BGU’s Prof. Pinshow Wins Ig Nobel for Bat Research
BGU’s Prof. Pinshow Wins Ig Nobel for Bat Research
October 9, 2025
Leadership, Awards & Events, Research News
BGU’s Prof. Berry Pinshow
The Times of Israel—A team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has won an Ig Nobel Prize for its work on how booze impacts bats’ ability to take to the air, concluding that they shouldn’t drink and fly.
The 2025 Aviation Prize went to Prof. Berry Pinshow and Prof. Carmi Korine of BGU’s Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, as well as their two research assistants at the time, Dr. Francisco Sanchéz and Dr. Maru Mélcon. They led a team from Israel, Colombia, Argentina, Germany, the UK, Italy, the US, Portugal, and Spain.
Researchers found that bats that ingested ethanol “flew slower and were less able to locate their roosts using their unique tongue-clicking echolocation,” the university said in a statement Monday.
“We were all absolutely chuffed when we got the news that we had won an Ig Nobel award,” Prof. Pinshow said in the statement. “At first, we were a little dubious that we were being had on, but a letter from Marc Abrahams the editor of AIR settled our doubts. Then we were elated – who wouldn’t be? Science is certainly serious but it’s also fun and intellectually very satisfying.”
The actual research was conducted 15 years ago and published under the title “Ethanol ingestion affects flight performance and echolocation in Egyptian fruit bats.”
The basis for the research was that as fruit ripens, its ethanol content increases, making the fruit more toxic to vertebrates. Researchers hypothesized that ingesting ethanol would probably cause “inebriation that will affect flight and echolocation skills.”
“We tested this hypothesis by flying Egyptian fruit bats in an indoor corridor and found that after ingesting ethanol-rich food bats flew significantly slower than when fed ethanol-free food,” they wrote. “Also, the ingestion of ethanol significantly affected several variables of the bats’ echolocation calls and behavior.”
Read more on The Times of Israel>
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