Originally published at: Scientists win award for discovering mammals can breath through our anuses - Boing Boing
…
9 Likes
posted by Allan Rose Hill, Author at Boing Boing
maybe this is what makes them so different from the razzies. these are things that maybe seem kind of silly, and yet still are examples of good science. good natured, rather than… say… mean
15 Likes
I knew as soon as i saw the headline this was in IgNobel prize article. What do i win?
16 Likes
Mammalian enteral ventilation? Blow it out your ass!
10 Likes
Why does it take almost a decade for this to be recognized as a discovery?
I think there is a creature exhibit this behavior in public record as early as 2015, in the 2016 election. /S
11 Likes
15 Likes
You’re not going to win any awards with that headline.
Ain’t no mammal gonna breathe through my anus, thankyouverymuch
12 Likes
The anus, it’s not just for talking out of anymore!
@anon29537550 - any thoughts on that “fake medicine” one? I didn’t click through, but usually find any research around placebos pretty fascinating, and it seems like what this is about. And as for your prize, dang it, I’m drawing a blank.
7 Likes
No, no, it’s the award the scientists won. Now they can breathe through our anuses.
7 Likes
Placebos are pretty remarkable, honestly. I could easily see warning the patient that there would be some side-effects if it was working, then having the (expected) SE reinforce that “this shit is really doing something!” The more the patient believes in the medicine, the better the results. So yeah, it makes sense. If we could figure out how that effect works and harness it in an ethical way, that would be incredible.
14 Likes
FFS - it is “breathe” for the record. Not “breath”. /out
7 Likes
Noted, for the record.
11 Likes
And hence the phrase: talking out your ass.
8 Likes
Honestly, I am far more fascinated by the botany winner:
Botany
Citation: Jacob White and Felipe Yamashita, for finding evidence that some real plants imitate the shapes of neighboring artificial plastic plants.
In 2013, botanists discovered an unusual plant growing in the rainforests of southern Chile, dubbed Boquila trifoliolata. This woody vine had the unusual ability to mimic the leaves of up to three different host plants. What was the secret to this complex mimicry of not just the shape of other plant leaves but also their color, leaf orientation, and vein patterns, among other characteristics? One possibility was the release of chemical volatile signals; another was horizontal gene transfer between the host plant and the Boquila vine. Or perhaps it was the result of plant vision.
White and Yamashita conducted experiments with B. trifoliolata vines and artificial Wisteria vines. They concluded that volatile signaling and horizontal gene transfer were unlikely since B. trifoliolata were able to mimic the artificial leaves even when they weren’t in direct contact. A plant vision system is thus a promising explanation and grounds for further experiments, they wrote, particularly in light of recent research showing that plants can not only communicate via chemical volatiles but can also perceive sound. We welcome our new plant overlords.
The world is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine
– JBS Haldane (maybe)
22 Likes
12 Likes
The Human Centipede just got way weirder.
5 Likes
DOCTOR: Mr. Smith, this is an anticebo. It will only work if you don’t believe it will work.
PATIENT: 
7 Likes
I learned of this gentleman, a French flatulist, through the book, The Bean Report.
(excerpt) It was a common misconception that Pujol passed intestinal gas as part of his stage performance. Rather, he was allegedly able to “inhale” or move air into his rectum and then control the release of that air with his anal sphincter muscles. Evidence of his ability to control those muscles was seen in the early accounts of demonstrations of his abilities to fellow soldiers.
8 Likes
for exploding a paper bag next to a cat that’s standing on the back of a cow, to explore how and when cows spew their milk.
15 Likes
17 Likes
