イグノーベル賞 物理学部門 受賞者一覧
イグノーベル賞の物理学部門では、2026年「飛び散らない小便器の設計」、2025年「カチョエペペのソースが固まる物理」、2024年「死んだ魚が流れの中で泳ぐように見える理由」などを扱っています。
受賞研究
飛び散らない小便器の設計
液体が当たる角度と跳ね返りを微分方程式で解析し、はね返りが起きにくい小便器の形を示した。
CANADA, USA, CHINA, SAUDI ARABIA] Randy Hurd, Zhao Pan, Tadd Truscott, Kaveeshan Thurairajah, for theoretical and experimental attempts to design a splash-free urinal.
- 受賞者
- Randy Hurd, Zhao Pan, Tadd Truscott, Kaveeshan Thurairajah
カチョエペペのソースが固まる物理
チーズと水分とでんぷんの条件が、パスタソースの失敗を左右することを扱った研究。
Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti, for discoveries about the physics of pasta sauce, especially the phase transition that can lead to clumping, which can be a cause of unpleasantness. REFERENCE: “Phase Behavior of Cacio and Pepe Sauce,” Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti, Physics of Fluids, vol. 37, 2025, article 044122. <doi.org/10.1063/5.0255841> WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti
- 受賞者
- Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas, Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti
死んだ魚が流れの中で泳ぐように見える理由
水流と体の形が作る運動を、魚の動きとして読み解いた研究。
James C. Liao, for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout. REFERENCE: “Neuromuscular Control of Trout Swimming in a Vortex Street: Implications for Energy Economy During the Kármán Gait,” James C. Liao, The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 207, 2004, pp. 3495-3506. <doi.org/10.1242/jeb.01125> REFERENCE: “Passive Propulsion in Vortex Wakes,” David N. Beal, Franz S. Hover, Michael S. Triantafyllou, James C. Liao, and George V. Lauder, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 549, 2006, pp. 385-402. <doi.org/10.1017/S0022112005007925> WHO CAME TO THE CEREMONY: James C. (“Jimmy”) Liao
- 受賞者
- James C. Liao
魚の繁殖行動が海水の混合に与える影響
小さな生物活動が海の物理にどれほど影響するかを測った研究。
Bieito Fernández Castro, Marian Peña, Enrique Nogueira, Miguel Gilcoto, Esperanza Broullón, Antonio Comesaña, Damien Bouffard, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, and Beatriz Mouriño-Carballido, for measuring the extent to which ocean-water mixing is affected by the sexual activity of anchovies. REFERENCE: “Intense Upper Ocean Mixing Due to Large Aggregations of Spawning Fish,” Bieito Fernández Castro, Marian Peña, Enrique Nogueira, Miguel Gilcoto, Esperanza Broullón, Antonio Comesaña, Damien Bouffard, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, and Beatriz Mouriño-Carballido, Nature Geoscience, vol. 15, 2022, pp. 287–292. <doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00916-3> WHO TOOK PART IN THE CEREMONY: Bieito Fernandez Castro, Beatriz Mouriño-Carballido, Alberto Naveira Garabato, Esperanza Broullon, Miguel Gil Coto
- 受賞者
- Bieito Fernandez Castro, Marian Pena, Enrique Nogueira, Miguel Gilcoto, Esperanza Broullon, Antonio Comesana, Damien Bouffard, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Beatriz Mourino-Carballido
カモの雛が隊列を組んで泳げる仕組みの解明
[AWARDED JOINTLY TO TWO GROUPS] Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik, for trying to understand how ducklings manage to swim in formation. REFERENCE: “Energy Conservation by Formation Swimming: Metabolic Evidence from Ducklings,” Frank E. Fish, in the book Mechanics and Physiology of Animal Swimming, 1994, pp. 193-204. <https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Mechanics_and_Physiology_of_Animal_S/orLvpB-EMgEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Energy+Conservation+by+Formation+Swimming:+Metabolic+Evidence+from+Ducklings&pg=PA193&printsec=frontcover> REFERENCE: “Wave-Riding and Wave-Passing by Ducklings in Formation Swimming,” Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 928, no. R2, 2021. <https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.820> WHO TOOK PART IN THE CEREMONY: Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, Atilla Incecik
- 受賞者
- [AWARDED JOINTLY TO TWO GROUPS] Frank Fish, Zhi-Ming Yuan, Minglu Chen, Laibing Jia, Chunyan Ji, and Atilla Incecik
歩行者どうしが普段は衝突しない理由の実験
: Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi, and Federico Toschi, for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do not constantly collide with other pedestrians. REFERENCE: “Physics-based modeling and data representation of pairwise interactions among pedestrians,” Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper A. Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi, and Federico Toschi, Physical Review E, vol. 98, no. 062310, 2018. WHO TOOK PART IN THE CEREMONY: Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi,, Federico Toschi
