Ig Nobel Prizes Honor Pigeon-Guided Missiles and Butt-Breathing Mammals

The annual satirical awards celebrate unconventional scientific research that makes people laugh and think.

The 2024 Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded posthumously to B.F. Skinner for his WWII-era research on using pigeons to guide missiles.
A team of Japanese and American scientists won the Physiology Prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses.
James Liao from the University of Florida received the Physics Prize for his study on the swimming abilities of dead trout.
The Chemistry Prize went to researchers who used chromatography to separate drunk and sober worms.
Fordyce Ely and William E. Petersen were posthumously awarded the Biology Prize for their 1941 study on how scaring cows affects milk production.