Breaking News: The Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded for research including cockroach milk and the evolutionary origins of kissing.
The annual Ig Nobel Prizes, celebrating improbable research, were presented in Zurich this week. Winners were recognised for studies ranging from the nutritional properties of cockroach milk to investigating the evolutionary history of kissing and the efficacy of using underwear to assess soil health. The awards, founded in 1991, were held outside the US for the first time due to visa concerns.
The awards, presented by the Annals of Improbable Research, honoured a diverse collection of studies. Researchers examining ethical behaviour found that individuals of higher socio-economic status were “more likely to engage in unethical behavior” such as stealing, according to the Guardian, quoting Dr. Paul Piff of the University of California, Irvine. Another winning study defined kissing as “a non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact” – a practice potentially dating back 21.5 million years, as reported by NPR. Researchers even tested whether gently stepping on snakes provoked a bite. Other prizes covered splash-free urinals, 3D printing with dead mosquitos, and the differing parental fondness for newborn versus teenage smells.
The prizes serve as a light-hearted acknowledgement of research that may not have immediate practical application, but nonetheless contributes to scientific curiosity. Dr. Piff suggested that wealth could lead to prioritising personal needs, “taking candy from children might be the least of our worries.” Winners receive a trophy resembling a mushroom-foot hybrid and are playfully showered with paper airplanes by the audience.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are distinct from the Nobel Prizes, the winners of which will be announced in October.
Sources: Fox News, The Daily Telegraph (via The Guardian and NPR), The Jerusalem Post, The Sun, Daily Mail.
