Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize Winners: Science That Makes You Laugh, Then Think
Can alcohol improve your foreign language skills? Do West African lizards prefer cheesy pizza? And could painting cows with zebra stripes ward off biting flies? These were just a few of the quirky questions honored on Sept. 18 as the 2025 Ig Nobel Prizes were announced in a virtual ceremony.
Founded in 1991, the Ig Nobels celebrate “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.” The annual event spoofs the Nobel Prizes while showcasing real research, with scientists explaining their work in playful 24/7 lectures ? a 24-second technical description followed by a seven-word summary. The winners are allotted merely 60 seconds for their acceptance speeches and bombarded with paper airplanes by audience members as per tradition.
This year’s biology award went to Japanese researchers who demonstrated that painting zebra stripes on cows reduced fly attacks, thereby easing the animals’ discomfort and potentially increasing milk yields. The chemistry prize was awarded to scientists proposing powdered Teflon as a zero-calorie food additive, though they conceded that convincing consumers may be difficult.
Physics honors went to Italian physicists who cracked the code for making smooth cacio e pepe sauce by adding controlled amounts of starch. In engineering, Indian researchers developed a bacteria-killing shoe rack equipped with UV-C light to eliminate stubborn odors. Other winners included studies showing rainbow lizards prefer four-cheese pizza (nutrition prize), garlic-flavored breast milk makes infants nurse longer (pediatrics prize), and intoxication can improve foreign language fluency (peace prize). The discovery that ingesting alcohol can impair bats’ flight ability and echolocation earned the aviation prize, while the investigation into how feedback about intelligence can impact narcissists and others received the psychology award.
Even literature had a winner: posthumously given to a physician who tracked his own fingernail growth for 35 years, lacing observations with references to “Moby-Dick” and medieval astrology.
Silly or serious, organizers say the research presented at the event serves one purpose: to spark curiosity and conversation.
Yesel Kang Copy Editor teen/1760591740/1613367750
1. Which activity was found to improve foreign language fluency, winning the peace prize?
2. What behavior in infants was influenced by garlic-flavored breast milk, according to the pediatrics prize?
3. How did Italian physicists apply physics principles to improve a traditional food, earning the physics prize?
4. What is the defining motto or principle of the Ig Nobel Prizes, and how does it influence the type of research honored?
1. Which research finding surprised you the most, and what did it make you think about?
2. If you could invent a playful yet meaningful experiment, what question would you explore?
3. Would you prefer conducting a practical experiment like painting cows or a human-focused study like language fluency, and why?
4. What lesson do you think the Ig Nobel Prizes teach about the value of curiosity and creativity in science?
Can alcohol improve your foreign language skills? Do West African lizards prefer cheesy pizza? And could painting cows with zebra stripes ward off biting flies? These were just a few of the quirky questions honored on Sept. 18 as the 2025 Ig Nobel Prizes were announced in a virtual ceremony.
