Marc Abrahams's Blog

The combined happy allure of smartphones and hemorrhoids

Dr. Trisha Pashricha gave a 24/7 lecture at this year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. She subsequently posted a video clip of it on Instagram, saying: Watch me explain to a room full of actual Nobel laureates how we discovered that taking your smartphone to the bathroom was linked to an increased risk of hemorrhoids. The […]

Impending Move to a New Magazine Subscription Processor

This is what has been driving us nuts recently — and we fear has also been driving some of you nuts: If you are a subscriber to the magazine, (not just to mini-AIR, the free little monthly email newsletter), you may have noticed and suffered from the deepening technical woes of the company we have […]

How to Become Famous Physicists: Pasta

One way to make it big in physics is to make pasta. Physics Magazine interviewed the Italian physicists who did exactly that — and consequently won the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize for physics. Here is the beginning of that interview (read the whole interview at the Physics Magazine web site): Pasta Physics Scoops Up an Ig Nobel […]

Predicting the End of the World

Joshua Mhlakela [pictured here, in a screen capture from his webcast] was 14 years too late to become a co-winner of an Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize — too late in making his prediction that the world will end at a particular, specific time. The particular time is this week. The International Business Times reports (on […]

Ig Nobel Face-to-Face TODAY at the MIT Museum

Ig Nobel Face-to-Face TODAY, Saturday, Sept 20, 2025, at the MIT Museum, 2:30-4:00 pm. Ig Nobel Prize winners will ask each other questions about their work.

The Added Difficulty of Producing the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony in 2025

This year, this 2025, brought new difficulties in organizing the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony — difficulties for us, the ceremony organizers, and difficulties for the winners who contemplated traveling to the USA to take part in the ceremony. Hannah Richter reports about it in a September 19 article in Science magazine: The Ig Nobels are […]

Here are the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners.

Ten Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded tonight, September 18, 2025, at the 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Each winner has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. Here’s video of the ceremony:

TODAY: The 2025 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

TODAY, Thursday, Sept 18, at 6 pm (US eastern time): The 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. A few tickets are available to attend in person. (OR… watch the free webcast). Ten new prizes will be awarded for things that make people LAUGH, then THINK.

Estimating Pig Weight, with Augmented Reality Glasses

A human can estimate how much a particular pig weighs by simply looking at the pig. The accuracy of that prediction is said to improve if the human uses augmented reality glasses of the type described in this study: “Pig Weight Prediction System Using RGB‑D Sensor and AR Glasses: Analysis Method with Free Camera Capture […]

“Creativity of Japanese Researchers as Seen through the Ig Nobel Prize”

The Foreign Press Center of Japan [FPCJ] televised this special preview [in both Japanese and English]  of the Ig Nobel Prize events, and discusses their place in Japanese Society. The FPCJ’s accompanying announcement says: The FPCJ invited Prof. Kiyoshi Furusawa, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Science Communication Office for Liberal Arts [SCOLA], College of Science, Rikkyo […]