The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes: How to Blow Your Nose, Why Teenagers Smell and the Mystery of Buried Underwear

The annual Ig Nobel Prizes have once again been awarded, honoring scientific discoveries that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”

The winners received their prizes from genuine Nobel laureates, after which the audience, as tradition dictates, was showered with paper airplanes.

This year’s laureates include researchers who studied the proper way to blow your nose, the smell of puberty, the appeal of nasty friends — and why wealthy people are apparently more likely to steal candy meant for children.

The annual ceremony, organized by the science-humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, once again showcased some of the world’s most eccentric scientific studies.

• Medicine Prize (posthumously): Nearly 50 years ago, Dr. Toyuki Unno of Wakayama Medical College in Japan measured the speed and volume of air produced during a forceful exhalation. Researchers found that the most effective way to clear the nasal passages is a “big and prolonged” blow rather than a series of short, sharp attempts.
• Olfaction Prize: A team of German researchers found that babies smell remarkably wonderful to their parents — but that this “divine scent” disappears dramatically once children reach puberty. According to the scientists, the pleasant smell of babies may have evolved to strengthen bonding and encourage parental care, while there is no longer any evolutionary need for the same effect once children become teenagers.
• Peace Prize: Scientists from Oklahoma State University found that people place a surprisingly high value on friends who are hostile toward their enemies. Individuals tend to choose companions who are willing to act aggressively toward their personal adversaries.
• Economics Prize: Researchers discovered that members of higher socioeconomic groups are significantly more likely to steal sweets intended for children. In experiments, wealthier participants secretly took more candy from jars designated for children than people with lower incomes.

Other Unusual Winners

• Biology: For research into the evolution of kissing and a precise scientific definition of the behavior: “nonagonistic interaction involving directed oral-to-oral contact… without the transfer of food.” Scientists found evidence that ancient humans kissed Neanderthals as far back as 50,000 years ago.
• Biology: For the remarkably brave researchers who carefully stepped on venomous snakes in order to determine exactly what triggers the reptiles to attack.
• Chemistry: For discovering that cockroach milk proteins contain three times more energy than cow’s milk.
• Physics: For developing a splash-proof urinal designed to work regardless of the user’s height or angle of approach — a concept originally proposed by a team from the University of Waterloo.
• Technology: For using 3D printing to create an exact replica of a mosquito’s proboscis — the specialized mouthpart it uses to draw blood.
• Soil Science: For an ambitious project by Swiss researchers from the University of Zurich, who buried 1,000 identical pairs of underwear in more than 25 countries around the world. Two months later, they dug them back up to assess soil health and measure the activity of bacteria, worms and insects.

Science Has Never Been This Strange

From the optimal way to blow your nose to the precise moment when babies stop smelling heavenly — and from snake-stomping experiments to a global underwear burial project — the 2026 Ig Nobel winners once again demonstrate that science can be both genuinely useful and completely bizarre.

And that, after all, is exactly the point of the Ig Nobels: research that makes you laugh first — and think about it afterward.