Ig Nobel 2026: Physicists Win Award for Splash-Free Urinal Design

The 36th annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony was held in Zurich, marking the first time the event has taken place outside the United States. Organizers relocated the ceremony from Boston due to concerns over tightening US immigration policies affecting international participants.

The Physics of the Splash-Free Urinal

Randy Hurd, Zhao Pan, Tadd Truscott, and Kaveeshan Thurairajah secured the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for their comprehensive study on fluid dynamics aimed at solving a common sanitary issue: urinal splatter.

Using high-speed photography and differential equations, the team discovered that the critical factor in preventing splatter is the impact angle of the liquid stream. When the angle is 30 degrees or less, droplet scattering drops dramatically.

To maintain this low angle regardless of the user's height or stream velocity, the researchers designed a curved surface inspired by the logarithmic spiral of a nautilus shell, dubbed the "Nauti-loo."

Co-author Zhao Pan explained during the ceremony:

"We used differential equations to design a surface where the impact angle remains small, no matter the bladder pressure or how drunk you might be."

In laboratory tests, the prototype reduced splatter to just 1.4% of the volume measured from standard commercial urinals. The researchers estimate that widespread adoption of this design in the United States could prevent up to one million liters of urine from ending up on public restroom floors daily.

Wealth, Candy, and the Evolution of Kissing

The Economics Prize was awarded to Paul Piff, Daniel Stancato, Stephane Cote, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner for their research into whether upper-class individuals are more prone to unethical behavior. In one experiment, wealthy participants took nearly twice as much candy from a jar clearly designated for children compared to lower-income participants.

In Biomechanics, Matilda Brindle, Katherine Talbot, and Stuart West won for establishing a precise scientific definition of kissing and tracing its evolutionary roots. Their model suggests that kissing behavior originated in a common hominid ancestor between 16.9 and 21.5 million years ago, indicating that Neanderthals likely kissed as well.

Other Notable Awards

Soil Science: Awarded to a team that buried 1,000 identical pairs of cotton underwear across 25 countries to measure soil health and microbial activity based on fabric degradation rates.
Technology: Awarded for utilizing a female mosquito's proboscis as a microscopic nozzle for 3D printing, a process termed "necrotic printing."
Biology: Awarded to a team studying the biting behavior of venomous snakes under physical pressure. The study was later retracted by its publishing journal due to a lack of proper ethical clearance for the animal testing involved.