Like its theme, “digestion,” the 35th Ig Nobel prizes will make you laugh and think hard to digest the meaning of all the silly yet remarkable science.
The 2025 Nobel Prizes will be announced in early October. But if you’re like me, a science aficionado with an insatiable desire for ridiculous, intelligent research, yesterday’s parody of the prestigious prize may be of more interest. I am talking, of course, about the 35th Ig Nobel Prizes—an annual ceremony highlighting the weirdest research across all scientific disciplines.
As always, the 10 prizes were selected by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine and presented by “a gaggle of bemused Nobel laureates,” according to the magazine. Despite the event’s overall playful, humorous tone, there was no doubt that every winner conducted rigorous, remarkable research worthy of respect and appreciation. If you have the time, here’s the entire livestream of the ceremony on Improbable Research’s YouTube channel—I seriously recommend it; the event is a theatrical delight.
But if not, don’t worry, I got you. Read on for some of our picks from the 35th First Annual (yes, that’s the right name) Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. You can also see the full list here.
Get a taste of this year’s winners
Let’s start with my personal favorite: the physics prize went to an Italian team who investigated the phase transition of Cacio e Pepe sauce when it clumps into an unappealing, goopy liquid. The remedy is to find the correct starch-to-cheese ratio, which the researchers report in a Physics of Fluids paper to be between 2 and 3 percent of the cheese mass.
As per the theme, “digestion,” many of the prize winners were food-related. The chemistry prize was awarded to research that tested whether eating Teflon could increase food volume without increasing calories (They have a patent). The nutrition prize went to an international team that studied the pizza preferences of different lizard groups. Studying a baby’s experience with a mother that eats garlic won the pediatrics prize.
Other prizes were more loosely linked to the theme. The aviation prize went to a study that tested whether flying under the influence of alcohol could impair a bat’s ability to fly and echolocate (Short answer: yes). In other drinking research, the peace prize was awarded to a European team that demonstrated alcohol “sometimes improves a person’s ability to speak in a foreign language.”
Honoring great ideas
This year’s ceremony particularly honored the great ideas of those who passed away. William Bean posthumously won the literature prize for “persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years.” Bennett, his son, received the award in his absence.
The ceremony also started with a tribute to Tom Lehrer, a mathematician-turned-songwriter who composed the famous, quirky elements song played at the ceremony every year. Lehrer, an influential contributor to the Ig Nobel awards, died in late July this year.
The winners of this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes will now go on a “Face-to-Face” tour around the world to discuss their research and field any questions from a doubtful or excited audience. The full schedule can be found here.