On September 3rd, ten research groups were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize - a satirical science award, including works on milk from cockroaches and analyzing the "health" of soil using underwear.
The award is organized by the digital journal Annals of Improbable Research, to honor unusual and creative contributions to science. At a convention center in Zurich, Switzerland, research groups receive custom-designed cups, shaped like a combination of mushrooms and human feet.
Among those honored are Matilda Brindle and Stuart West from Oxford University, along with Catherine F. Talbot from the Florida Institute of Technology - the group that recreated the evolutionary history of kissing. The late doctor Tokuji Unno was also named for his research on the science of blowing your nose. Another group buried 1,000 pairs of underwear in more than 25 countries to learn how small organisms in the soil help decompose them.
Traditionally, the audience folded paper airplanes themselves and threw them towards the stage to open the program.
This is the first year that the Ig Nobel Prize award ceremony is held in Europe instead of the US, due to concerns related to visa applications. For the past 35 years, the event has taken place at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boston University, but the organizers currently have no plans to bring the award back to this country.
In the coming years, the organizers plan to alternately organize award ceremonies in Zurich and other European countries. The 2027 award ceremony will take place in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Ig Nobel Prize is awarded before the annual Nobel Prize season begins in October. These two awards are not related to each other.
