The Journal of Improbable Results from Cambridge, Massachusetts held its 35th Annual Ig Noble Prize awards ceremony this September. Ig Noble Prizes are awarded to actual research studies published in the past year that document improbable or whimsical results in ten different categories. Marc Abrahams, editor of the Journal, opened the 2025 Ig Noble Prize award ceremony with, “Every great discovery ever, at first glance seemed screwy and laughable. The same is true of every worthless discovery. The Ig Noble Prizes celebrate ALL these discoveries, because at the very first glance, who really knows.”
Because of the recent reporting of the unusual, non-traditionally public competition for the 2025 Noble Peace Prize, a review of the 2025 Ig Noble Prizes seems particularly timely and insightful.
The Ig Noble Prize for Physics was awarded to a multi-national, Italian-led team that proved that the clumping of cheese, in a bad way, on pizza was caused by very high oven temperatures and could be mitigated by the addition of traditional Italian sauce and spices.
The Ig Noble Prize for Nutrition was awarded to a different Italian team that showed that iguanas in warm regions of the world rapidly ate discarded pizza. They speculated that “Like Italians, the iguanas love cheese.” The team was very surprised to receive the award because they thought the other Italian team would win for their study of cheese.
The Ig Noble Prize for Chemistry was awarded to the team of researchers that showed that eating Teflon to fill the stomach to the point of satiety without increasing calories ingested did not result in weight loss.
During one of several 24/7 Presentations (“Explain your study in technical terms in 24 seconds and then in everyday English in 7 words”) a Beth Israel, Boston team really impressed the crowd with their clinical study of smart phone use on a toilet. The technical data showed that using a smart phone on a toilet increased the chances of developing hemorrhoids by 46%. The non-technical summary was, “Smart phones are a pain in the butt.”
The Ig Noble Prize in Psychology was won by a researcher who showed that if you say “You are intelligent” to a narcissist, that person becomes even more narcissistic.
At this point the MC noted the absence of an Ig Noble Prize for Stupidest Result of 2025, which he personally greatly regretted. He revealed that after much discussion the Selection Committee decided that the Trump administration’s public ridicule of the study of “transgenic mice” as one of “transgender mice” was a real doozy, but that is was better NOT to endanger the low political profile of these awards by “poking the bear”.
The Ig Noble Prize for Biology was won by a Japanese team that showed that by putting alternating zebra-like white tape stripes on a black bull the number of flies landing on and biting the bull decreased when compared to an all-black bull.
The Ig Noble Prize for Pediatrics was a shock to all the pediatricians who have been recommending “bland foods” as being best for mothers who are nursing babies. By feeding several different exotic foods and spices to nursing mothers this team showed that nursing babies preferred the milk from mothers who ate garlic! Full disclosure, this was NOT an Italian or a French research team.
AND FINALLY. The one you’ve been waiting for.
The 2025 Ig Noble Peace Prize went to a German team that proved that alcohol improves the ability to speak a foreign language. “Drunken Germans pronounced Dutch words much clearer than sober Germans.” The effect was seen after just a pint of beer. Even some study subjects spoke clearer Dutch after just a sip of wine; an effect of alcohol that was more pronounced in the student population studied.
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