Kissing apes, anti-splash urinals: This year's Ig Nobels showcase surprising science

Key Points:

• For the first time in its 35-year history, the Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony is being held outside the U.S., taking place in Zurich, Switzerland, due to increasing hostility in the U.S. toward science and foreigners, including concerns about immigration and visa protocols.
• Founder Marc Abrahams noted that fewer international winners attended the U.S. ceremony last year because of safety concerns, prompting the move abroad, which is seen as both bittersweet and an opportunity to reach new audiences.
• This year’s Ig Nobel physics prize was awarded to a team that developed a splash-free urinal by optimizing the stream angle to reduce splashback, a practical study in fluid mechanics.
• Other notable awards included a study on social class and candy theft (economics prize), research on the aerodynamics of nose blowing (medicine prize), and a biomechanics prize for defining kissing as an evolutionary behavior shared by humans and other large apes, possibly including Neanderthals.
• The ceremony’s theme was fungi, symbolized by the winners receiving statuettes featuring blue cheese topped with toadstools, along with 10 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, a currency now worthless.