The hilarious Ig Nobel Prize, which celebrates the more absurd scientific research ignored by its more sophisticated namesake, comes to the port city
The Ig Nobel Prize – a satirical sister to its well-known predecessor – will be handed out in Antwerp next year. The announcement was made yesterday evening at the 36th edition of the event in Zurich. Present onstage were Flemish comedian scientist Lieven Scheire and UAntwerp researcher Maarten Weyn – dressed as a pack of fries and a beer, respectively.
The Ig Nobel Prize was founded to celebrate arts and science that are a bit amusing or seemingly absurd. The organization says that they honour “achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think”.
It is tremendous fun, but also presents science in a really engaging way
Lieven Scheire
This year for instance, the winner of the Medicine prize produced a study about the differences in nose-blowing in Japanese and European cultures, while the chemistry winner discovered that cockroach milk provides three times as much energy as milk proteins from cows.
The Ig Nobel ceremony took place in Boston for its first 35 editions, moving to Europe last year after several winners chose not to attend the 35th edition, citing concerns about traveling to the US. The ceremony is (in)famous for its costumes, jokes and for the audience making and throwing paper airplanes at the close of the ceremony.
Global event
People around the world gather in auditoriums to follow the ceremony remotely, including yesterday at Technopolis. Next autumn they can see the real thing in person in the Queen Elisabeth Hall, next to the zoo in Antwerp.
“It is tremendous fun, but also presents science in a really engaging way,” said Scheire, host of the podcast Nerdland. “This event is watched around the world, and we’ll be able to showcase ourselves as a Flemish knowledge region like ... this,” he said, pointing to his French fries costume.
The Ig Nobel ceremony – named, by the way, after Alfred Nobel’s fictitious cousin Ignatius Nobel – takes place on 5 September 2027. The event will be in English.