Painting stripes on cows to lizards’ pizza pick: Ig Nobel winners

Painting zebra stripes on cows to repel flies, Lizards favorite pizza trim and how alcohol helps you speak another language: some of the Ig Nobel prizes, who celebrate the more silly side of science.

The 35th edition of annual prizes, organized by the magazine Science Humor Annals of Improbable Research, took place a few weeks before the real Nobel Prize.

Here are the 10 winners, which were announced during a noisy ceremony at Boston University on Thursday evening.

Striking paint on cows

A team of Japanese researchers won the IG Nobel Biology Prize for showing that paint on Zebras stripes on cows meant that flies were less likely to bite them.

While one of the researchers accepted the price, his colleagues burst out sticks carrying images of flies around him – until he removed his jacket to reveal a shirt with zébre striped.

Pizza preference in lizard

When the rainbow lizards fly pizzas in stations in Togo, four cheeses are their favorite garnish, according to the research which won the price of nutrition.

The team “simply wanted to answer the secular scientific question: what happens when a lizard discovers cheese and carbohydrates,” said Italian researcher Luca Luiselli in a speech of acceptance read by the French economic winner Esther Duflo.

“Now we know it – and the answer is: they behave like Italians.”

Drunken language

Drinking alcohol can help you speak a foreign language more clearly-in reason, according to research by a Dutch team-German-Uk which won the peace prize.

Scientists had the idea while drinking in a bar at an international conference, noting that “the drunk Germans generally pronounce Dutch that the sober Germans,” they said in a statement read during the ceremony.

They found that a small dose of alcohol, less than a pint of beer, can strengthen confidence. But it was only in moderation – researchers do not recommend using alcohol as a linguistic learning tool.

Pasta physics

The price of physics went to European researchers for “discoveries on the physics of pasta sauce” – in particular, how to avoid panties while making the emblematic Italian dish Cacio e Pepe.

“You might all think that this work confirms all stereotypes on Italians, as we only think of food – but that is not true,” one of the Italian researchers told the ceremony, while wearing a false mustache and a giant chief hat.

Driven bats

The price of aviation went to researchers who discovered that alcohol in fermented fruits alters the capacity of bats to fly – and to use echolocation to orient itself.

For research, scientists had to give bats to ethanol. “The problem is that bats – they love it,” said a researcher at the ceremony.

Look at nails grow

The prize for literature went at the end of the American researcher William B. Bean for the recording and “constantly” analysis of the growth of his nails over 35 years.

“He would put a small brand” on his nails “then looked carefully as they grew up,” said Bean Bennett’s son at the ceremony.

Special and they know it

What happens when you tell a narcissist that he is intelligent? This is this subject which won a Polish Canadian-Australian team the Prize for Psychology.

The researchers directed the enthusiastic crowd in a singer to: “If you are special and you know, applaud their hands”.

Babies like breast milk to garlic

The price of pediatrics was awarded to an American duo who studied what a baby nurse feels when his mother eats garlic.

While mothers had already been invited to eat bland food, researchers have shown that “infants savor the flavor of garlic,” said Julie Mennella, winner, at the ceremony.

Eat teflon

The price of chemistry went to an American -Israeli team for research aimed at knowing if eating teflon – a chemical coating used in non -stick kitchen utensils – makes people feel full without increasing their calorie contribution.

Smelly shoes

The engineering prize was awarded to two Indian researchers to probe “How foul -smelling shoes affect the good experience of using a shoe rack”.

The sensors to detect odor levels “failed us, so we recruited courageous human noses,” said the researchers.

© 2025 AFP