Scientists studying cockroach milk and nose-blowing win Ig Nobel prizes for quirky science
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- Ten research teams were honored in Zurich at the Ig Nobel Prizes, a satirical awards show that left the U.S. for the first time over safety and travel concerns, making it ‘unsafe for our guests,’ an official said.
- Winning studies included nutrient-rich cockroach milk, the aerodynamics of nose-blowing, buried underwear that gauge soil health, and a reconstruction of the evolutionary history of human kissing.
- After 35 years at universities such as Harvard and MIT, organizers plan to keep the ceremony in Europe.
Ten research teams were honored last week at a satirical science awards ceremony that was hosted outside the United States for the first time because of travel concerns, which an official said has made the country “unsafe for our guests.”
Researchers who studied milk from cockroaches and analyzed soil health using underwear received Ig Nobel prizes celebrating unusual and imaginative contributions to science.
The awards, organized by a digital magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research, shifted to Europe after 35 years in the United States over concerns about attendees being able to get visas.
At a convention center in Zurich, Switzerland, research teams received a trophy resembling a cross between a mushroom and a human foot. Among them were Matilda Brindle and Stuart West from the University of Oxford and the Florida Institute of Technology’s Catherine F. Talbot, who reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing, and the late Dr. Tokuji Unno, who investigated the science of blowing one’s nose.
Another research team buried 1,000 pairs of underwear in more than 25 countries to study how critters in the soil helped them decompose.
As per tradition, audience members fashioned paper airplanes and hurled them toward the stage to kick off the show.
For future ceremonies, organizers plan to alternate between Zurich and other European cities. The 2027 ceremony will be held in the Belgian city of Antwerp. Previous iterations took place at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University, but there are no immediate plans to return to the U.S.
“During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, told the Associated Press in an email in March.
The Nobel Prizes, which have no relation to their cheekily named counterpart, will be announced at the start of October.
Ramakrishnan writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Michael Casey contributed to this report.
