To the delight of the packed crowd at the 19th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at Harvard University, one of the winners reached inside the top of her dress and whipped out her hot-pink bra that doubles as a face mask. Another winner raised his hands high for the audience to see the results of cracking the knuckles of his left hand for more than 50 years.

The ceremony, sponsored by the Annals of Improbable Research, awarded prizes in 10 fields for “science that first makes you laugh—and then makes you think.” Ten laureates of the real Nobel prize handed out the awards—a large pair of dice—to the winners, who came from four continents at their own expense to receive their awards.

Dice were selected to symbolise this year’s theme of “risk.” Members of the “Big Bank Opera” performed skits of Wall Street money manipulators in swanky bars where they figure out ways to squeeze profits from …