Cockroach milk has 3 times the energy of cow’s milk; 10 years after the bizarre discovery, researchers from India, France, Japan and US honored with 2026 Ig Nobel Chemistry prize in Switzerland

A 2016 discovery about cockroach milk has received one of science’s strangest honors. Researchers studying the tiny protein crystals produced by a cockroach species have won the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry after finding they contain more than three times the energy of cow’s milk by mass.

Commonly known as the Pacific beetle cockroach, the species, unlike most cockroaches, gives birth to live young and nourishes its developing embryos with a milk-like secretion. Scientists found that the secretion forms nutrient-rich protein crystals inside the embryos.

An international team of researchers from India, France, Japan and the US was recognized for determining the structure and composition of these unusual crystals, revealing how the cockroach stores a highly concentrated nutrient source for its developing young. Ramaswamy Subramanian, Leonard “Leo” Chavas and Nathan Coussens were among the researchers present at the 2026 ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, to accept the Chemistry prize.


Their 2016 study, published in the International Union of Crystallography Journal (IUCrJ), examined the crystals using X-ray macromolecular crystallography and determined their structure at 1.2-angstrom resolution.

The researchers found that the crystals contain glycosylated proteins with a lipocalin fold that bind lipids. These proteins are arranged in a tightly packed crystalline structure, which allows a large amount of nutritional material to be stored in a very small volume.

The viral cockroach milk study estimated that “a single crystal is estimated to contain more than three times the energy of an equivalent mass of dairy milk.”

Why cockroach milk study won an Ig Nobel

The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for unusual scientific achievements intended to make people laugh before making them think. The cockroach-milk research is a particularly fitting example because its subject is bizarre, while the underlying work involves advanced structural biology and crystallography.

The Chemistry category has repeatedly recognized similarly unconventional research. Last year, researchers from the US and Israel won the Chemistry Ig Nobel for proposing a “Teflon diet”, suggesting that particles of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) could be added to food as a calorie-free filler to increase its bulk.

Previous Chemistry Ig Nobels have also recognized research into why scientists lick rocks, the smell of cinema audiences, and the use of “drunk” worms as models for large polymers.

Ig Nobel ceremony moves to Switzerland

The 2026 ceremony was the 36th edition of the Ig Nobel Prizes and also marked a significant change for the awards. The ceremony was held in Zurich, Switzerland, marking the first time the awards had been presented outside the United States since the prizes began in 1991.

The organizers announced the move earlier this year amid concerns about holding the ceremony in the US. The decision followed last year's event, when four of the 10 winners chose not to attend, citing visa concerns and discomfort about traveling to the country.