Rich people more likely to steal children’s sweets, finds Ig Nobel prize-winning study

We round up this year’s winners at awards for achievements that ‘first make people laugh and then make them think’

It’s that time of year again: a select group of scientists have been summoned to a ceremony to receive coveted prizes, be showered in paper planes, and leave with a 10tn dollar bill, albeit in the form of a phased-out note from Zimbabwe. It is, of course, the annual Ig Nobel awards.

Not to be confused with the more prestigious and career-changing Nobel prizes that will be announced in Scandinavia next month, the satirical Ig Nobels are awarded for achievements that “first make people laugh and then make them think”.

On Thursday, real Nobel laureates were on stage to hand out the awards and winners were giving “24/7” lectures: describing their work in 24 seconds and then in seven words. Here are the 2026 winners.

It is natural to want friends that are kind to us, but our friends interact with others in the world in ways that can affect our lives. Dr Jaimie Krems at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed there’s plenty of room for attack dogs in our friendship groups, as long as they target those we dislike. “Sometimes we want our friends to be more vicious and indifferent when they interact with our enemies,” she said. “I’ve felt, in many instances, incredibly loved when people have carried my hate for me and been willing to have my back.”

Researchers in Brazil donned safety boots to explore what made venomous snakes bite in defence by softly stepping on different parts of their bodies. Pressure on the head triggered most bites, they had found, but the study had been retracted by the Scientific Reports journal as the team did not have ethical approval to step on the creatures.

The chemistry prize went to an international team that found cockroach milk contains three times as much energy as cows’ milk, while the olfaction prize went to scientists who discovered babies smell wonderful to their parents, but teenagers do not. Other researchers landed prizes for turning mosquito proboscises into 3D printing nozzles, clarifying the aerodynamics of nose blowing, and burying underpants to monitor soil quality.