We Interviewed the Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize | Ig Nobel 2025
The scientific stories behind this year's research that made people LAUGH, then THINK.Watch the 2025 Ig Nobel Ceremony here: https://youtu.be/z1cP4xKd_L4In this episode, we bring together three of this year’s Ig Nobel winners whose research spans psychology, food science and human biology. You’ll hear how a team of psychologists devised a counter-intuitive way to boost a narcissist’s self-confidence; how two physicists uncovered the “mozzarella phase” of pecorino cheese while perfecting cacio e pepe; and how a group studying lactation discovered that garlic changes breast-milk’s aroma and baby behavior.We explore the playful setups, surprising results and serious science behind each project, and how curiosity, humor and a dash of persistence turned ordinary questions into prize-winning research.Follow us for more technical interviews with the world’s greatest scientists:Twitter: https://x.com/632nmPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/632nmpodcast?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/632nm/about/Substack: https://632nmpodcast.substack.com/Follow our hosts!Michael Dubrovsky: https://x.com/MikeDubrovskyMisha Shalaginov: https://x.com/MYShalaginovXinghui Yin: https://x.com/XinghuiYinSubscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/632nm/id1751170269Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4aVH9vT5qp5UUUvQ6Uf6ORWebsite: https://www.632nm.comTimestamps:00:00 - Intro01:19 - Physics Prize: Cacio e Pepe Sauce30:40 - Pediatrics Prize: Garlic Breast Milk44:48 - Psychology Prize: How to Boost Narcissism#ignobel2025 #cacioepepe #pastasauce #thermodynamics #psychology #dairy #pecorino
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What Science can Learn from Startups | Adam Marblestone on Focused Research Organizations
Science has stalled. And Adam Marblestone thinks he knows why.Check out the Research Gap Map here: https://www.gap-map.org/?sort=rankIn this episode, we sit down with Adam Marblestone, neuroscientist, nanotechnologist, and founder of Convergent Research, to explore how new “Focused Research Organizations” (FROs) could reignite scientific progress. From DNA “ticker-tape” neural recording to optical connectomics and Neuralink, Marblestone explains how emerging neurotechnologies reveal both the brilliance and the bottlenecks of today’s research system.We discuss why traditional funding often fails to support ambitious, interdisciplinary projects, how FROs borrow the focus and speed of startups to build scientific infrastructure, and why projects like OpenAI, E11 Bio, and ultrasound-on-a-chip exemplify this new model. Marblestone breaks down his “Gap Map” of unsolved scientific challenges - from room-temperature superconductors to artificial ribosomes - and does the math on how tens of billions of dollars could close them.Whether you’re fascinated by neuroscience, scientific innovation, or the future of research itself, this conversation offers a rare insider’s look at how new institutions could rebuild the engine of discovery—and why the next wave of breakthroughs might depend more on organization than on ideas.Follow us for more technical interviews with the world’s greatest scientists:Twitter: https://x.com/632nmPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/632nmpodcast?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/632nm/about/Substack: https://632nmpodcast.substack.com/Follow our hosts!Michael Dubrovsky: https://x.com/MikeDubrovskyMisha Shalaginov: https://x.com/MYShalaginovXinghui Yin: https://x.com/XinghuiYinSubscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/632nm/id1751170269Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4aVH9vT5qp5UUUvQ6Uf6ORWebsite: https://www.632nm.comTimestamps:00:00 - Intro01:25 - Working with George Church13:03 - Neuralink22:23 - Gap Maps31:47 - Artificial Ribosome36:45 - What is Convergent Research?40:03 - What are FROs?44:16 - What Made OpenAI So Successful?48:19 - Has AI Actually Impacted Science?52:15 - Notable FROs1:05:43 - Why Haven't There Been More Scientific Breakthroughs?1:09:47 - Lithography and Chip Design1:13:41 - We Can't Beat Insects1:16:45 - What Separates Good FROs1:18:40 - East vs West Coast Innovation1:27:21 - Research into Longevity1:33:27 - Advice for Grad Students1:39:40 - How to Get Involved in FROs#neuroscience #molecularbiology #quantumphysics #researchfunding #startups
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The Perfect Pasta Sauce According to Italian Physicists | Ig Nobel 2025
Cheese is serious stuff. The physics behind cacio e pepe.Watch the 2025 Ig Nobel Ceremony here: https://youtu.be/z1cP4xKd_L4In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Busiello and Ivan Di Terlizzi, physicists whose playful kitchen experiments on the classic Roman pasta dish cacio e pepe just earned them the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize. What started as a Friday-night cooking ritual turned into a full-blown study of the “mozzarella phase” of pecorino cheese — revealing how heat, proteins, and stabilizers drive sauce breakdown and mimic the phase transitions seen in labs and nature.We explore how their simple setup — a sous-vide bath, a pan, and a smartphone — let them quantify clump sizes, why starch or trisodium citrate can stabilize emulsions, and what this says about statistical mechanics, protein aggregation, and gene-expression dynamics. Busiello and Di Terlizzi. also share their paths from reading about relativity in high school to running research groups, and what it’s like to go viral with a “night-science” project.Whether you’re curious about pasta, phase diagrams, quirky science experiments or the hidden laws of nature, this conversation offers a rare insider’s look at how everyday cooking can illuminate physics.Follow us for more technical interviews with the world’s greatest scientists:Twitter: https://x.com/632nmPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/632nmpodcast?