The 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony was held Thursday night by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, at Boston University in Massachusetts. The awards honor and highlight research that may look ridiculous on the surface, but almost always has some underlying purpose in advancing the field of science. In other words, "Research that makes people laugh and then think." To be honest, many science studies are tiny parts of much bigger and more understandable projects. And even studies that don't lead to big breakthroughs all help to further our knowledge about the world.
The theme for this year's ceremony was "Digestion." Indeed, many of the winning studies involved some form of digestion. The trophy, which is different every year, came in the shape of a stomach with happy and sad faces. A mini-opera titled The Plight of the Gastroenterologist was performed during the ceremony, and the five actual Nobel laureates present participated in non-singing roles. These Nobel laureates also read acceptance speeches by winners who could not attend. Continue reading for the winner's list.
LITERATURE PRIZE
[USA]
The late Dr. William B. Bean, for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years.
REFERENCES:
"A Note on Fingernail Growth," William B. Bean, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. 20, no. 1, January 1953, pp. 27-31.
"A Discourse on Nail Growth and Unusual Fingernails," William B. Bean, Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, vol. 74, 1962; pp. 152-67.
"Nail Growth. Twenty-Five Years' Observation," William B. Bean, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 122, no. 4, October 1968, pp. 359-61.
"Nail Growth: 30 Years of Observation," William B. Bean, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 134, no. 3, September 1974, pp. 497-502.
"Some Notes of an Aging Nail Watcher," William B. Bean, International Journal of Dermatology, vol. 15, no. 3, April 1976, pp. 225-30.
"Nail Growth. Thirty-Five Years of Observation," William B. Bean, Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 140, no. 1, January 1980, pp. 73-6.
PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE
[POLAND, AUSTRALIA, CANADA]
Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac, for investigating what happens when you tell narcissists — or anyone else — that they are intelligent.
REFERENCE: "Telling People They Are Intelligent Correlates with the Feeling of Narcissistic Uniqueness: The Influence of IQ Feedback on Temporary State Narcissism," Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles E. Gignac, Intelligence, vol. 89, November–December 2021, 101595.
NUTRITION PRIZE
[NIGERIA, TOGO, ITALY, FRANCE]
Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek, and Luca Luiselli, for studying the extent to which a certain kind of lizard chooses to eat certain kinds of pizza.
REFERENCE: "Opportunistic Foraging Strategy of Rainbow Lizards at a Seaside Resort in Togo," Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek, and Luca Luiselli, African Journal of Ecology, vol. 61, no. 1, 2023, pp. 226-227.
PEDIATRICS PRIZE
[USA]
Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp, for studying what a nursing baby experiences when the baby's mother eats garlic.
REFERENCE: "Maternal Diet Alters the Sensory Qualities of Human Milk and the Nursling's Behavior," Julie A. Mennella and Gary K. Beauchamp, Pediatrics, vol. 88, no. 4, 1991, pp. 737-744.
BIOLOGY PRIZE
[JAPAN]
Tomoki Kojima, Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yuki Uchiyama, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Naoto Aoki, Say Sato, Tatsuaki Masuda, Junichi Ueda, Hiroyuki Hirooka, and Katsutoshi Kino, for their experiments to learn whether cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid being bitten by flies.
REFERENCE: "Cows Painted with Zebra-Like Striping Can Avoid Biting Fly Attack," Tomoki Kojima, Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yuki Uchiyama, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Naoto Aoki, Say Sato, Tatsuaki Masuda, Junichi Ueda, Hiroyuki Hirooka, and Katsutoshi Kino, PLoS ONE, vol. 14, no. 10, 2019, e0223447.
NOTE: This prize builds on research (by a team of scientists in Hungary, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) that was honored with the 2016 Ig Nobel Physics Prize
CHEMISTRY PRIZE
[USA, ISRAEL]
Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich, and Frank Greenway, for experiments to test whether eating Teflon [a form of plastic more formally called "polytetrafluoroethylene"] is a good way to increase food volume and hence satiety without increasing calorie content.
REFERENCE: “Polytetrafluoroethylene Ingestion as a Way to Increase Food Volume and Hence Satiety Without Increasing Calorie Content,” Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich, and Frank L. Greenway, Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, vol. 10, no. 4, July 2016, pp. 971–976.
REFERENCE: “Use of Nondigestible Nonfibrous Volumizer of Meal Content as a Method for Increasing Feeling of Satiety,” Rotem Naftalovich and Daniel Naftalovich, U.S. Patent 9,924,736, issued March 27, 2018.
PEACE PRIZE
[THE NETHERLANDS, UK, GERMANY]
Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann, for showing that drinking alcohol sometimes improves a person's ability to speak in a foreign language.
REFERENCE: "Dutch Courage? Effects of Acute Alcohol Consumption on Self-Ratings and Observer Ratings of Foreign Language Skills" Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann, Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 32, no. 1, 2018, pp. 116-122.
ENGINEERING DESIGN PRIZE
[INDIA]
Vikash Kumar and Sarthak Mittal, for analyzing, from an engineering design perspective, how foul-smelling shoes affect the good experience of using a shoe-rack.
REFERENCE: "Smelly Shoes — An Opportunity for Shoe Rack Re-Design," Vikash Kumar and Sarthak Mittal, Ergonomics for Improved roductivity: Proceedings of HWWE 2017, vol. 2, pp. 287-293. Springer Singapore, 2022.
AVIATION PRIZE
[COLOMBIA, ISRAEL ARGENTINA, GERMANY, UK, ITALY, USA, PORTUGAL, SPAIN]
Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine, and Berry Pinshow, for studying whether ingesting alcohol can impair bats’ ability to fly and also their ability to echolocate.
REFERENCE: "Ethanol Ingestion Affects Flight Performance and Echolocation in Egyptian Fruit Bats," Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine, and Berry Pinshow, Behavioural Processes, vol. 84, no. 2, 2010, pp. 555-558.
PHYSICS PRIZE
[ITALY, SPAIN, GERMANY, AUSTRIA]
Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti, for discoveries about the physics of pasta sauce, especially the phase transition that can lead to clumping, which can be a cause of unpleasantness.
REFERENCE: "Phase Behavior of Cacio and Pepe Sauce," Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti, Physics of Fluids, vol. 37, 2025, article 044122.
Here is last night's ceremony in its entirety.
The full post on the winners is here. And read more about the awards here. -Thanks, Marc Abrahams!