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Recently my favorite podcaster, Alan Alda, hosted Marc Abrahams on Clear & Vivid to talk about the Ig Nobel Prize (Ig). For over 30 years, Improbable Research has been selecting research projects that live up to the standard of “achievements so surprising that they make people LAUGH, then THINK.” The prizes celebrate the unusual and honor the imaginative. Along the way these projects and the wonky annual award ceremony spark both the imagination and curiosity of scientists and laypeople in science, medicine, and technology.

Some previous prizes have been patented. One winning team of Japanese doctors demonstrated that some species of animals can breathe through their anus. Go ahead. Laugh! This idea has proven to be a potential boost for humans whose lungs have been so badly impaired that they are facing death. Getting that oxygen into the body from the opposite end is done by means of an oxygen-rich enema. Sounds weird, but if my life depended on it, I think I’d give it a try, would you?

I’ve known about the Igs for years, but not paid a lot of attention to them. This podcast stimulated my curiosity. The awards ceremonies have taken place at such austere venues as MIT and Harvard. Winners receive their awards from the hands of real, live Nobel Laureates. And while the venue for the ceremony may seem hallowed, the event is anything but. It includes zany costumes, silly games, paper airplanes, mini operas, and over an hour’s worth of puns. Last year’s ceremony honored 10 winning teams, each of whom received a tongue-in-cheek model of a human stomach to honor the 2025 theme of DIGESTION. In the past, a ten trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe also went along for a ride, however in 2025, the all volunteer Ig committee could only afford to give winners a moist towelette.

This year’s prize categories and winners were:

  • Literature – USA
  • Psychology – Poland, England, & Canada
  • Nutrition – Nigeria, Togo, Italy, & France
  • Pediatrics – USA
  • Biology – Japan
  • Chemistry – USA & Israel
  • Peace – Netherlands, UK, & Germany
  • Engineering Design – India
  • Aviation – Columbia, Israel, Argentina, Germany, UK, Italy, USA, Portugal, & Spain
  • Physics – Italy, Spain, Germany, & Austria

The Igs represent a reminder to not take ourselves too seriously and to think twice before we scoff at what seems totally inane at first glance. Be curious.

I leave you with this bizarre, amusing, but serious, maybe R-rated Ted Talk.