IgNobel is a nod to both the Nobel Prize and the English word ignobel, which translated roughly means, "not so noble".

The more quirky, the better and this year the linguist Susanne Schötz's research of cats' different sounds was considered to qualify for the prize in biology.

She and her research colleagues have done several studies of the different sounds domestic cats use, especially when communicating with humans and Ig Nobel's motivation was:

"For analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, vibration, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat – human communication."

The award ceremony, which took place on Thursday evening, was, as usual, surrounded by fun.

For example, the prize consists of ten thousand billion Zimbabwean dollars.

A sum worth only a few kroner.

Here you see our previous publication about Susanne Schötz's research.

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Photo: SVT / TT