One of this year's IG (Satirical) Nobel Prizes was awarded for an experiment in which cows were painted to look like zebras in order to curb the number of fly bites.

Among the winners is a project that attempted to prove whether adding Teflon to food reduces calorie intake.

A study that analyzed "the extent to which a particular species of lizard chooses to eat certain types of pizza" and "discoveries about the physics of pasta sauce" were also awarded.

Winners in categories ranging from literature to biology were announced at a ceremony at Boston University on September 18th.

"Every Ig Nobel laureate has done something that first makes people laugh and then makes them think," said Mark Abrahams, founder of the awards.

The annual Ig Nobel Prizes are intended as a satire of the more serious Nobel Prize for science and are not as well known, but the research is real.

The Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded for more than three decades by the American science humor magazine Annals of Incredible Research. (Annals of Improbable Research) for trivial and fun scientific achievements.

In previous years, winners received a trillion Zimbabwean dollar note, but "due to inflation" this year everyone received a wet wipe, said Karen Hopkin, a biochemist and creator of the "Science Study Muffins" calendar.

Researchers from America and Israel, winners of the chemistry prize, wanted to determine whether Teflon, which is commonly used to coat the bottom of pans or pots against sticking, increases the volume of food without changing the amount of calories.

The initial theory was that the material would pass through the digestive system and then simply slip out.

The US food regulator was confused by the "strange" idea, said Rotem Naftalovich of Rutgers University in New Jersey and one of three researchers involved in the project.