Buried underwear, blew their noses, invented a splash-free urinal, and stepped on snakes — what the Ig Nobel Prizes 2026 were awarded for

The Ig Nobel Prize was founded by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research as a parody of the Nobel Prize. However, the awards are given for genuine scientific work.

The 36th ceremony was held for the first time not in the USA, but in Europe. Organizers moved it to Zurich due to difficulties in obtaining American visas and stated that trips to the USA had become dangerous for foreign laureates and guests.

The theme of this year's ceremony was mushrooms. Actual Nobel laureates, dressed as mushrooms, performed an opera song, and 1500 spectators traditionally threw paper airplanes onto the stage. Winners received statuettes in the form of a mushroom with a human foot and a banknote with a denomination of 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, which no longer has monetary value.

The Economics Prize was awarded to researchers who gathered evidence that people from higher social strata tend to behave unethically more often. Scientists observed the behavior of drivers of expensive cars at intersections and pedestrian crossings, and also offered experiment participants to take sweets from a bowl, warning that they were intended for children.

It turned out that wealthy participants took almost twice as many children's sweets. They also more often failed to yield to other drivers and pedestrians and were more inclined to lie for their own benefit.

The Chemistry Prize was awarded to an international group of scientists who researched the so-called milk of the viviparous cockroach Diploptera punctata. Females of this species feed embryos with a liquid rich in proteins, fats, and sugar. This liquid contains three times more energy than an equal amount of cow's milk.

In the Pharmaceutical category, a 1977 Japanese work on the aerodynamics of nose-blowing won. Researchers measured air speed and pressure in the ear canal and concluded that it is better to blow your nose alternately through each nostril, after first taking a small inhale.

The Physics Prize was awarded to the creators of a urinal that does not splash liquid. Experiments showed that splashes practically disappear when the stream hits the surface at an angle of less than 30 degrees. Scientists created a curved design that maintains the required angle regardless of a person's height.

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The Technology Prize recognized "necroprinting" — the use of a dead mosquito's proboscis as an ultra-fine nozzle for a 3D printer.

The Soil Science Prize was given to scientists who, with the help of a thousand volunteers, buried identical cotton underwear in more than 25 countries. After one and two months, the underwear was dug up and checked to see how much it had decomposed. The more active the soil microorganisms, the less fabric remained. This indicator was named the "underwear index".

The Biomechanics Prize was awarded for research on the evolution of kissing. Scientists first had to give it a strict scientific definition: non-aggressive mouth-to-mouth contact between individuals of the same species, accompanied by lip movements, but not food transfer. After analyzing the behavior of primates, the authors concluded that common ancestors of great apes could have kissed, and later, Neanderthals as well.

The Biology Prize was awarded to Brazilian researchers who, wearing protective boots, carefully stepped on various parts of venomous snakes' bodies to find out when they were most likely to bite. Most often, snakes attacked when their heads were stepped on. Later, the article was retracted from the scientific journal: the experiment did not have the necessary ethical approval.

The Olfaction Prize was awarded to the authors of a survey according to which parents like the smell of young children, but as the child ages, the pleasantness of their smell gradually decreases. Parental ratings deteriorated particularly sharply when children became teenagers.

The Peace Prize went to research on friendship. Experiments showed that people want to see friends as kind and reliable towards them, but often prefer them to behave harshly towards their enemies. As one of the authors formulated, sometimes people feel special support when friends are willing to "hate for them".

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