Weird and wacky Ig Nobel Prize winners

You've probably heard of the Nobel Prize, a prestigious award for scientists who have done incredible things for humankind.

But you may not have heard of its slightly wackier cousin, the Ig Nobel Prize - these are awards designed to reward research that "makes people laugh, and then think".

Ig Nobel a pun on the word 'ignoble', which means not honourable or lower in status.

This year's winners include a study of 1,000 buried underpants, energy-filled cockroach milk and how to properly blow your nose.

Here are some of the most weird and wonderful winners this year - let us know your favourite in the comments.

Scientists Franz Bender, Marcel van der Heijden, Atlant Bieri, and Pia Viviani's award-winning experiment may sound a bit odd at first: they buried 1,000 pairs of underpants across 25 different countries.

But there was method to their madness, as they wanted to test how good the soil is in those different parts of the world.

They used a combination of cotton underwear and teabags, and after 30 days, they went back to see how quickly they'd decomposed.

This is actually an experiment we've covered at Newsround before - although on a slightly smaller scale.

It's not as easy to define a kiss as you may think.

Previous descriptions only really looked at what humans do, but lots of animals like to pucker up too.

So some scientists decided to come up with something that could be applied to the entire animal kingdom.

They landed on: "non-agonistic interactions involving directed, infraspecific oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer".

Bit of a mouthful.

There are lots of different milks on the supermarket shelves - oat, soy, even pea.

But what about cockroach?

One particular cockroach species, Diploptera punctata, produces milk to feed its unborn babies.

And scientists have now discovered that it contains three times as much energy as cow's milk.

A scientist in Japan wanted "to give good instructions to those who do not understand how to blow the nose".

So, to do that, he measured the speed and force of nose blowing 60 times.

And he found that "a big and long nose blow" was the best for avoiding pain and infections.

Good to remember next time you have a cold.

While babies can get a bit smelly when it's time to change a nappy, for the most part it's well documented that parents think their babies smell wonderful.

Scientific studies have found a parent smelling a baby can release reward chemicals in the brain, and the smell can help new parents bond with their child.

However, as their kids become teenagers, the smell becomes less appealing, according to a study of 235 parents.

And scientists think the reason might be because, as the child gets older, they become more independent, meaning there's less need for that same level of bonding.