Cockroach Milk and Buried Underpants Win Science Prizes! The Ig Nobel Awards Are Here
Quick Summary
Every year, some of the silliest-sounding science gets a special award called the Ig Nobel Prize. On September 3, the 2026 winners were announced at a ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland. The winners studied cockroach milk, buried underwear in 25 countries, and stepped on venomous snakes on purpose. It sounds ridiculous — but there’s real science behind every single one!
What Happened?
The Ig Nobel Prizes are given out each year by a science humor magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research. The prizes honor real scientific studies that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” This year’s ceremony was held in Zurich, Switzerland, for the very first time after 35 years of being held in the United States.
Real Nobel Prize winners handed out the awards. The audience celebrated by throwing paper airplanes. And the trophies? Giant mushroom-shaped statues, because the theme of this year’s ceremony was fungi.
Here are some of the most memorable winners:
Cockroach Milk (Chemistry Prize): A team of scientists discovered that a special kind of cockroach feeds its babies with a milk-like liquid. This cockroach milk contains three times more energy than regular cow’s milk. Three times! That’s like comparing a juice box to a triple-thick chocolate milkshake.
Buried Underpants (Soil Science Prize): A team buried exactly 1,000 identical pairs of underpants in soil across more than 25 different countries. Then they dug them up two months later. The faster the underpants broke down, the healthier the soil was. It sounds bizarre — but it was actually a global citizen science project studying soil health around the world!
Stepping on Snakes (Biology Prize): Brazilian researchers wanted to know what makes a venomous snake decide to bite a human. So they gently stepped on different parts of snakes, at different temperatures, at different times of day. They found that younger snakes bite more, and snakes bite more often when it’s warm and sunny. Brave work — and very useful for places where snakebite is a real danger.
Why Does It Matter?
The Ig Nobel Prizes remind us that science doesn’t always look serious or important at first glance. Behind every funny-sounding experiment is a real question worth asking. Cockroach milk could one day help scientists design super-nutritious foods. Buried underpants help farmers understand soil health. Snake research could save lives in countries where millions of people are bitten each year.
Science is about curiosity — even when the curiosity leads somewhere unexpected and a little weird.
Big Words
- Ig Nobel Prize — a funny award given to real scientists for surprising, amusing, or thought-provoking research
- Citizen science — research where everyday people (not just professional scientists) help collect data
- Venomous — describes an animal that can inject harmful chemicals through a bite or sting
- Fungi — the kingdom of life that includes mushrooms, mold, and yeast
- Soil science — the study of soil, including what lives in it and how healthy it is
Fun Fact
The Ig Nobel ceremony has one special rule: winners must keep their acceptance speeches under 60 seconds. If they go over time, a little girl walks up to the microphone and says “Please stop. I’m bored.” That tradition has been going for decades!
Think About It
If you could design your own silly-but-useful science experiment to win an Ig Nobel Prize, what would you study — and what real question might it actually help answer?
Sources
- Improbable Research — The 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners are announced
- C&EN / American Chemical Society — 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes
- Nature — Buried underpants and a new definition of kissing win 2026 Ig Nobel prizes
- Scientific American — 2026 Ig Nobels honor cockroach milk, interspecies kissing, taunting venomous snakes, and more
- The Print — Buried underwear, splash-free urinals, cockroach milk — The Ig Nobel winners 2026