After 35 years in the USA, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony is moving to Europe. This coming September, the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland. [NOTE: We will have a big celebration event in Boston, three weeks after the ceremony happens in Zurich!] Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements […]
UNRULY — A New Book About the Joy/Thrill of the Unexpected (and the Ig Nobel Prizes)
Upasana Sarraju’s new book called Unruly: The Ig Nobel Prizes and The Science That Refuses to Behave dives into, swims and surfs through a universe (our universe, in fact) full of unexpected science. Published by India Penguin [ISBN 9780143470403], the book’s official debut date is February 28, 2026. Here’s how Sarraju describes the book: After […]
El Pais interview about the Ig Nobel Prizes moving to Europe
Patricia Fernández de Lis of the Spanish newspaper El País interviewed me about the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony moving to Europe. Here is the interview machine-translated into English. The original version, in Spanish of course, is on the El País web site. Marc Abrahams, founder of the ‘joke Nobel Prizes’: “Scientists in the US are […]
Cutler Cutting a Pancake with an Exotic Knife
Almost anyone who has spent time cutting a pancake with an exotic knife will acknowledge that it can be interesting. This study, also, acknowledges that cutting a pancake with an exotic knife can be interesting: “Cutting a Pancake with an Exotic Knife,” David O.H. Cutler and Neil J. A. Sloane, arXiv:2511.15864, 2025. (Thanks to Mason […]
From Your Brain, Please, Not Your Bot
If you want to submit an article for possible publication in the magazine, write it using only the brain inside your head. Please do NOT send us anything ‘written’ with or by an AI program. Recently we have been receiving a wave of articles written by or with ChatGPT, Claude, or some other large language […]