- 受賞者
- : Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi, and Federico Toschi
生きたミミズを高周波で振動させると形がどうなるかの実験
Ivan Maksymov and Andrey Pototsky, for determining, experimentally, what happens to the shape of a living earthworm when one vibrates the earthworm at high frequency. REFERENCE: “Excitation of Faraday-like body waves in vibrated living earthworms,” Ivan S. Maksymov and Andrey Pototsky, bioRxiv 10.1101/868521, December 8, 2019. WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE CEREMONY: Ivan Maksymov and Andrey Pototsky
- 受賞者
- Ivan Maksymov and Andrey Pototsky
ウォンバットの糞がなぜ立方体になるのかの研究
Patricia Yang, Alexander Lee, Miles Chan, Alynn Martin, Ashley Edwards, Scott Carver, and David Hu, for studying how, and why, wombats make cube-shaped poo. REFERENCE: “How Do Wombats Make Cubed Poo?” Patricia J. Yang, Miles Chan, Scott Carver, and David L. Hu, paper presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Abstract: E19.0000, November 18–20, 2018 REFERENCE: “Intestines of Non-Uniform Stiffness Mold the Corners of Wombat Feces,” Patricia J. Yang, Alexander B. Lee, Miles Chan, Michael Kowalski, Kelly Qiu, Christopher Waid, Gabriel Cervantes Benjamin Magondu, Morgan Biagioni, Larry Vogelnest, Alynn Martin, Ashley Edwards, Scott Carver, and David L. Hu, Soft Matter, vol. 3, 2021 WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Patricia Yang, David Hu, Miles Chan, Alexander Lee, Scott Carver, Ashley Edwards NOTE: This is the SECOND Ig Nobel Prize awarded to Patricia Yang and David Hu. They and two other colleagues shared the 2015 Ig Nobel Physics Prize, for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds)
- 受賞者
- Patricia Yang, Alexander Lee, Miles Chan, Alynn Martin, Ashley Edwards, Scott Carver, and David Hu
猫は固体でも液体でもありうるかを流体力学で検討
Marc-Antoine Fardin, for using fluid dynamics to probe the question “Can a Cat Be Both a Solid and a Liquid?”
- 受賞者
- Marc-Antoine Fardin
白い馬がアブに刺されにくく、トンボが黒い墓石に集まる理由
Gábor Horváth, Miklós Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert Farkas, Susanne Åkesson, Péter Malik, and Hansruedi Wildermuth, for discovering why white-haired horses are the most horsefly-proof horses, and for discovering why dragonflies are fatally attracted to black tombstones.
- 受賞者
- Gábor Horváth, Miklós Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert Farkas, Susanne Åkesson, Péter Malik, and Hansruedi Wildermuth
ほぼ全ての哺乳類が約21秒で排尿を終える原理の検証
Patricia Yang [USA and TAIWAN], David Hu [USA and TAIWAN], and Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo [USA], for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).
- 受賞者
- Patricia Yang [USA and TAIWAN], David Hu [USA and TAIWAN], and Jonathan Pham, Jerome Choo [USA]
バナナの皮で滑るときの摩擦係数の測定
: Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai, for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that’s on the floor.
- 受賞者
- : Kiyoshi Mabuchi, Kensei Tanaka, Daichi Uchijima and Rina Sakai
月面の池なら人は水面を走れるという発見
Alberto Minetti [ITALY, UK, DENMARK, SWITZERLAND], Yuri Ivanenko [ITALY, RUSSIA, FRANCE], Germana Cappellini [ITALY], Nadia Dominici [ITALY, SWITZERLAND, THE NETHERLANDS], and Francesco Lacquaniti [ITALY], for discovering that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond — if those people and that pond were on the moon.
- 受賞者
- Alberto Minetti [ITALY, UK, DENMARK, SWITZERLAND], Yuri Ivanenko [ITALY, RUSSIA, FRANCE], Germana Cappellini [ITALY], Nadia Dominici [ITALY, SWITZERLAND, THE NETHERLANDS], and Francesco Lacquaniti [ITALY]
ポニーテールの形と動きを決める力の釣り合いの計算
Joseph Keller [USA], and Raymond Goldstein [USA and UK], Patrick Warren, and Robin Ball [UK], for calculating the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail.
- 受賞者
- Joseph Keller [USA], and Raymond Goldstein [USA and UK], Patrick Warren, and Robin Ball [UK]
円盤投げの選手はめまいがして、ハンマー投げはしない理由
Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne and Bruno Ragaru (of FRANCE), and Herman Kingma (of THE NETHERLANDS), for determining why discus throwers become dizzy, and why hammer throwers don’t.
