Scientists studying cockroach milk and nose-blowing win Ig Nobel prizes for quirky science
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From left: Atlant Bieri, Pia Viviani and Marcel van der Heijden pose with the trophy during the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony held in the Zurich Convention Center in Zurich, Switzerland, last Thursday.
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Soil Science Prize Winners Pia Viviani (right) and Atlant Bieri (left) on the stage during the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony held in the Zurich Convention Center in Zurich, Switzerland, last Thursday.
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From left: Nobel Prize winners Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, Michel Mayor and Tim Hunt look at underwear handed over by the Soil Science Award Winners during the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony held in the Zurich Convention Center in Zurich, Switzerland, last Thursday.
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The winners of the Ig Nobel Prize pose for a group picture during the ceremony held in the Zurich Convention Center in Zurich, Switzerland, last Thursday.
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Soil Science Prize winners (from left) Pia Viviani, Franz Bender, Marcel van der Heijden and Atlant Bieri, receive their prize from Nobel Prize winner Michel Major during the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony held in the Zurich Convention Center in Zurich, Switzerland, last Thursday.
Ten research teams were honoured last Thursday at a satirical science awards ceremony that was hosted outside the United States (US) for the first time because of travel concerns.
Researchers who studied milk from cockroaches and analysed soil health using underwear received Ig Nobel prizes celebrating unusual and imaginative contributions to science.
The awards organised by a digital magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research shifted to Europe after 35 years in the US over concerns about attendees being able to get visas.
At a convention centre in Zurich, Switzerland, research teams received a custom 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, organisers plan to alternate between Zurich and other European countries. 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 US.
“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.