Psychology
Do bumblebees play football just for fun?
Do bumble bees play? (2022)
Animals
Science, but the subjects are fluffy.
Psychology
Why do dogs tilt their heads when you talk to them?
An exploratory analysis of head-tilting in dogs (2022)
Do octopuses throw things at each other?
In the line of fire: Debris throwing by wild octopuses (2022)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2022
Why do ducklings swim in a line?
Wave-riding and wave-passing by ducklings in formation swimming (2021)
Psychology
Will a cat sit in a square that isn’t really there?
If I fits I sits: A citizen science investigation into illusory contour susceptibility in domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) (2021)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2019
How do wombats make perfect little cubes?
Intestines of non-uniform stiffness mold the corners of wombat feces (2021)
TechMedicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2021
Is it better to fly a rhino upside down?
The pulmonary and metabolic effects of suspension by the feet compared with lateral recumbency in immobilized black rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis) captured by aerial darting (2021)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2021
Are beards built-in armour?
Impact protection potential of mammalian hair: testing the pugilism hypothesis for the evolution of human facial hair (2020)
Psychology
Does your cat know its own name?
Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words (2019)
Tech ✦ Ig Nobel 2025
Can painting zebra stripes on a cow keep flies away?
Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack (2019)
Psychology
Can rats play hide-and-seek?
Behavioral and neural correlates of hide-and-seek in rats (2019)
Tech
Why would anyone build a robot sloth?
The SlothBot: A novel design for a wire-traversing robot (2019)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2018
Who copies who at the chimpanzee enclosure?
Spontaneous cross-species imitation in interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors (2018)
Psychology
Can goats tell when you’re smiling?
Goats prefer positive human emotional facial expressions (2018)
Tech
Can a robot fish make friends on a coral reef?
Exploration of underwater life with an acoustically controlled soft robotic fish (2018)
Psychology
Can sheep recognise celebrities?
Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images (2017)
MedicinePsychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2019
Can you train surgeons like dolphins?
Is Teaching Simple Surgical Skills Using an Operant Learning Program More Effective Than Teaching by Demonstration? (2016)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2020
What does an alligator sound like on helium?
A Chinese alligator in heliox: formant frequencies in a crocodilian (2015)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2015
Do elephants and cats take the same time in the loo?
Duration of urination does not change with body size (2014)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2017
Is a cat a liquid?
On the rheology of cats (2014)
✦ Ig Nobel 2015
What if you gave a chicken a dinosaur tail?
Walking like dinosaurs: chickens with artificial tails provide clues about non-avian theropod locomotion (2014)
✦ Ig Nobel 2014
Do dogs have a secret compass?
Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field (2013)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2013
Can beetles navigate by the stars?
Dung beetles use the Milky Way for orientation (2013)
Tech
Can you build a robot the size of a bee?
Controlled flight of a biologically inspired, insect-scale robot (2013)
Physics
How do mosquitoes fly in the rain?
Mosquitoes survive raindrop collisions by virtue of their low mass (2012)
Psychology
Can looking at kittens make you better at your job?
The power of kawaii: Viewing cute images promotes a careful behavior and narrows attentional focus (2012)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2014
What do reindeer do when a polar bear turns out to be a scientist?
Response behaviors of Svalbard reindeer towards humans and humans disguised as polar bears on Edgeøya (2012)
Physics
Why do small wet animals shake so fast?
Wet mammals shake at tuned frequencies to dry (2012)
MedicinePop Culture
Why is Rudolph’s nose red?
Why Rudolph’s nose is red: observational study (2012)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2021
Does every cat have its own purr?
A comparative acoustic analysis of purring in four cats (2011)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2011
Do tortoises catch yawns?
No evidence of contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise Geochelone carbonaria (2011)
Physics
How does a cat actually drink?
How cats lap: water uptake by Felis catus (2010)
PsychologyTech ✦ Ig Nobel 2012
Can a fish from the shop show brain activity?
Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic Salmon: an argument for proper multiple comparisons correction (2010)
✦ Ig Nobel 2010
How do you give a whale a check-up?
A novel non-invasive tool for disease surveillance of free-ranging whales and its relevance to conservation programs (2010)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2016
Why do white horses get fewer horseflies?
An unexpected advantage of whiteness in horses: the most horsefly-proof horse has a depolarizing white coat (2010)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2009
Do cows with names make more milk?
Exploring stock managers’ perceptions of the human–animal relationship on dairy farms and an association with milk production (2009)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2007
Can hamsters get jet lag?
Sildenafil accelerates reentrainment of circadian rhythms after advancing light schedules (2007)
Tech
Can you write a whole paper with one word?
Chicken Chicken Chicken: Chicken Chicken (2006)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Can rats tell Dutch from Japanese?
Effects of backward speech and speaker variability in language discrimination by rats (2005)
Pop CulturePsychology
Does wearing red help you win?
Red enhances human performance in contests (2005)
✦ Ig Nobel 2004
How do herring talk to each other?
Pacific and Atlantic herring produce burst pulse sounds (2004)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2005
How do penguins keep their nests so tidy?
Pressures produced when penguins pooh — calculations on avian defaecation (2003)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2003
Do chickens think you’re pretty?
Chickens prefer beautiful humans (2002)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Why don’t woodpeckers get headaches?
Cure for a headache (2002)
Medicine
Do animals bite more at full moon?
Do animals bite more during a full moon? Retrospective observational analysis (2000)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2008
Who jumps higher: a dog flea or a cat flea?
A comparison of jump performances of the dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis (Curtis, 1826) and the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché, 1835) (2000)
Tech
How do you manage infinite monkeys on typewriters?
The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS) (2000)
Psychology
Do rats laugh when you tickle them?
50-kHz chirping (laughter?) in response to conditioned and unconditioned tickle-induced reward in rats: effects of social housing and genetic variables (2000)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2004
Could you miss a gorilla walking right past you?
Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events (1999)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2000
Can you make a frog float in mid-air?
Of flying frogs and levitrons (1997)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 1995
Can a pigeon tell Monet from Picasso?
Pigeons’ discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso (1995)
FoodMedicine ✦ Ig Nobel 1996
Do leeches like garlic?
Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches (1994)
Tech
Can you send internet data by pigeon?
A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers (RFC 1149) (1990)
Psychology
Can you stop yourself thinking about a white bear?
Paradoxical effects of thought suppression (1987)
✦ Ig Nobel 2011
Can a beetle fall in love with a bottle?
Beetles on the bottle: male buprestids mistake stubbies for females (1983)
PhysicsTech
Has a cat ever co-written a physics paper?
Two-, three-, and four-atom exchange effects in bcc ³He (1975)
Physics
How does a falling cat always land on its feet?
A dynamical explanation of the falling cat phenomenon (1969)