This year’s Ig Nobel Prizes, which honor humorous yet educational research, were awarded outside the U.S. for the first time in the event’s history.
For the first time in the 35-year history of the ceremony, it was held outside the United States — in Zurich, Switzerland. According to the organizers, this decision was linked to growing hostility in the U.S. toward science and foreigners.
«Until last year, almost every laureate found a way to attend the ceremony from anywhere in the world», said Marc Abrahams, who founded the Ig Nobel Prize in 1991. He noted that last year, out of 10 winners, only six attended the ceremony.
Four laureates refused to travel to the U.S. due to safety concerns related to unpredictable immigration and visa procedures. Abrahams said they had seen reports of cases where people were sent back immediately upon arrival, questioned in detail about their personal lives, detained, imprisoned, or deported to another country.
Abrahams partly views the change of venue as an opportunity. «When you do something for 35 years, what are the chances you can start over?» he said.
At the same time, he and other organizers acknowledge that holding the ceremony abroad was a bittersweet decision. «It’s a sad decision to leave the place where it all began, but it also opens new horizons and a new audience for us», said Kees Moeliker, former director of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam and a former Ig Nobel laureate. He added that this is a positive development for the prize’s fans in Europe.
«Unfortunately, the decision to hold the ceremony outside the U.S. is entirely rational», said Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of the Science group of journals, who is not involved with the Ig Nobel organization.
Thorp noted that this step reflects a broader trend: international scientists are now less willing to travel to the U.S. for study, work, or to receive scientific awards. He said the principle that helped the U.S. achieve scientific success — openness to the best scientific talent from around the world — no longer works as it once did.
Splash-free urinals and the study of kisses
Despite the decision to move the ceremony abroad, Abrahams remains focused on the prize’s unchanged goal — «to get people interested in things they would otherwise never allow themselves to be interested in».
This includes fluid mechanics. This year’s Ig Nobel Prize in physics went to a research team that developed a theory and then created a prototype of a splash-free urinal.
«I don’t know if you’ve ever been at a urinal in sandals — sometimes you feel those droplets», said Tadd Truscott, a fluid dynamics expert at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and a member of the winning team. He explained that these droplets could be your own or splashes from a neighbor, so the researchers’ task was to eliminate them completely.
Truscott helped determine the optimal angle for the urine stream to minimize splashing — less than 30 degrees. His colleagues went further and redesigned the urinal to ensure this minimal angle regardless of the direction from which the stream enters.
When Truscott learned about the award, he was overwhelmed. «I almost fainted, I was so excited», he said, laughing. «They didn’t even ask me if I was sitting down. I think that would have been a good idea!»
All laureates received a trophy — this year, a block of blue cheese topped with a foot from which mushrooms grow, in honor of the ceremony’s overall theme of «fungi». In addition, the winners each received 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. However, this currency collapsed many years ago and is effectively worthless.
Monkey kisses and social class
This year’s Ig Nobel Prize in economics went to a group of researchers who found that people from higher social classes were more likely to take candy from supplies intended for children.
The medicine prize was awarded posthumously to a researcher who studied the aerodynamics of spitting.
The Ig Nobel Prize in biomechanics went to a team that developed a more precise definition of a kiss: «a non-aggressive interaction involving directed intra-specific oro-oral contact with some movement of the lips or mouth parts without food transfer».
This definition allowed researchers to study the long history of kissing in humans and other species. «To understand how a certain trait evolved, you can’t just look at one species. You have to study different species», said Matilda Brindle, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University and a member of the winning team.
She and her colleagues found that kissing is observed in most modern great apes and was likely also present in Neanderthals. The researchers suggest that early humans and Neanderthals may have even kissed each other.
«This is really exciting because it adds a romantic dimension to the relationship between humans and Neanderthals», said Brindle.
According to her, the next time you kiss someone, you can think of it as «a tradition that is 21.5 million years old». It’s not just modern human behavior but a trait with deep evolutionary roots. The researchers believe it likely serves an evolutionary function — such as aiding in mate selection or facilitating the exchange of beneficial oral microbes.
Despite the change of venue, Ig Nobel laureates were honored in tradition: they were pelted with paper airplanes — a ceremony filled with humor and affection, this time on a different continent.
Source: NPR
