# Kissing Apes and Anti-Splash Urinals: The Ig Nobels Move Abroad

> Forced out of the U.S. by visa hurdles, the world's favorite quirky science awards find a new home in Switzerland.
- Title: Kissing Apes and Anti-Splash Urinals: The Ig Nobels Move…
- Summary: Forced out of the U.S. by visa hurdles, the world's favorite quirky science awards find a new home in Switzerland. Science that makes you laugh and then…
- Keywords: science, ig nobel, research, biology, physics, news, Kissing, Apes, Anti-Splash, Urinals, Nobels, Move
- Source: NPR — https://npr.org/2026/09/03/nx-s1-5950370/ig-nobel-awards-kissing-urinals-move-switzerland
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: science, ig nobel, research, biology, physics, news
## Ig Nobels move to Switzerland
For the first time in 35 years, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony left the United States and relocated to Zurich, Switzerland.

> It's a sad decision to move from where it all started, but it's also opening new horizons for us
## Science faces global travel barriers
Unpredictable U.S. visa protocols and safety concerns forced several international winners to skip the previous ceremony in Boston.

> A principle by which the United States built its scientific excellence... that is no longer the case.
## Reframing relocation as a fresh start
Organizers view moving abroad as a rare chance to reset the ceremony and engage an enthusiastic European audience.

> When you've been doing something for 35 years, what's the chance you're ever going to get to start it all over again afresh?
## Designing a splash-free urinal
Fluid dynamicists won the physics prize for modeling fluid stream angles under 30 degrees to eliminate stray liquid droplets.

> I don't know if you've ever been in a urinal and wore sandals, you sometimes feel those droplets.
## Prizes of cheese and worthless cash
Laureates received a blue cheese statuette topped with fungi alongside a 10-trillion-dollar bill in defunct Zimbabwean currency.
## Greedy elites and aerodynamic sneezes
The economics prize proved upper-class people steal more candy from kids, while medicine honored research into the mechanics of nose blowing.
## Defining kissing through evolution
Researchers created a strict biological definition for kissing to study how oral contact evolved across primates and early hominids.

> To understand how a trait has evolved, you can't just look at it in one species.
## An ancient romantic tradition
Kissing likely occurred between humans and Neanderthals as an evolutionary adaptation to swap beneficial microbes and evaluate mates.

> This is a 21.5 million-year-old tradition that I'm honoring here. It's not just a modern human behavior.
## Paper airplanes fly in Zurich
Despite the new European setting, fans honored the laureates with the traditional barrage of flying paper airplanes.
## Key takeaway

Science that makes you laugh and then think thrives globally, even when border hurdles force top traditions to relocate.