Buried underpants and a new definition of kissing win 2026 Ig Nobel prizes The awards highlight weird, funny and improbable research that also makes you think. By Chris Simms

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02650-x?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=4dd3d42714-nature-briefing-daily-20260904&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-33f35e09ea-50432164 Ig Nobels make you laugh, then think The tongue-in-cheek celebration of science known as the Ig Nobel prizes took place last night in Switzerland — the first time in its 36-year history that it was held outside the United States, which the organizers say “has become unsafe for our guests to visit”. The winners included an economics prize for research showing that wealthier individuals take more from a bowl of sweets meant for children than did less-wealthy people; a physics prize for a splash-proof urinal; and a peace prize for evidence that people value friends who are mean to those that they dislike. A breath of fresh air (and a deluge of aeroplanes) Last night, the Ig Nobel prize ceremony lived up to its promise to “first make people laugh, and then make them think”. I’ve watched past events online, but it was another thing entirely to experience traditions such as ‘the paper aeroplane deluge’ in person. I wasn’t sure about my choice of a front-row seat when I realized that many of those planes were heading for the back of my head, but it paid off when I caught one of the pairs of autographed cotton underpants thrown into the audience by the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel in soil science, who buried hundreds of similar pants to investigate soil health. The prizes are handed out by winners of the other Nobel prize (the Swedish one), who also receive gifts in turn. This year, these included glasses of milk from the team that discovered the proteins in cockroach milk contain three times as much energy as those in cow’s milk. The Nobel laureates also got a pair of the aforementioned underpants — and the sight of Swiss astrophysicist Michel Mayor, on his home turf, gamely wearing them on his head made the trip even more worthwhile. The Ig Nobels capture a type of irreverent, sometimes surreal humour that pervades many laboratories and research groups, powered by the love of science, a desire to puncture some of its pompousness, and too much coffee. It’s the same urge that prompted groups to show up to the Ig Nobel event en masse and in costume, or inspired the milk researchers to wear matching ‘cockroach is my spirit animal’ T-shirts. Or indeed, that inspired the discoverer of the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star to put a pair of underpants on his head, just for laughs. After the last paper aeroplane was flown and the final, fungi-themed opera was sung, many post-event conversations turned to the difficulties facing scientists around the world. The consensus was that in hard times, a sense of humour is a survival skill. I certainly felt recharged by this unabashedly nerdy celebration of what makes science so much fun: finding things out. It’s a feeling that will be keeping me going until next year. See you in Antwerp!