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The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded annually by the Annals of Improbable Research to honor achievements that first make people laugh, then think. The ceremony had been held in the United States for 35 years before moving to Europe due to visa concerns for attendees.
Ten research teams were honoured on Thursday at a satirical science awards ceremony that was hosted outside the US for the first time due to travel concerns.
Researchers who studied milk from cockroaches and analysed soil health using underwear received Ig Nobel prizes celebrating unusual and imaginative contributions to science.
The awards organised by a digital magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research shifted to Europe after 35 years in the US over concerns about attendees being able to get visas.
At a convention centre in Zurich, Switzerland, research teams received a custom trophy resembling a cross between a mushroom and a human foot.
Among them were Matilda Brindle and Stuart West from the University of Oxford and the Florida Institute of Technology’s Catherine F. Talbot, who reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing, and the late Dr Tokuji Unno who investigated the science of blowing one’s nose.
Another research team buried 1,000 pairs of underwear in more than 25 countries to study how critters in the soil helped them decompose.

The European and Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft separated from their cruiser on Thursday, beginning the final leg of their journey to Mercury. Controllers waited two hours for confirmation via radio signals from ESA's control centre in Germany. If successful, the spacecraft will enter Mercury's orbit in November and split in December to study the planet.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered a larger and more unstable decagonal atmospheric structure at the south pole of Saturn. It is located in a strong jet stream and moves eastward about 10 kilometers per hour, with a single side length of more than 16,700 kilometers. The study suggests the structure may have formed between 2017 and 2023, challenging past beliefs that Saturn's north pole hexagon is unique.

A team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences spent 12 years analyzing the genomes of 149 ancient humans from 11 sites in Gansu about 4,700-3,000 years ago. They found that although agricultural technology from West Asia was introduced to Gansu, there was no large-scale genetic component of Western populations. The local population was still a mixture of East Asian and northern components. The Mogou site showed extensive blood connections but limited internal marriages. The social structure was complex and not purely based on blood ties.

Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and emeritus professor at the University of Tsukuba, passed away in Yokohama on August 24 at the age of 90. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2000 for his development of "conductive polymers" that overturned the perception that plastics are not conductive. He has had a profound impact on the application of modern information technology industries.

Professor Jiang Hongen's team from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed the plant-based diet structure of monks during the Jin and Tang Dynasties through archaeological research on the Subashi Buddhist Temple in Kuqa, Xinjiang. Research has found that the monks at that time ate millet and wheat as their staple food, supplemented by a variety of fruits, and the plant remains reflect the temple economy and Buddhist offering customs at that time.

The Buín Zoo in Chile has partnered with conservation organizations to design a protective vest woven with copper and zinc elements for injured penguins. The material has antibacterial properties, can prevent penguins from pecking wounds and accelerates healing. It has been initially tested on Humboldt penguins, and the effect is remarkable.