snatch from a children’s supply of candy, and engage in other kinds of unethical behavior.”
Chemistry: “for discovering that milk proteins from vivaparous cockroaches pack three times as much energy as milk proteins from cows.”
Medicine: “How to Blow the Nose — An Aerodynamic Study of the Nose Blowing”
Biology: “for gently stepping on various parts of various venomous snakes — repeatedly, at various temperatures at various times of day — to try to learn what does and what does not induce a venomous snake to bite a human.”
Physics: “for theoretical and experimental attempts to design a splash-free urinal.”
Technology: “for pioneering the use of mosquito proboscises as high-resolution 3D printing nozzles, a process called “Necroprinting.” “
Olfaction: “for collecting evidence that babies smell wonderful to their parents, but teenagers do not.”
Peace: “for documenting that we value friends who are vicious to people we dislike.”
Soil Science: “for burying 1000 identical pairs of underpants in more than 25 countries, and then digging them up after two months.”
If any of these studies piques your interest, or if you just want to check my copying skills, the list of all winners is at https://improbable.com/ig/winners/.
Unfortunately, there was a shadow cast on this year’s ceremony. For the first time in its 35-year history, the proceedings was held outside of the United States. Quite simply, the U.S. climate is perceived as becoming increasingly hostile toward science and foreign travelers. “Before last year, almost every winner would find a way to travel to the ceremony from around the world,” says founder Marc Abrahams. “Last year, of the 10 winners, we ended up with only six of them at the ceremony. Four did not want to travel to the U.S., citing safety concerns related to unpredictable immigration and visa protocols.”
Fun science, yes. But who knows where the information from these studies will lead?
For further perspective, see “Kissing Apes, Anti-Splash Urinals: This Year’s Ig Nobels Showcase Surprising Science” at https://www.npr.org/2026/09/03/nx-s1-5950370/ig-nobel-awards-kissing-urinals-move-switzerland?