Cockroach milk, mosquito proboscis as a 3D printing nozzle, and buried underwear as a biological indicator
Bizarre but brilliant: The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded in Zurich
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The Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded annually for research that “first makes people laugh, then makes them think,” took place this year—in a manner that, according to the organizers’ counting system, is consistently illogical—for the “36th first” time. Organized by the satirical magazine *Annals of Improbable Research* in collaboration with institutions of the ETH Domain and the University of Zurich, the ceremony moved to the Kongresshaus Zürich. The theme of the evening was “Fun Guy”—a play on words celebrated with songs about communicating mycelium networks and a specially composed mushroom choir. Ten prizes were awarded, traditionally presented by real Nobel laureates, accompanied by paper airplane tosses, a safety briefing on Swiss fire safety laws, and three giant bananas serving as an acoustic limit on speaking time. Here are the highlights related to chemistry, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and food.
Biotechnology: Cockroach Milk Beats Cow’s Milk
The prize for Health and Planetary Sciences went to a team led by James Gray, Steven Tobe, Barbara Stay, Leonard Chavis, and Subramanian Ramaswamy for their discovery that the milk proteins of viviparous cockroaches are about three times as energy-dense as those of cows. This particular cockroach species is the only one among approximately 5,000 cockroach species that gives birth to live offspring and feeds them a crystalline, protein-rich substance. The substance was analyzed using mass spectrometry and X-ray diffraction—methods more commonly associated with traditional food analysis than with entomology. The team’s acceptance speech took a correspondingly different turn: It was mostly sung, featuring a specially written hymn celebrating the perfect amino acid profile of this unusual beverage.
Chemistry Meets Entomology: The Mosquito’s Proboscis as a 3D Printing Nozzle
The Technology Prize was awarded to an international team from China, Canada, the U.S., and Egypt for an idea that straddles the fields of materials science and insect biology: They used the mouthparts of mosquitoes as high-resolution nozzles for 3D printing, a process they dubbed “necroprinting.” The rationale is simple and practical—for printing nozzles in the range of about 20 micrometers (roughly two-thirds the diameter of a human hair), commercially available nozzles are hardly fine enough, whereas a mosquito’s proboscis falls precisely within this size range. The irony: Part of the team was simultaneously conducting research on an anti-mosquito cream designed to prevent the insects from even approaching their hosts in the future.
Pharmaceutical Side Note: Thalidomide and the Pitfalls of Chirality
Aside from the actual awards, one of the “24/7” short presentations—first a 24-second technical presentation, then a summary in exactly seven words—brought to mind a chapter in pharmaceutical history that remains textbook material to this day: Thalidomide, better known as Contergan. Speaker Tess Hiddema explained how a single molecule exists in two mirror-image, non-coincident forms, one of which actually relieves nausea, while the other forms in the body and can cause severe malformations of the limbs, eyes, ears, heart, and internal organs. A vivid example of why stereochemistry in drug development is more than just an academic exercise.
Soil Chemistry: Buried Underwear as a Bioindicator
The Soil Science Prize was awarded to a team from Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany for a citizen science project that could hardly have sounded more unappetizing: In more than 25 countries, around 1,000 identical cotton underwear items, as well as thousands of tea bags, were buried and dug up again after two months. The trick behind it: The more the fabric was broken down by microorganisms, fungi, and soil organisms, the more active and healthier the soil was considered—a simple yet effective method for visualizing biological activity in the soil, without any laboratory equipment. The acceptance speech also took the form of a song, complete with rhymes about mycelium, earthworms, and “buried cotton underpants.”
And in other news
Even beyond chemistry and biotech, the evening had plenty to offer: A British-American team provided the first precise definition of kissing among ants, birds, polar bears, and humans, and dated the evolutionary origin of the behavior in primates to roughly 21.5 million years ago. The Economics Prize went to a study showing that wealthier people are more likely to reach for sweets that are actually intended for children. Physicists from Canada, the U.S., China, and Saudi Arabia worked on a splash-free urinal design based on logarithmic spirals, while a Japanese team—honored posthumously—investigated the aerodynamics of blowing one’s nose. And a Polish-German-Swedish group demonstrated that babies smell wonderful to their parents, while the smell of pubescent teenagers is more on par with that of the neighbors.
This year, too, the same rule applies: If you look past the quirky presentation, you’ll find solid science in the award-winning projects—ranging from protein analysis to stereochemistry to soil microbiology. Next year, the ceremony will move on to Antwerp, Flanders—so science that first makes you laugh and then makes you think is guaranteed to continue in 2027 as well.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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Topic World Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectrometry enables us to detect and identify molecules and reveal their structure. Whether in chemistry, biochemistry or forensics - mass spectrometry opens up unexpected insights into the composition of our world. Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of mass spectrometry!
Topic World Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectrometry enables us to detect and identify molecules and reveal their structure. Whether in chemistry, biochemistry or forensics - mass spectrometry opens up unexpected insights into the composition of our world. Immerse yourself in the fascinating world of mass spectrometry!