Teams studying kissing and nose-blowing win Ig Nobel prizes for quirky science

Spectators throw paper planes during the Ig Nobel prize ceremony in Zurich (Claudio Thoma/Keystone via AP)

Ten research teams have been honoured at a satirical science awards ceremony, with studies on subjects ranging from kissing to nose-blowing recognised at the event.

Researchers who studied milk from cockroaches and analysed soil health using underwear received Ig Nobel prizes celebrating unusual and imaginative contributions to science.

The event was hosted outside the US for the first time due to travel concerns.

The awards organised by a digital magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research shifted to Europe after 35 years in the United States over concerns about attendees being able to get visas.

At a convention centre in Zurich, Switzerland, research teams received a custom trophy resembling a cross between a mushroom and a human foot.

Among them were Matilda Brindle and Stuart West from the University of Oxford and the Florida Institute of Technology’s Catherine Talbot, who reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing, and the late Dr Tokuji Unno who investigated the science of blowing one’s nose.

Another research team buried 1,000 pairs of underwear in more than 25 countries to study how critters in the soil helped them decompose.

For future ceremonies, organisers plan to alternate between Zurich and other European countries. The 2027 ceremony will be held in the Belgian city of Antwerp.

Previous iterations took place at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University, but there are no immediate plans to return to the US.

“During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, told the Associated Press in March.

The Nobel Prizes, which have no relation to their cheekily named counterpart, will be announced at the start of October.