- 受賞者
- Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne and Bruno Ragaru (of FRANCE), and Herman Kingma (of THE NETHERLANDS)
靴の外に靴下を履くと氷の道で滑りにくい実証
Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes.
- 受賞者
- Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand
妊婦がなぜ倒れないのかの解析
Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA, for analytically determining why pregnant women don’t tip over.
- 受賞者
- Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA
紐や髪は必ず絡まって結び目を作るという数学的証明
Dorian Raymer of the Ocean Observatories Initiative at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA, and Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego, USA, for proving mathematically that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots.
- 受賞者
- Dorian Raymer of the Ocean Observatories Initiative at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA, and Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego, USA
シーツにしわが寄る仕組みの研究
L. Mahadevan, and Enrique Cerda Villablanca, for studying how sheets become wrinkled.
- 受賞者
- L. Mahadevan, and Enrique Cerda Villablanca
乾麺のスパゲッティが3つ以上に折れる理由
Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, for their insights into why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it often breaks into more than two pieces.
- 受賞者
- Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris
1927年から続く歴青の滴下実験
John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting an experiment that began in the year 1927 — in which a glob of congealed black tar has been slowly, slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate of approximately one drop every nine years.
- 受賞者
- John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland, Australia
フラフープの力学の解明
Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.
- 受賞者
- Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory
羊をさまざまな面の上で引きずるのに要する力の解析
Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report “An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces.”
- 受賞者
- Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia
ビールの泡が指数関数的減衰に従う実証
Arnd Leike of the University of Munich, for demonstrating that beer froth obeys the mathematical Law of Exponential Decay.
- 受賞者
- Arnd Leike of the University of Munich
シャワーカーテンが内側に張り付く理由の部分的解明
David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts for his partial solution to the question of why shower curtains billow inwards.
- 受賞者
- David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts
磁石でカエルを浮かせたこと
Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and Sir Michael Berry of Bristol University (UK), for using magnets to levitate a frog. [REFERENCE: “Of Flying Frogs and Levitrons” by M.V. Berry and A.K. Geim, European Journal of Physics, v. 18, 1997, p. 307-13.] [REFERENCE: VIDEO] NOTE: Ten years later, in 2010, Andre Geim won a Nobel Prize in physics (for research on another subject).
- 受賞者
- Andre Geim of the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and Sir Michael Berry of Bristol University (UK)
ビスケットを紅茶に浸す最適な方法の計算
Len Fisher [UK and Australia] for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit, and Jean-Marc Vanden-Broeck of the [UK and Belgium], and Joseph Keller [USA] for calculating how to make a teapot spout that does not drip.
- 受賞者
- Len Fisher [UK and Australia]
量子物理学を生命と経済的幸福に当てはめた解釈
Deepak Chopra of The Chopra Center for Well Being, La Jolla, California, for his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness.
- 受賞者
- Deepak Chopra of The Chopra Center for Well Being, La Jolla, California
常温核融合と卑金属から金への変換の主張
John Bockris of Texas A&M University, for his wide-ranging achievements in cold fusion, in the transmutation of base elements into gold, and in the electrochemical incineration of domestic rubbish.
- 受賞者
- John Bockris of Texas A&M University
パンは高い確率でバターの面から落ちる実証
Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, for his studies of Murphy’s Law, and especially for demonstrating that toast often falls on the buttered side.
- 受賞者
- Robert Matthews of Aston University, England
ふやけた朝食シリアルの圧縮挙動の解析
D.M.R. Georget, R. Parker, and A.C. Smith, of the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, England, for their rigorous analysis of soggy breakfast cereal, published in the report entitled “A Study of the Effects of Water Content on the Compaction Behaviour of Breakfast Cereal Flakes.”
- 受賞者
- D.M.R. Georget, R. Parker, and A.C. Smith, of the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, England
卵の殻のカルシウムは常温核融合で生じる説
Louis Kervran of France, ardent admirer of alchemy, for his conclusion that the calcium in chickens’ eggshells is created by a process of cold fusion. REFERENCE: “Biological Transmutations and their applications in: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Ecology, Medicine, Nutrition, Agronomy, Geology“]
- 受賞者
- Louis Kervran of France, ardent admirer of alchemy
ミステリーサークルによる場の理論への貢献
David Chorley and Doug Bower, lions of low-energy physics, for their circular contributions to field theory based on the geometrical destruction of English crops.
- 受賞者
- David Chorley and Doug Bower, lions of low-energy physics