Imagine research topics ranging from keeping meticulous fingernail diaries to observing pizza-loving lizards! That’s the captivating world of the Ig Nobel Prizes, which, in their 2025 virtual ceremony from Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, once again shone a spotlight on studies that provoke laughter before inspiring deeper thought. These aren’t just quirky experiments; they tackle genuine scientific questions from delightfully unconventional angles.
Among the standout winners this year are Vikash Kumar and Sarthak Mittal from India, who clinched the Ig Nobel Prize in engineering design. Their award-winning study delves into a surprisingly common, yet often overlooked, problem: ‘how foul-smelling shoes affect the good experience of using a shoe-rack.’ Published in 2022, their ingenious analysis offers a fresh, ‘engineering design perspective’ on everyday olfactory challenges.
Established in 1991 by the ‘Annals of Improbable Research’ magazine, the Ig Nobel Prizes were envisioned as a lighthearted, yet significant, parallel to the prestigious Nobel awards. Though initially met with skepticism by some who considered them trivial, these prizes have evolved into a cherished annual event. Their famous motto, ‘first make people laugh, and then make them think,’ perfectly encapsulates how even the most eccentric inquiries can illuminate profound insights across fields like psychology, biology, and many others.
Take, for instance, this year’s literature prize, posthumously awarded to American physician William Bean. His remarkable dedication involved meticulously tracking the growth of his own fingernails for an astounding 35 years. This unique commitment resulted in a series of papers over decades, cementing his place as one of medicine’s most consistent self-observers. His son, Bennett Bean, proudly accepted the award on his father’s behalf.
The psychology prize honored Marcin Zajenkowski (Poland) and Gilles Gignac (Australia) for their intriguing study on the effects of telling people, particularly narcissists, that they are intelligent. Their findings showed that this kind of positive reinforcement momentarily enhances feelings of self-importance and individuality, providing valuable insights into the complex interplay between self-esteem and personality traits.
In the realm of food, the nutrition prize celebrated an international team from Nigeria, Togo, Italy, and France. They observed rainbow lizards at a coastal resort, whose diets surprisingly shifted to include pizza scraps. This study highlighted how urbanization can profoundly impact animal eating habits. Meanwhile, the paediatrics prize was awarded to Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp (USA), who discovered that when mothers consume garlic, its flavor transfers to breast milk, influencing infant feeding behavior. This groundbreaking research, conducted decades ago, remains pivotal in understanding early taste development.
Japan secured the biology prize thanks to Tomoki Kojima and his team, who creatively painted zebra-like stripes on cows to investigate whether this would deter fly bites. Their findings confirmed that the striped bovines experienced significantly fewer pests, building on previous studies suggesting that zebra patterns function as a natural insect repellent.
For chemistry, Rotem and Daniel Naftalovich and Frank Greenway were recognized for their inquiry into whether consuming Teflon, the familiar nonstick pan coating, could add bulk to meals without increasing caloric intake. Though certainly not a dietary recommendation, their research sparked fascinating discussions about satiety and the possibilities within food engineering.
The peace prize acknowledged a more whimsical social experiment by researchers from the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany. They demonstrated that consuming a moderate amount of alcohol can, surprisingly, enhance one’s ability to speak a foreign language, giving a whole new scientific dimension to the concept of ‘Dutch courage.’
Similarly, Drs. Kumar and Mittal’s groundbreaking research from India underscores an important lesson for designers: even seemingly trivial daily annoyances deserve thorough ergonomic investigation. This marks India’s 22nd Ig Nobel win. The nation’s most recent recognition before this was in 2022, when an international team (including members from India, China, Malaysia, and the US) received the mechanical engineering prize for their innovative work ‘re-animating dead spiders to use as mechanical gripping tools.’
Going further back to 2020, India and Pakistan famously shared the peace prize for a rather mischievous diplomatic act: ‘having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door.’
Other notable mentions from this year’s awards include the aviation prize, which recognized research on bats flying while intoxicated, and a fascinating exploration into the physics behind why pasta sauces occasionally clump together.
Collectively, these remarkable projects reaffirm the undeniable appeal of the Ig Nobel Prizes. They prove that beneath every laugh and every whimsical premise lies a profound and genuine curiosity about the intricacies of our world. After all, who says serious science can’t also be hilariously entertaining?