In their article Dutch Courage?, the Maastricht winners—Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, and Jessica Werthmann—describe their study of fifty German students who had only recently started learning Dutch. Twenty-five participants were given a small amount of alcohol, while the rest received none. Subsequently, all were asked to engage in a conversation in Dutch.

Observers, who had been kept unaware of which participants had been drinking, noted that pronunciation in particular improved among those who had consumed alcohol. Intriguingly, the slightly tipsy Germans themselves didn’t feel they were performing any better—a disconnect that might have warranted further investigation had the researchers pursued subjective perception as a variable.

The concept originated at the bar during a scientific conference, though the researchers caution that alcohol in larger amounts impairs memory consolidation. Consequently, should students wish to retain what they learn, drinking would have been counterproductive.

The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony is invariably festive and deliberately absurd. The audience throws paper planes, opera singers perform songs on scientific topics, and the hosts don funny hats. Winners are often present themselves, but the researchers from Maastricht were not. Their acceptance speech was read aloud by Nobel Prize laureates Robert Merton and Svante Pääbo—an honour that could scarcely have been anticipated.

Alcohol also featured prominently in the Ig Nobel Prize for aviation: scientists investigated whether bats can still fly and navigate properly after consuming modest quantities of alcohol. The answer: categorically no. Had the bats been able to metabolize alcohol more efficiently, the results might have differed.

Another laureate this year meticulously tracked the growth of his own fingernails for 35 years and published his findings—a commitment that should have earned recognition decades ago. He received the Ig Nobel Prize for literature. The prize for nutritional science went to researchers who discovered that a certain colourful lizard exhibits a pronounced preference for quattro formaggi pizzas (featuring four types of cheese).

Equally noteworthy: if you paint cows with black and white stripes resembling zebras, they are significantly less troubled by biting flies—a finding that could have transformed livestock management had it been disseminated earlier.

The Ig Nobel ceremony invariably takes place in September, one month before the authentic Nobel Prizes are awarded.