Ig Nobel Prize 2024: mammals that breathe through their anuses, drunken worms lining up, and pigeons guiding missiles

Ig Nobel Prize — is a parody of the Nobel Prize, which is being held for the 34th time and is traditionally «not without fun».

The award ceremony is held under the slogan «achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think» and recognizes real scientists who have been able to look at scientific research «from a different, much more fun side».

Below you can find a list of awards that will definitely put you in a little «Friday mood».

Peace

Awarded to the late American psychologist B. F. Skinner, who explored the possibility of placing live pigeons inside rockets as a means of determining the trajectory of movement. The project, which the creator himself called crazy, had a perfect demonstration but was eventually canceled.

Botany

Awarded to Jacob White from the United States and Felipe Yamashita from Germany for proving that the South American plant Boquila trifoliolata can imitate the leaves of plastic plants next to which it is placed. In fact, the scientists proved that the presence of «vision in» plants is a plausible hypothesis.

Medicine

Physics

The prize was awarded to James Liao of the University of Florida for his comprehensive, multi-published study of the swimming abilities of… dead trout.

Probability theory

The award is divided between a team of 50 researchers who flipped 350,757 coins to test the hypothesis put forward by Percy Diaconis, a former magician and professor at Stanford University, that coins are more likely to land on the same side as they were flipped.

Chemistry

The team from Amsterdam successfully separated drunk and sober worms using chromatography.

Biology

Another award was given to the late Fordyce Ely and William Petersen for their research on factors affecting milk production in herds: cats on cows’ backs and explosive paper bags seemed to scare cows into reducing secretions.