Scientific research into how polyester pants affect the sex life of rats, what it's like for a human to live like a goat and the perceived personality of rocks were all honoured at this year's Ig Nobel spoof awards.

The awards also took a dig at Volkswagen, lauding it in chemistry for its ability to engineer its vehicles to produce fewer emissions just "whenever the cars are being tested".

Thomas Thwaites, left, accepts the Ig Nobel prize in biology from Nobel laureate Eric Maskin while wearing his goat exoskeleton. Credit:AP

The prizes, which aim to honour accomplishments in science and humanities that make one laugh, then think, awarded for a 26th straight year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a group of real Nobel Prize winners.

Each year since 1991, the Ig Nobel awards have been handed out a week ahead of the real thing. The Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm in the week beginning October 3.