The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on September 3rd in Zurich, Switzerland, recognizing unusual research. Prizes included awards for a precise definition of kissing, a splash-free urinal design, and an investigation into burying underwear.
Matilda Brindle, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford, co-authored the kissing study, which defined kissing as a “non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral–oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer”. The research found that kissing occurs across species, including polar bears, birds, ants, and other primates, and traces the behavior back 21.5 million years to the ancestor of all large apes, suggesting Neanderthals may have kissed ancient Homo sapiens. Brindle stated, “I hope that, as well as finding the research amusing, people will come away thinking a little differently about our place in the animal kingdom,” and added, “My jaw hit the floor when I got the phone call. It’s certainly one of my proudest life achievements.” She also noted the team hopes the award will spark further curiosity into why kissing evolved.
The physics award focused on designing a splash-free urinal, while the soil-science prize investigated the effects of burying and then digging up 1,000 pairs of underwear. Changhong Cao, a mechanical engineer at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, whose team won the technology prize, explained that their work demonstrated how mosquito mouthparts could be repurposed for low-cost 3D printing. Cao noted the awards, launched in 1991 by Marc Abrahams, editor of the satirical magazine Annals of Improbable Research, have evolved from being seen as insulting to being considered a career boost, providing “enormous” visibility to research that might not otherwise be noticed.
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