"Many scientists dream of winning a Nobel Prize, an accolade that brings worldwide recognition, prestige and a place in the pantheon of greatness alongside the likes of Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Francis Crick. Then there are the otherawards - the Ig Nobel prizes, which were devised to highlight research that makes people laugh, then think. Highlights of this year's Ig Nobel recipients include a nutrition prize for studying the preferred pizza toppings of rainbow lizards at a seaside resort in Togo (their favourite is four cheese), and a physics award for figuring out how to prepare the perfect c acio e pepe - a pasta dish made with grated pecorino romano cheese and black pepper that is surprisingly hard to get right (see 'The 2025 Ig Nobel prizewinners in full')."
""For us, this represents the greatest award to creativity in science," says Giacomo Bartolucci, a physicist at the University of Barcelona in Spain, who was a co-author on the cacio e pepe study. His team investigated the phase transitions that can cause the sauce to clump up and uncovered a recipe with consistently delicious results. "The goal was both to satisfy our curiosity and to frame the problem in physical terms, showing that even everyday frustrations like a failed pasta dish can be linked to interesting scientific problems," says Bartolucci."
Ig Nobel prizes recognize playful, unconventional scientific research that elicits laughter and critical reflection. Winners include studies on rainbow lizards' preferred pizza toppings and the physics behind preparing cacio e pepe sauce. A physics team analyzed phase transitions that cause the sauce to clump and produced a recipe that yields consistent results. The awards were founded in 1991 by Marc Abrahams, editor of Annals of Improbable Research. Previous winners have included discoveries such as orgasm as an effective nasal decongestant, magnetic levitation of live frogs, and research into necrophilia in ducks. The 2025 winners span literature, psychology and other fields.
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