Cockroach Milk, Nose-Blowing And Kissing Studies Win 2026 IG Nobel Prizes

Research into cockroach milk, the science of nose-blowing and the evolutionary history of kissing were among the studies honoured at this year's Ig Nobel Prizes, the satirical awards that celebrate unusual scientific research.

A total of 10 research teams, including researchers from Oxford University, received awards on Thursday.

Catherine F Talbot of the Florida Institute of Technology was honoured for reconstructing the evolutionary history of kissing, while the late Tokuji Unno received recognition for studying the science of blowing one's nose, The Independent reports.

A team from India's Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine won for research showing that milk produced by cockroaches that give birth to live young contained almost three times as much energy as dairy milk proteins.

Underwear experiment also wins

Franz Bender, Marcel van der Heijden, Atlant Bieri and Pia Viviani were honoured for burying 1,000 pairs of underwear across more than 25 countries and digging them up two months later to study how soil organisms broke them down.

In keeping with Ig Nobel tradition, audience members folded paper aeroplanes and threw them towards the stage as the ceremony began.

The event was organised by the Annals of Improbable Research, a digital magazine focused on unusual and imaginative scientific work.

Ceremony moves outside the US for the first time

The awards were held in Zurich, Switzerland, marking the first time in the Ig Nobel Prize's 36-year history that the ceremony took place outside the US.

Organisers said the move was prompted by concerns over whether scientists and journalists would be able to secure visas amid the Donald Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

“During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country," Marc Abrahams, the ceremony's master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said earlier this year.

“We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the USA this year.”

Four of the 10 winners last year had decided not to travel to Boston for the ceremony because of similar concerns, organisers said.

Future editions to remain in Europe

The previous 35 editions of the awards were held largely at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University.

Abrahams said that from this year, the ceremony would alternate between Zurich and other European cities. The 2027 edition is scheduled to be held in Antwerp, Belgium, with no immediate plans to return the event to the US.

Milo Puhan, an epidemiologist at the University of Zurich who received an Ig Nobel in 2017 for research showing that playing the didgeridoo could reduce snoring and the severity of sleep apnoea, welcomed the move.

“The Ig Nobel Prize makes research visible and does so with a wink," Puhan said.

Awards celebrate unusual science

The Ig Nobel Prize is not connected to the Nobel Prize, whose winners will be announced in early October.

Previous Ig Nobel winners include Japanese researchers who examined whether painting cows with zebra-like stripes could reduce fly bites, as well as researchers from Africa and Europe who studied which types of pizza lizards preferred to eat.

Published on: Friday, September 04, 2026, 06:09 PM IST