🧪 The Ig Nobel Prize: Science That Tickles Your Brain
These scientists may never win a Nobel Prize, but five days ago they lined up to see if they’d be honored with an Ig Nobel Prize—a celebration of research that’s equal parts hilarious and thought-provoking.
First awarded in 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize was created to spark public interest in science. Each year, real Nobel laureates gather at MIT to present the awards. The mission? To “honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.”
💸 The prize? A whopping 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars—worth about $0.40 USD.
🐄 Striped Cows?
By Tomoki Kojima
The 2025 Ig Nobel Prize in Biology went to researchers who painted cows with zebra stripes to see if it would protect them from biting flies. Early results suggest it might work—but it’s probably not the most practical solution for farmers.
🎭 Can Anyone Attend the Awards Ceremony?
Absolutely! You don’t need to be a Nobel laureate to enjoy the show. Much like the Academy Awards, the Ig Nobel ceremony is:
- 🎙️ Recorded and broadcast on National Public Radio in the U.S.
- 🌐 Streamed live online—so if you’ve got Wi-Fi, you’re in.
🏆 2025 Award Categories (Drumroll, please…)
The categories change each year, but here’s a taste of the 2025 lineup:
| Category | Winning Research |
|---|---|
| Aviation | Studying how alcohol affects bats’ ability to fly and echolocate |
| Biology | Painting cows with zebra stripes to deter flies |
| Chemistry | Testing whether eating Teflon increases satiety without adding calories |
| Engineering Design | Analyzing how smelly shoes affect the experience of using a shoe rack |
| Literature | Tracking the growth of a single fingernail over 35 years |
| Nutrition | Investigating which kinds of pizza a certain lizard prefers |
| Peace | Showing that alcohol can improve foreign language fluency |
| Pediatrics | Studying what a nursing baby experiences when the mother eats garlic |
| Physics | Exploring the phase transition in pasta sauce that causes clumping |
| Psychology | Investigating what happens when you tell narcissists (or anyone) they’re intelligent |
✉️ And the Winners Are…
Too many to list here—but if you’re curious, you can find the full rundown on MSN’s Ig Nobel Prize coverage or Ars Technica’s winner spotlight. Just goes to show: you really can win an award for almost anything.