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/632nm/about/Substack: https://632nmpodcast.substack.com/Follow our hosts!Michael Dubrovsky: https://x.com/MikeDubrovskyMisha Shalaginov: https://x.com/MYShalaginovXinghui Yin: https://x.com/XinghuiYinSubscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/632nm/id1751170269Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4aVH9vT5qp5UUUvQ6Uf6ORWebsite: https://www.632nm.comTimestamps:00:00 - Intro01:12 - From Hobbyist to Ig Nobel Laureate06:33 - Methodology of the Experiment13:31 - How to Avoid the Mozzarella Phase19:10 - Career Trajectories24:44 - Who is the Greatest Italian Scientist?25:40 - Lesser Known Works28:05 - Measuring Heat Flow in Red Blood Cells#ignobel2025 #cacioepepe #pastasauce #thermodynamics #phasetransitions #dairy #pecorino
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Babies Love When Mom’s Milk Tastes Like Garlic | Ig Nobel 2025
Your milk tastes like garlic. And babies love it.Watch the 2025 Ig Nobel Ceremony here: https://youtu.be/z1cP4xKd_L4In this episode, we sit down with Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp, winners of the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize and longtime researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, whose experiments revealed that the flavors mothers eat—from garlic and carrots to alcohol—can pass into amniotic fluid and breast milk, shaping babies’ earliest taste experiences. Their work overturns decades of advice that breastfeeding diets should be bland and shows how infants actually savor these flavors instead of rejecting them.We explore how prenatal and early-life exposure to flavors can increase children’s acceptance of fruits and vegetables, what this means for formula design and picky eating, and the deep emotional link between smell, comfort, and lifelong food preferences. Mennella and Beauchamp also share stories from three decades of sensory-science research, from dairy cows and juniper berries to randomized carrot-juice trials in pregnant women, and reflect on why their “funny” Ig Nobel-winning work carries serious implications for public health.Follow us for more technical interviews with the world’s greatest scientists:Twitter: https://x.com/632nmPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/632nmpodcast?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/632nm/about/Substack: https://632nmpodcast.substack.com/Follow our hosts!Michael Dubrovsky: https://x.com/MikeDubrovskyMisha Shalaginov: https://x.com/MYShalaginovXinghui Yin: https://x.com/XinghuiYinSubscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/632nm/id1751170269Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4aVH9vT5qp5UUUvQ6Uf6ORWebsite: https://www.632nm.comTimestamps:00:00 - Intro01:38 - What Sparked Interest in Mammalian Taste?02:57 - Myths Around Garlic and Breastfeeding04:41 - Garlic in Dairy Cows06:50 - Should We Revamp Baby Formula?08:09 - Other Foods and Other Animals11:17 - Neural Pathways for Taste and Emotion#ignobel2025 #pediatrics #garlic #behavioralscience #breastfeeding #dairy
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How to Boost a Narcissist’s Self-Confidence | Ig Nobel 2025
What happens to our sense of self when someone tells us we’re smart—or not so smart?Watch the 2025 Ig Nobel Ceremony here: https://youtu.be/z1cP4xKd_L4In this episode, we sit down with Marcin Zajenkowski, professor of psychology at the University of Warsaw and co-winner of the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology, for his study on how intelligence feedback affects temporary narcissism. Along with his collaborator Gilles Gignac of the University of Western Australia, Zajenkowski showed that telling people they’re above average on an IQ test can boost their feelings of uniqueness and specialness—while negative feedback can dramatically lower their self-assessed intelligence.We explore how the team designed their experiment using real tests but fake feedback, what their findings reveal about everyday praise and criticism (from classrooms to parenting), and why “intelligence” carries a special weight compared with traits like empathy or emotional intelligence. Zajenkowski also explains how trait narcissism can act as a shield against negative feedback, how imposter syndrome fits on the other side of the spectrum, and what his research suggests about staying realistically positive without tipping into self-delusion.Whether you’re curious about psychology, narcissism, intelligence testing, education, or the quirks of human self-perception, this conversation offers a rare insider’s look at an award-winning experiment on how a few simple words can shift how special we feel.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:45 - Study Design and Background05:33 - Implications for the Education System09:50 - Why are People So Defensive About Intelligence?12:57 - Do Depressed People Reaffirm the Negative?15:11 - Are Americans Too Positive?18:43 - Couples and Mate Selection
Ireland