Tech ✦ Ig Nobel 2024
Is a coin toss really 50–50?
Fair coins tend to land on the same side they started: Evidence from 350,757 flips (2025)
Physics
The universe has rules. Some of them are about toast.
Food
What’s the physics of a perfect boiled egg?
Periodic cooking of eggs (2025)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2025
How do physicists make the perfect cheesy pasta sauce?
Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce (2025)
Pop Culture
How fast is the Millennium Falcon in hyperspace?
How fast is hyperdrive? (2023)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2022
Why do ducklings swim in a line?
Wave-riding and wave-passing by ducklings in formation swimming (2021)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2019
How do wombats make perfect little cubes?
Intestines of non-uniform stiffness mold the corners of wombat feces (2021)
Pop Culture
Does Superman break the laws of physics?
Superman vs momentum (2021)
What’s the secret recipe for giant bubbles?
How to make a giant bubble (2020)
Animals ✦ 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)
Food
What’s the physics behind tossing fried rice?
The physics of tossing fried rice (2020)
Food
Can maths make a better espresso?
Systematically improving espresso: Insights from mathematical modeling and experiment (2020)
Food
Why do bubbles in a stout seem to sink?
Sinking bubbles in stout beers (2018)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2023
Why do geologists lick rocks?
Eating fossils (2017)
Why do shoelaces suddenly come undone?
The roles of impact and inertia in the failure of a shoelace knot (2017)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2017
How do you carry coffee without spilling it?
A study on the coffee spilling phenomena in the low impulse regime (2016)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2020
What does an alligator sound like on helium?
A Chinese alligator in heliox: formant frequencies in a crocodilian (2015)
Food
How many licks to the centre of a lollipop?
Shape dynamics and scaling laws for a body dissolving in fluid flow (2015)
Food
Where does popcorn’s “pop” come from?
Popcorn: critical temperature, jump and sound (2015)
Pop CultureTech
How do you design a real wormhole for a film?
Visualizing Interstellar’s wormhole (2015)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2015
Do elephants and cats take the same time in the loo?
Duration of urination does not change with body size (2014)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2017
Is a cat a liquid?
On the rheology of cats (2014)
Food
How does a kettle whistle?
The aeroacoustics of a steam kettle (2013)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2013
Can beetles navigate by the stars?
Dung beetles use the Milky Way for orientation (2013)
Pop CultureTech
How did Disney make the snow in Frozen look real?
A material point method for snow simulation (2013)
Pop Culture
Can Angry Birds teach you physics?
Teaching physics with Angry Birds: exploring the kinematics and dynamics of the game (2013)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2014
Are banana peels really that slippery?
Frictional coefficient under banana skin (2012)
How much water makes the perfect sandcastle?
How to construct the perfect sandcastle (2012)
Pop Culture
Does a falling Slinky float in mid-air?
Modeling a falling slinky (2012)
Animals
How do mosquitoes fly in the rain?
Mosquitoes survive raindrop collisions by virtue of their low mass (2012)
✦ Ig Nobel 2012
Is there an equation for a ponytail?
Shape of a ponytail and the statistical physics of hair fiber bundles (2012)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2012
Why does coffee spill when you walk?
Walking with coffee: Why does it spill? (2012)
Animals
Why do small wet animals shake so fast?
Wet mammals shake at tuned frequencies to dry (2012)
Tech
Why does a bike stay upright on its own?
A bicycle can be self-stable without gyroscopic or caster effects (2011)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2021
Does every cat have its own purr?
A comparative acoustic analysis of purring in four cats (2011)
Pop Culture
Could Batman really glide on his cape?
Trajectory of a falling Batman (2011)
Animals
How does a cat actually drink?
How cats lap: water uptake by Felis catus (2010)
Animals ✦ 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)
TechMedicine ✦ Ig Nobel 2010
Does wearing socks over your shoes stop you slipping on ice?
Preventing winter falls: a randomised controlled trial of a novel intervention (2009)
Medicine
Where does belly-button fluff come from?
The nature of navel fluff (2009)
Food
Why do Mentos make fizzy drinks erupt?
Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? (2008)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2009
Can you make diamonds out of tequila?
Growth of diamond films from tequila (2008)
Pop CultureMedicine
Is head banging bad for your neck?
Head and neck injury risks in heavy metal: head bangers stuck between rock and a hard bass (2008)
Tech
Can sticky tape make X-rays?
Correlation between nanosecond X-ray flashes and stick–slip friction in peeling tape (2008)
✦ Ig Nobel 2008
Why do strings tie themselves in knots?
Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string (2007)
Food
Why do the last Cheerios in the bowl cuddle up?
The “Cheerios effect” (2005)
Food ✦ 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)
Why does wet hair clump together?
Elastocapillary coalescence in wet hair (2004)
What’s the secret to skipping a stone?
Secrets of successful stone-skipping (2004)
✦ Ig Nobel 2007
Why does cling film wrinkle in neat lines?
Geometry and physics of wrinkling (2003)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2005
How do penguins keep their nests so tidy?
Pressures produced when penguins pooh — calculations on avian defaecation (2003)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2002
Does beer foam behave like radioactive atoms?
Demonstration of the exponential decay law using beer froth (2002)
Animals ✦ 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)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2022
How many fingers do you use to turn a knob?
How to use fingers during rotary control of columnar knobs (1999)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 1999
What’s the scientifically correct way to dunk a biscuit?
Physics takes the biscuit (1999)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
How fast does sound travel through Cheddar?
Ultrasonic velocity in Cheddar cheese as affected by temperature (1999)
Food
Why do coffee spills dry into rings?
Capillary flow as the cause of ring stains from dried liquid drops (1997)
Animals ✦ Ig Nobel 2000
Can you make a frog float in mid-air?
Of flying frogs and levitrons (1997)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 1996
Why does toast always land butter-side down?
Tumbling toast, Murphy’s Law and the fundamental constants (1995)
Food ✦ 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)
Pop Culture
Could a Star Trek warp drive actually work?
The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity (1994)
Psychology ✦ Ig Nobel 2006
Why are nails on a chalkboard so awful?
Psychoacoustics of a chilling sound (1986)
Food ✦ Ig Nobel 1999
Why do some teapots dribble?
Pouring flows (1986)
MedicineFood ✦ Ig Nobel 2001
How dangerous is it to sit under a coconut palm?
Injuries due to falling coconuts (1984)
Food
Why does a mug of hot chocolate sing when you tap it?
The hot chocolate effect (1982)
AnimalsTech
Has a cat ever co-written a physics paper?
Two-, three-, and four-atom exchange effects in bcc ³He (1975)
Animals
How does a falling cat always land on its feet?
A dynamical explanation of the falling cat phenomenon (1969)