A team of Japanese researchers wondered if painting cows with zebra-like stripes might keep flies away. Another group from Africa and Europe wondered what kinds of pizza lizards liked to eat.

Those researchers were awarded the Ig Nobel prize yesterday, Thursday, September 19, in Boston, with the prize being a handcrafted replica of a human stomach for hilarious scientific achievement. Instead of a large paycheck, each winner received a single hand wipe, Associated Press reports.

The Ig Nobel Prize is a satirical award given yearly since 1991 to encourage public participation in scientific research. It's designed to "honour achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The award's name is a parody of the Nobel Prize and the word "ignoble".

Keeping up with ignoble traditions

The Annals of Improbable Research, a digital magazine that honours science that makes people laugh before making them think, organised the 35th annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. It is typically held several weeks before the real Nobel Prizes are announced.

The ceremony began with a long-standing tradition: the audience pelted the stage with paper planes. Several of those who were unable to attend had their speeches read by actual Nobel laureates, including Esther Duflo, who received the Nobel Prize for her innovative approach to reducing global poverty.

There was also a mini-opera about gastroenterologists and their patients, based on this year's theme of digestion. Several people sang about the difficulties of treating stomach infections while being welcomed by patients who brought them pizza and chilli dogs.

There was also a portion called the 24-second lecture, which featured famous experts explaining their work in 24 seconds. Among them were Gus Rancatore, who spent the majority of his time eating an ice cream cone and continuously shouting yum, and Trisha Pasricha, who discussed her research into smartphone use on the toilet and the potential risk of haemorrhoids.

When a winner seemed to be rambling on for too long, a man in a dress over his suit would stand at their side and loudly yell, "Please stop. "I'm bored.

This year’s winners

Tomoki Kojima, whose team taped Japanese cattle cows and spray-painted them with white stripes, told Associated Press, "When I did this experiment, I hoped that I would win the Ig Nobel. It’s my dream. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable,” in reaction to this honour. 

Kojima appeared on stage in stripes and was surrounded by his fellow researchers, who harassed him with cardboard flies.

The paint job drew fewer flies to the cows, and they appeared to be less troubled by them. Despite the findings, Kojima acknowledged that scaling up this strategy would be difficult.

The year's winners, who were honoured in ten categories, included a group from Europe who discovered that drinking alcohol might occasionally increase a person's capacity to speak a foreign language, as well as a researcher who spent decades studying fingernail growth.

Other winners this year included an Indian group that investigated whether foul-smelling shoes affected someone's experience with a shoe rack, as well as researchers from the United States of America and "Israel" who investigated whether eating Teflon is a good method to enhance food volume. A team of international scientists also investigated whether providing alcohol to bats impairs their ability to fly.

“Every great discovery ever, at first glance seemed screwy and laughable,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an email interview to Associated Press ahead of the awards ceremony. “The same is true of every worthless discovery. The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate ALL these discoveries, because at the very first glance, who really knows?” he added.