Loading…
The 36th Ig Nobel Prize ceremony was held on 3 September 2026 at Zurich, Switzerland, the first time in 35 years it was staged outside the United States.
The prizes are awarded by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research for work that makes people laugh, then think.
The Chemistry prize went to a team including Indian scientists for showing that cockroach milk protein crystals carry about three times the energy of an equivalent mass of cow milk.
The cockroach studied was Diploptera punctata, the only known cockroach that nurtures embryos inside the mother's body.
Other winners covered mosquito mouthparts as 3D-printing nozzles, nose-blowing, buried cotton underwear, splash-free urinals and the evolution of kissing.
| Category | Researchers | Research subject |
|---|---|---|
| Chemistry | Sanchari Banerjee, Subramanian Ramaswamy and colleagues | Protein crystals in cockroach milk and their unusually high energy content |
| Technology | Changhong Cao, Jianyu Li and colleagues | Mosquito blood-sucking mouthparts as models for ultra-fine 3D-printing nozzles |
| Medicine | Dr Tokuji Unno, awarded posthumously | Airflow and pressure changes associated with blowing the nose |
| Soil Science | Pia Viviani, Atlant Bieri and colleagues | Cotton underwear buried across 25 countries to measure soil biological activity |
| Physics | Zhao Pan, Kavee Thurairajah and colleagues | Splash-free urinal designs based on fluid impact angles |
| Evolution | Matilda Brindle, Stuart West and Catherine Talbot | How kissing may have evolved among animal species |
Science humour magazine that organises and awards the Ig Nobel Prizes annually for research that makes people laugh and then think
Bengaluru research institute whose scientists were part of the international team awarded the 2026 Chemistry Ig Nobel
General Awareness > Awards and Honours
GS Paper III > Science and Technology: Awards and Scientific Research
An annual award instituted in 1991 for genuine research that first makes people laugh and then makes them think; it is satirical in tone but honours real published work.
Giving birth to live young rather than laying eggs. Diploptera punctata is the only cockroach known to nourish embryos inside the mother's body.
A technique that determines the three-dimensional structure of molecules such as proteins from the way crystals diffract X-rays.