Physics
What’s the physics of a perfect boiled egg?
Periodic cooking of eggs (2025)
Food
Peer-reviewed snacking.
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2025
How do physicists make the perfect cheesy pasta sauce?
Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce (2025)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2022
Can ice cream be medicine?
Ice-cream used as cryotherapy during high-dose melphalan conditioning reduces oral mucositis after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (2021)
Tech
Can flat pasta turn itself into twirls?
Morphing pasta and beyond (2021)
Physics
What’s the physics behind tossing fried rice?
The physics of tossing fried rice (2020)
Physics
Can maths make a better espresso?
Systematically improving espresso: Insights from mathematical modeling and experiment (2020)
Physics
Why do bubbles in a stout seem to sink?
Sinking bubbles in stout beers (2018)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2023
Why do geologists lick rocks?
Eating fossils (2017)
Medicine
How do scientists know what’s really in the pool?
Sweetened swimming pools and hot tubs (2017)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2017
How do you carry coffee without spilling it?
A study on the coffee spilling phenomena in the low impulse regime (2016)
Medicine
Is the five-second rule real?
Longer contact times increase cross-contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from surfaces to food (2016)
MedicinePsychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2017
What does cheese hate look like inside your brain?
The Neural Bases of Disgust for Cheese: An fMRI Study (2016)
Psychology
Why does tomato juice taste so good on a plane?
A crossmodal role for audition in taste perception (2015)
Physics
How many licks to the centre of a lollipop?
Shape dynamics and scaling laws for a body dissolving in fluid flow (2015)
Physics
Where does popcorn’s “pop” come from?
Popcorn: critical temperature, jump and sound (2015)
✦ Ig Nobel 2015
Can you unboil an egg?
Shear-stress-mediated refolding of proteins from aggregates and inclusion bodies (2015)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2014
Why do we see faces in our toast?
Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia (2014)
Physics
How does a kettle whistle?
The aeroacoustics of a steam kettle (2013)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2013
Does thinking you’ve had a drink make you feel prettier?
“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder”: People who think they are drunk also think they are attractive (2013)
Medicine
How long does a box of chocolates last on a hospital ward?
The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study (2013)
PsychologyMedicine
Does chocolate win Nobel Prizes?
Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates (2012)
Psychology
Does the colour of your mug change how a drink tastes?
The influence of the color of the cup on consumers’ perception of a hot beverage (2012)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2014
Are banana peels really that slippery?
Frictional coefficient under banana skin (2012)
Psychology
Does your spoon change how food tastes?
Tasting spoons: Assessing how the material of a spoon affects the taste of the food (2012)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2012
Why does coffee spill when you walk?
Walking with coffee: Why does it spill? (2012)
Tech ✦ Ig Nobel 2023
Can electric chopsticks change how food tastes?
Augmented gustation using electricity (2011)
Animals ✦ 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)
Physics
Why do Mentos make fizzy drinks erupt?
Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? (2008)
Pop CultureMedicine
Does sugar really make kids hyper?
Festive medical myths (2008)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2009
Can you make diamonds out of tequila?
Growth of diamond films from tequila (2008)
PsychologyMedicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2007
Would you notice if your soup never ran out?
Bottomless bowls: why visual cues of portion size may influence intake (2005)
Physics
Why do the last Cheerios in the bowl cuddle up?
The “Cheerios effect” (2005)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Why won’t spaghetti snap neatly in two?
Fragmentation of rods by cascading cracks: why spaghetti does not break in half (2005)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2008
Can a louder crunch make crisps taste fresher?
The role of auditory cues in modulating the perceived crispness and staleness of potato chips (2004)
Medicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2019
Could pizza be good for you?
Does pizza protect against cancer? (2003)
Pop CulturePsychology
Would kids pick a toy over sweets on Halloween?
Trick, treat, or toy: children are just as likely to choose toys as candy on Halloween (2003)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2002
Does beer foam behave like radioactive atoms?
Demonstration of the exponential decay law using beer froth (2002)
Medicine
Does eating ice cream fast give you brain freeze?
Ice cream evoked headaches (ICE-H) study: randomised trial of accelerated versus cautious ice cream eating regimen (2002)
✦ Ig Nobel 2013
Why do onions make us cry?
An onion enzyme that makes the eyes water (2002)
Psychology
Can a drop of food dye fool a wine expert’s nose?
The color of odors (2001)
Medicine
Does chicken soup really help a cold?
Chicken soup inhibits neutrophil chemotaxis in vitro (2000)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 1999
What’s the scientifically correct way to dunk a biscuit?
Physics takes the biscuit (1999)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
How fast does sound travel through Cheddar?
Ultrasonic velocity in Cheddar cheese as affected by temperature (1999)
Tech
Why does the internet have an “I’m a teapot” error?
Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0) (RFC 2324) (1998)
Physics
Why do coffee spills dry into rings?
Capillary flow as the cause of ring stains from dried liquid drops (1997)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 1996
Why does toast always land butter-side down?
Tumbling toast, Murphy’s Law and the fundamental constants (1995)
AnimalsMedicine ✦ Ig Nobel 1996
Do leeches like garlic?
Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches (1994)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 1995
When exactly does cereal go soggy?
A study of the effects of water content on the compaction behaviour of breakfast cereal flakes (1994)
Physics ✦ Ig Nobel 1999
Why do some teapots dribble?
Pouring flows (1986)
MedicinePhysics ✦ Ig Nobel 2001
How dangerous is it to sit under a coconut palm?
Injuries due to falling coconuts (1984)
Physics
Why does a mug of hot chocolate sing when you tap it?
The hot chocolate effect (1982)
Psychology
Why do we learn to love spicy food?
The nature and acquisition of a preference for chili pepper by humans (1980)
Tech
What did Bill Gates write his only research paper about?
Bounds for sorting by prefix reversal (1979)
Psychology
Can spilling coffee make you more likeable?
The effect of a pratfall on increasing interpersonal attractiveness (1966)
Tech
Can one cut split a sandwich perfectly every time?
Generalized “sandwich” theorems (1942)