Dutchman wins Ig Noble Prize for burying tighty whities

How healthy is the soil? Three scientists buried a thousand pairs of underwear in 25 different countries and checked two months later what condition the tighty whities were in. They have won an Ig Nobel Prize for it.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for research that first makes you laugh and then makes you think. They are presented one month before the actual Nobel Prizes are awarded.

This time, Utrecht professor of biology Marcel van der Heijden and colleagues from Switzerland and Germany won the Ig Nobel Prize for soil research because they had a thousand pairs of underwear buried. At the ceremony, the winners threw underwear into the audience.

It was a joke with a serious edge. The research had to find people willing to take part in the research. Burying a pair of underwear for science? Of course, the thousand volunteers were found in no time. The underwear were put around a kind of skeleton, so that it kept its shape well.

The prize for biomechanics went to researchers who devised a new definition of kissing that is biologically useful for ants, birds, polar bears and humans: mouth to mouth without transferring food. At the ceremony, one of the winners kissed a ‘caveman’ on stage.

Economic research into class differences was also recognised. The researchers found that people from the upper class are more likely to steal sweets from children’s supplies.

It is the 36th time that the prizes have been awarded. This previously took place in Boston, but the organisation has left the United States: there is little left to laugh about there when it comes to science. The festive ceremony, attended by several Nobel Prize winners, was held in Zurich this time.

Other findings this year: cockroach milk contains three times as much energy as cow’s milk; a mosquito ‘snout’ can be used for 3D printers; parents like the smell of babies, but not that of teenagers; and we appreciate our friends more when they are sometimes mean to people we don’t like.