The 35th Ig Nobel Prizes
The Ig Nobel Prizes are back—basically the goofy cousins of the real Nobel Prizes. Instead of rewarding breakthroughs that change the world, these honor discoveries that make you laugh first . . . and maybe scratch your head later. Here are the highlights from 2025’s winners:
Literature Prize: Awarded (posthumously) to a guy who tracked the growth of one fingernail for 35 years. Dedication? Sure. Useful? Not really.
Nutrition Prize: Scientists found rainbow lizards LOVE four-cheese pizza even more than pineapple. So lizards officially have better taste than half your friends.
Pediatrics Prize: Researchers studied what nursing infants experience when mom eats garlic. Spoiler: diapers that ward off vampires.
Biology Prize: Painting cows with zebra stripes cuts fly bites in half. Moo meets zoo.
Chemistry Prize: Someone seriously tested if eating Teflon could bulk up food without adding calories. Please don’t try this at home.
Peace Prize: A study showed alcohol can actually improve your foreign language skills. “Dos cervezas, por favor” suddenly makes more sense.
Engineering Design Prize: Researchers looked at how stinky shoes ruin the vibe of a shoe rack. Groundbreaking.
Aviation Prize: They got bats drunk to see how it messed with their flying and echolocation….About the same as does with yours.
Psychology Prize: High IQ scores might cause temporary narcissism. Shocking, right?
Physics Prize: Pasta sauce clumps. Scientists called it a “phase transition.” We just call it leftovers.
Weird, dumb, hilarious—and exactly why the Ig Nobels are the best awards in science.
Doug O’Brien
