How nutritious is cockroach milk? At last, this burning question is getting the recognition it so sorely deserves: the team answering it has received one of the 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes.

The annual awards, which recognize the most absurd research science can offer, were handed out at a ceremony in Zurich on Thursday. And yes, the winners in chemistry—Leonard Chavas, now at DECTRIS Japan, and Subramanian Ramaswamy, now at Purdue University—really did calorie count the milk proteins cockroaches make to nourish their young. (Their results, based on advanced x-ray crystallography, indicate cockroach milk is more than three times as energy-dense as ordinary dairy.)

The insect enthusiasts were in good company: other winners included University of Oxford scientists who devised a proper definition of “kissing” in order to argue that human ancestors smooched Neanderthals, a team that bravely (or stupidly) taunted venomous snakes to study why they bite and researchers who confirmed what we all intuitively know: people who drive expensive cars tend to be jerks.

A posthumous award in medicine was given to the late Japanese physiologist Tokuji Unno for his landmark 1977 study on the aerodynamics of nose blowing. The schnoz was a theme: another award went to a study that showed parents like their babies’ scents—but find their teenagers’ odors repulsive.

Speaking of foul-smelling things, where would humanity be without the now Ig Nobel–winning knowledge of what happens to 1,000 pairs of underpants buried for months at sites around the globe?

Past prizewinners have run the gamut of science that, at first glance, appears to be entirely unessential. There was the physician who analyzed the growth rate of his fingernails for 35 years and the geologist who looked into why his colleagues lick rocks. Or how about the research duo that examined how bedsheets get wrinkled—or the team that perfected the arcane art of collecting whale boogers via remote-controlled helicopters? And let’s not forget the stalwart scientists behind the world-shattering revelation that tortoises don’t notice other animals yawning.

While, on the surface, the Ig Nobels might seem like a silly good time, there is a point to the zaniness: the awards’ twofold purpose is to make people laugh and then think. Scientific advancements don’t proceed in linear fashion; they usually zig and zag before reaching any point of significance for everyday people’s lives. Take, for instance, research honored in 2012 in which scientists used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine to find dubious signs of “brain activity” in a stone-dead Atlantic salmon. That seemingly laughable result ultimately led neuroscientists to rethink how they analyze their data.

Because of concern for the safety of international winners, this was the first time the awards bash occurred outside the U.S., but American fans of absurd science won’t miss out on the fun entirely. A smaller ceremony will be held in Massachusetts on Sept. 24.

这项研究试图解答一个长期困扰大众的“灵魂拷问”：蟑螂奶到底有多营养？如今，这个问题终于获得了应有的关注。本周四，在苏黎世举行的2026年搞笑诺贝尔奖颁奖典礼上，解答这一问题的研究团队荣获化学奖。

搞笑诺贝尔奖每年颁发给科学界最“荒诞”的研究成果。今年的化学奖得主是现任职于DECTRIS Japan的Leonard Chavas和现任职于普渡大学的Subramanian Ramaswamy。他们利用先进的X射线晶体学技术，对蟑螂分泌喂养幼崽的奶蛋白进行了热量计算。研究结果表明，蟑螂奶的能量密度是普通牛奶的三倍以上。

与昆虫爱好者们同台领奖的还有一众“奇人异士”：牛津大学科学家因给“接吻”下准确定义，并以此论证人类祖先曾与尼安德特人亲吻而获奖；一支研究团队因“勇敢”（或“愚蠢地”）挑衅毒蛇以探究它们咬人的原因而获奖；还有研究人员证实了人们凭直觉就知道的一件事——开豪车的人往往更惹人厌。

医学奖被追授给已故日本生理学家云野时雄（Tokuji Unno），以表彰他1977年关于擤鼻涕空气动力学的开创性研究。鼻子堪称今年的主题之一，另一项获奖研究则表明，父母喜欢婴儿的气味，但觉得青少年体味难闻。

说到难闻的东西，如果没有搞笑诺贝尔奖，人类或许永远不会知道：把1000条内裤埋在全世界各地数月后会变成什么样。

往届搞笑诺贝尔奖得主的研究方向五花八门，乍看之下似乎全无用处。有连续35年分析自己指甲生长速度的医生，有研究地质学家为何爱舔石头的学者，有探究床单如何起皱的研究组合，有通过遥控直升机收集鲸鱼鼻涕的“技艺大师”，还有揭示“乌龟不会注意到其他动物打哈欠”这一震撼世界真相的科学家团队。

表面上看，搞笑诺贝尔奖似乎只是一场好玩的闹剧，但其背后自有深意。该奖项的宗旨是“让人发笑，继而思考”。科学进步并非直线前进，在进入普通人的日常生活之前，往往要经历曲折迂回。以2012年获奖的一项研究为例：科学家用功能性磁共振成像仪（fMRI）检测一条死去的三文鱼，竟然发现了可疑的“大脑活动”迹象。这个看似可笑的结果最终促使神经科学家重新思考数据分析方法。

出于对国际获奖者安全的考虑，今年的颁奖典礼首次在美国以外举行。不过，美国本土的“荒诞科学”爱好者也不会错过这场盛宴——9月24日将在马萨诸塞州剑桥市举办一场小型的颁奖活动。

(Translated by DeepSeek)