THE 35TH FIRST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZES

HANNAH RICHTER REPORTS “The Ig Nobels Are Science’s Most Lighthearted Event. This Year Is ‘Not Typical,’ ” AAAS Science, September 19, 2025. Not typical, of course, because of Trump’s autocratically heavy hand on science, immigration, and God knows what all else. 

Indeed, SimanaitisSays celebrates the Ig Nobels, “Research That Makes People LAUGH, then THINK,” as it has in the past: “Announced: The 2021 Ig Nobels,” its prize in Medicine, for example, for “research suggesting that sex with orgasm is an effective nasal decongestant;” and  “The 2023 Ig Nobel Prizes,” my favorite being the Communication Prize: “researchers found that about two-thirds of people reported feeling ‘peculiar’ when they repeated the same word about 30 times.”

Here are tidbits gleaned from Hannah Richter’s Science article, together with the Improbable Research’s press release on the 35th First Annual Prize Ceremony. (The latter cites all of the winning papers as well as other 35th First Annual activities.

The 2025 Ig Nobel Ceremony. Image by Yomiuri Shimbun/AP via Science.

The 2025 Ig Nobel Peace Prize. The highly coveted Peace Prize went to researchers Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann for showing that drinking alcohol sometimes improves a person’s ability to speak in a foreign language: “Dutch Courage? Effects on Acute Alcohol Consumption on Self-Ratings and Observer Ratings of Foreign Language Skills.”

Kudos—and cheers, proost, prost, kampai, sveikinimai—to the winners, though Science’s Hannah Richter notes, “But the psychologists did not make it to the prize’s 35th annual award ceremony in Boston—and neither did three of the other nine winning teams. In all, nearly half of this year’s Ig Nobel recipients declined to attend. Wars, visa restrictions, and the research and border policies of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have all dampened the fun.” 

Kiss off a lusted-for Nobel, you Queens Felon.

2025 Ig Nobel Prize in Aviation. Another research performed internationally (Colombia, Israel/Argentina, Germany, U.K., Italy, USA, Portugal, and Spain) posits “Ethanol Ingestion Affects Flight Performance and Echolocation in Egyptian Fruit Bats,” this by Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine, and Berry Pinshow.

Gee, I wonder if they flew like “bats outta hell”?

2025 Ig Nobel in Psychology. Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac garnered this year’s Ig Nobel in Psychology for “Telling People They Are Intelligent Correlates with the Feeling of Narcissistic Uniqueness: The Influence of IQ Feedback on Temporary State Narcissism.”

Here, I wonder if there’s also an aspect of self-delusion in this, as in “I am a very stable genius.” (See what the Ig Nobels mean about “LAUGH, then THINK”?)

The Ig Nobels’ “Miss Sweetie Poo.” Notes the Ig Nobel Research press release: “Eight-year-old Miss Sweetie Poo will endeavor to keep all speeches delightfully brief, for the benefit of the speakers and the audience. [NOTE: In 2025 Miss Sweetie Poo was unable to attend the ceremony. A substitute performed the duties.]”

The organization explained prior to the event, “Miss Sweetie Poo is our time enforcer—she helps the speakers keep their speeches brief and delightful. She informs them: ‘Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop. I’m bored. Please stop…’ If you know of a truly good candidate for the role of Miss Sweetie Poo, please email us (MARC aaattt IMPROBABLE dddooottt COM).

Qualifications: must be a tough-minded, cute 8-year-old girl who has astounding depths of social wisdom, must have ice water in her veins, must be in the Boston area.” 

 For examples of her persistence over time, see Miss Sweetie Poo.

I’m reminded of my SAE International participations, with some speakers posting all-but-unreadable data and droning, “we’ve got a lot to cover, so….” If ever Miss Sweetie Poo was called for….   

Do give the Improbable Research press release a reading. It’s good fun and does make one think. So does Hannah Richter’s Science report on the lamentable matter of winners’ non-attendance at the 2025 Ig Nobels. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com , 2025