The Science Prizes That Make You Laugh, Then Think

Every September, a few weeks before the Nobel Prizes are announced, another set of science awards takes a much less serious approach.

They are called the Ig Nobel Prizes, and their goal is simple: honor research that first makes people laugh, then makes them think.

The science is real.

So are the questions.

According to the organizers, past winners have studied everything from the sounds cats make to the strange habits of geologists.

One research team analyzed the acoustics of cat purrs, chirps and trills.

A geologist was honored for helping explain why some scientists lick rocks.

Another group found that people may speak a foreign language a little better after drinking alcohol.

An engineering prize went to the inventors of a shoe rack designed to reduce foot odor.

The ceremony itself is part science conference, part comedy show.

It is organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, and genuine Nobel laureates have traditionally helped present the awards.

Winners are given only a short time to explain their work.

If they go too long, an eight-year-old girl begins interrupting them with a simple message: “Please stop.”

The trophies are homemade.

The cash prize has included a ten-trillion-dollar Zimbabwean banknote, which is essentially worthless as spending money.

Paper airplanes are also part of the tradition.

For decades, the Ig Nobel ceremony has been closely associated with Harvard and MIT.

According to the organizers, the 2026 event marks a major change, with the ceremony moving abroad to Zurich, Switzerland.

The humor can make the research sound frivolous, but that is not really the point.

Many Ig Nobel-winning studies begin with an odd question and end up revealing something useful about human behavior, biology, physics, engineering or the natural world.

That is why the awards have lasted for decades.

They are a reminder that science does not always have to begin with a grand problem.

Sometimes it begins with a strange observation, an unexpected question — or a scientist wondering why anyone would lick a rock.