Buried Underwear, Lactating Cockroaches and Smelly Teenagers: Meet the Ig Nobel Winners

What can buried underwear reveal about soil health? How can someone design a splash-free urinal? And which people are most likely to steal candy from children? These are among the questions recognized at this year’s Ig Nobel Prizes.

The awards parody the Nobel Prizes and honor research that first makes people laugh, then makes them think. Improbable Research, the U.S. organization behind the ceremony, requires winning studies to have been published in recognized scientific journals. The prizes cover 10 scientific disciplines, though the fields can change from year to year.

The ceremony took place in Zurich for the first time, after organizers moved it out of the United States because of the political situation there. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to host winners in the United States,” organizers said. They plan to hold the ceremony in Zurich every two years, with another European city taking the intervening editions. Antwerp will host next year.

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where you first laugh, but where you then start thinking

Among the recognized researchers was João Miguel Alves-Nunes, a Brazilian herpetologist from the University of São Paulo. His team approached male and female jararaca pit vipers more than 40,000 times, varying the snakes’ age, the time of day, the temperature and the location of contact.

The study found that smaller snakes and female snakes were more likely to bite when threatened. Bites also became more likely in warmer conditions, and touching a snake near its head increased the risk. Other honored work examined the evolutionary history of kissing, leading researchers from Oxford University to propose a new definition of the act.

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It is becoming increasingly difficult to host winners in the United States