Zurich (AFP) – Burying underwear to test the quality of the floors, scientifically designing a urinal to avoid splashing: here are some of the works rewarded during the 2026 edition of the Ig-Nobel, a shifted version of the prestigious award.

Published on: 04/09/2026 - 01:01

Having become an essential institution in the academic world, these prizes awarded by the humorous scientific magazine "Annals of Improbable Research" recognize unusual work each year.

As is tradition, the ceremony opened under a shower of paper airplanes, with some of the researchers coming in disguise to receive a trophy in the shape of a mushroom-studded stem, presented by real Nobel laureates.

For the first time since its creation in 1991, the event was held outside the United States, in Zurich. In March, organizers announced the move, saying they could not "in good conscience" bring scientists to the United States in the current political climate.

Walking on poisonous snakes

Among the 10 winners of the prize - whose name is a play on words between Nobel and "despicable" - the Ig-Nobel in biology was awarded to the team of João Miguel Alves-Nunes for his work which led him to trample snakes to understand when they decide to bite or not.

“Who would be stupid enough to put their foot in front of a venomous snake? Me,” laughed the researcher from the University of São Paulo as he came to collect his prize.

He carried out 40,000 tests on 116 snakes. During these experiments, a rattlesnake managed to bite him through his protective boots. Without discouraging the young 28-year-old researcher, who intends to extend his work to other countries.

Ideal trajectory for urinals

Dressed in yellow oilskins, four academics from China, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Canada came to receive the Ig-Nobel in physics for their research intended to optimize urinals.

To do this, they designed a urination machine, with an "anatomically accurate urethral nozzle", fed with water, said Kaveeshan Thurairajah, a doctoral student at the University of Waterloo, in Canada.

“The project aims to reduce splashing,” he explained to AFP, affirming that “in the United States alone, approximately one million liters of urine are spilled on the ground every day”, resulting in significant cleaning costs and risks of bacterial contamination.

Burying underpants

The organizers also honored their host city by awarding a team from the University of Zurich the Ig-Nobel in soil sciences.

To test their quality, they mailed 2,000 men's briefs to volunteers, asking them to bury them in their garden, then return them two months later to analyze their mold condition.

“The idea was to make soil science more visible,” explained one of the team members dressed as a giant cockroach.

The IG Nobel in economics was awarded to a team represented by Paul Piff, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, for its experiments demonstrating that people from advantaged backgrounds are more likely to dip into bowls of candy explicitly intended for children.

The prize was presented to him by Esther Duflo, winner of the real Nobel Prize in economics in 2019, who left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to recently join the University of Zurich.

“I think it should make us laugh and at the same time make us think,” she said.

© 2026 AFP

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.