Marc Abrahams's Blog

Ig Nobel Events in Paris (December 9 and 10)

Several Ig Nobel Prize winners will gather in Paris, to discuss their work with each other and with audiences. Ig winner Roman Hossein Khonsari, who is doing much of the heavy lifting in organizing the affairs, gives this description: Paris is getting an Ig Nobel double-dose (and triple-format): 3 events across 2 days, with Marc […]

Teaching an octopus how to play with a piano

Mattias Krantz figured out, by experiment and by seeking advice, how to teach an octopus how to play with a piano. That took about half a year. Think of it, if you like, as a case of 88 keys and eight hands, kinda sorta. This video shows dramatic highlights from the mutual adventure. (Thanks to […]

Science Friday day-after-Thanksgiving Ig Nobel Prize highlights broadcast

Please join us on Friday, November 28, 2025, for this year’s Science Friday day-after-Thanksgiving Ig Nobel Prize highlights broadcast. To many people, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony — each year honoring ten things that make people LAUGH then THINK — is an annual radio event, surprising stuff and people that pour out of the radio […]

November issue of the newsletter (mini-AIR): Quite

The November 2025 issue of mini-AIR, our teeny tiny free little e-newsletter of overflow detritus that did not fit in the magazine (Annals of Improbable Research), has just gone out. The issue contains info about research on the topic “Quite.” Another highlight is the winning entry in the competition to create a limerick to explain […]

“The Dignity of the Ig Nobels”

The Disappearing Spoon podcast looked into what it calls “The Dignity of the Ig Nobels — Winning an Ig Nobel Prize is largely considered a joke, but its benefits are no laughing matter”. The podcast, with host Sam Kean, is a project of the Science History Institute. The introduction to this episode says: The Ig […]

Improbable Taste and Smell Celebration in Philadelphia, on November 12

At the Monell Chemical Senses Center’s “Celebration of Science”, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, on Thursday, November 12, 2025, Marc Abrahams will do an evening talk about improbable research involving taste and smell. The entire day is a celebration of research on those subjects, and especially a celebration of research done by Robert Margolskee and colleagues over […]

The Mars Yogurt Question

Some questions intrigue scientists and the public. Other questions do not. This stud addresses one such question: “Can Bulgarian Yogurt Enhance Astronauts’ Performance During the Mars Missions?” Izabela Shopova, Diana Bogueva, Maria Yotova, and Svetla Danova, Journal of Ethnic Foods, vol. 10, no. 46, 2023. This image, figure 6 in the study, may help some […]

Cacio e pepe and homosexual necrophiliac ducks in Berlin on November 6

Ig Nobel Prize winners will gather on stage to ask each other questions about their work, in the Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event on Thursday, November 6, 2025. It’s part of the Falling Walls Science Summit, Berlin, Germany, on the main stage. Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements so surprising that they make people LAUGH, then THINK. […]

Smelly-Scat Communication by Wombats

Scott Carver writes: “I am passing along the latest iteration in the wombat cubed poo story – essentially moving from our previous work on how they make it, now to what they use it for. Enjoy.” That new iteration, a research study, is: “Deriving the functional significance of olfaction in a solitary non‐territorial herbivore: The […]

Fluid Motion: Motion-Sick Drivers Excreted Fluids

“Fluid Motion: Motion-Sick Drivers Excreted Fluids” is a special review article in the special MOTION issue (volume. 31, no. 5) of the magazine, Annals of Improbable Research. Download the article, free, you like. And if you really like, then subscribe to the magazine!