Dutch soil scientist wins Ig Nobel for burying 1,000 underpants

A Dutch scientist has won the Ig Nobel prize for conducting a study that involved burying around 1,000 pairs of underpants and digging them up two months later.

Marcel van der Heijden, a soil scientist at the University of Zurich, shared this year’s Ig Nobel for soil science with three colleagues. The annual prizes, a parody counterpart to the Nobels, reward research that “first makes people laugh and then makes them think.”

Volunteers buried identical cotton underpants across more than 25 countries, then dug them up after two months and recorded what was left. The more the fabric had rotted, the healthier and more biologically active the soil.

“Our results show that how soil is managed can significantly affect both soil life and soil quality,” van der Heijden said in a statement, adding that healthy soil was crucial for fertility and for the wider ecosystem.

This year’s ceremony was held in Zurich, the first time it has taken place outside the US after more than three decades in the country.

Organisers said they could not in good conscience ask winners or visiting journalists to travel to the US this year, a decision widely assumed to be down to American immigration policy. Next year’s event will be in Antwerp.

Dutch researchers are Ig Nobel regulars. According to broadcaster NOS, they have won 22 times since the first ceremony in 1991, including last year’s award for showing that a drink can improve people’s foreign-language skills.