Ten years after headlines floated cockroach milk as the next superfood, the science behind it has won an award, and one of its authors is talking about something other than breakfast.
The 11 scientists who decoded the protein crystals a cockroach uses to feed its unborn young were honored with the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Sept. 3 in Zurich. Their 2016 study estimated that a single crystal holds more than three times the energy of an equal mass of dairy milk. Now, the lab that led the work is looking at what the crystal's unusually stable structure could teach scientists about building new proteins.
