Seriously Funny Science: The 2025 Ig Nobels

For those of us who revel in the place where science and humour intersect, the Ig Nobel Prizes never disappoint. Now in their 35th year, these satirical awards celebrate research that “makes people laugh, then think” – the kind of unusual, imaginative, and sometimes wildly impractical discoveries unlikely to pass muster at those other awards in Stockholm.

Founded in 1991 by Marc Abrahams – then editor of the Journal of Irreproducible Results and later co-founder of the Annals of Improbable Research – Ig Nobels were originally presented for discoveries “that cannot, or should not, be reproduced.” What began as a tongue-in-cheek parody – the inaugural event saw three prizes awarded to fictitious scientists – has evolved into a global celebration of scientific curiosity in all its eccentric forms.

This year’s ceremony, held on 18 September at Boston University, saw Dr William B. Bean posthumously awarded the Literature Prize for his extraordinary dedication to a most peculiar pursuit: meticulously recording and analysing the growth rate of one of his fingernails over a span of 35 years. Now that’s what you call commitment to the scientific method!

Zebra Cows and Drunken Bats 

Few things capture the spirit of the Ig Nobels quite like the Biology Prize’s zebra-striped cows. A team of Japanese researchers discovered that painting cows with zebra stripes helps keep biting flies at bay. Building on earlier Ig Nobel–winning work, the team tested six Japanese Black cows with different paint jobs – black-and-white stripes, all black, or no stripes at all – and found that the zebra look dramatically reduced fly attacks and fly-repellent behaviours. The results suggest that stripes can act as a natural pest deterrent, offering farmers an eco-friendly alternative to pesticides – a moo-mentous discovery!

The Aviation Prize went to a team led by Francisco Sánchez and Mariana Melcón for exploring how alcohol affects flight and echolocation in Egyptian fruit bats. Their findings? Ethanol, naturally found in ripe fruit, can impair bats’ flight and navigation. When fed ethanol-rich fruit, bats flew more slowly, and their echolocation calls changed noticeably – proof that flying under the influence is never a good idea.

Pizza-Eating Lizards and the Physics of Pasta

The Nutrition Prize went to researchers from Nigeria, Togo, Italy and France for studying the dining habits of West African rainbow lizards (Agama agama) with a surprising taste for pizza. In a coastal resort in southern Togo, the team observed lizards regularly feasting on discarded slices – with a distinct preference for quattro formaggi. Give it a few years and they’ll be living in the sewers, training with a rat sensei named Splinter… Cowabunga, dude! 

Keeping with the food theme, this year’s Physics Prize went to Giacomo Bartolucci and colleagues for studying the molecular dynamics of cacio e pepe, the deceptively simple Italian dish made with pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. By analysing how cheese, water, and starch interact, they uncovered the “phase transitions” behind a perfectly creamy sauce – and how to avoid the dreaded clumps. As the team concluded, their findings offer “a scientifically optimised recipe… enabling a consistently flawless execution of this classic dish.” Science at its most appetising! 

Past Masters of the Peculiar

The 2025 cohort is in good company. Over the years, the Ig Nobels have honoured some truly unforgettable studies. 

Take the 2019 Physics Prize, awarded to a team who dared to wonder why wombats produce cube-shaped poo – a peculiarity found nowhere else in the animal kingdom. Their research revealed that the distinctive shape forms within the wombat’s intestines, where variations in the elasticity of the intestinal walls compress and sculpt the faeces into neat little cubes.

Then there’s the 2021 Peace Prize, awarded to Ethan Beseris, Steven Naleway, and David Carrier for “Testing the Pugilism Hypothesis for the Evolution of Human Facial Hair” – or, in other words, whether beards act as protection against punches.

The team built models to represent human bone and covered them in sheepskin to mimic different facial hair – a full beard, a trimmed beard, and fully shaven. They then used a mechanical striker to drop a 4.7kg weight onto each model, measuring the impact and recording the damage. The results showed that bearded models absorbed around 37% more energy than their clean-shaven counterparts, with springy hairs acting as natural suspension to soften the blow. 

Back in 2014, the Physics Prize recognised a Japanese team who took a closer look at one of life’s great perils: the banana peel – and why it’s so darn slippery. The team concluded: “by the microscopic observation, it was estimated that polysaccharide follicular gel played the dominant role in lubricating effect of banana skin after the crush and the change to homogeneous sol.” Not so funny now, is it?

Altogether, the archive of Ig Nobel winners reads like a love letter to curiosity: a collection of brilliant, bizarre, and occasionally baffling attempts to make sense of the world.

Beyond a Joke

Fancy your chances in 2026? Anyone can nominate a contender for next year’s Ig Nobels – and plenty do. The organisers receive upwards of 9,000 submissions each year, sometimes even from the researchers themselves (because who wouldn’t want recognition for studying the effects of soured cream on the appetite of leeches?). In previous years, winners were rewarded with a Zimbabwean 10-trillion-dollar note, but – “because of inflation” – this year’s laureates received a wet wipe instead. And, of course, the rare honour of joining a club that celebrates science at its most unexpected.

One man even managed to straddle both worlds – graduating from an Ig Nobel in 2000 to an actual Nobel Prize in Physics a decade later. At the start of the new millennium, the late Sir Andre Geim was recognised for levitating a frog with magnets; ten years on, he won the Nobel for discovering graphene. Proof that curiosity, wherever it starts, can lead somewhere extraordinary.