The winners of the first joint prize in Biology and Astronomy at the 2013 Ig Nobel Awards – a ceremony created to recognize those achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think -  were awarded for a very unusual scientific discovery, making a connection between beetles and stars: When dung beetles get lost, they can navigate their way home by looking at the Milky Way. This poop-obsessed insects use the star-band of the Milky Way to orient themselves along a straight line — making it the only animal ever observed to use our galaxy for navigation.

The scientists working on this project are: Marie Dacke, Emily Baird, Marcus Byrne, Clarke Scholtz and Eric Warrant, who work in Sweden, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Germany.