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Original post on mstdn.science

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Original post on mstdn.science

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hachyderm.io

Original post on mstdn.science

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Capturing the Human Wind

The “Sex Machines Museum” in Prague (who would have ever guessed that there is such a place) has on display an item that appears to be made of a leather funnel attached to an inflatable leather bag. According to accompanying caption it is a “vanvera,” described as a device worn by 17th century aristocratic Venetian women under their voluminous skirts with the intent of catching gaseous emissions. Whether this is a one-of-a-kind joke item or was actually worn by women worried about social etiquette, isn’t clear. What is clear is that concerns about flatulation were around as early as 2400 years ago. Hippocrates, regarded as the “Father of Medicine,” believed that trapped gases cause an imbalance in the body and recommended the use of herbs such as fennel, anise and coriander to ease their expulsion. These herbs, known as “carminatives,” actually can relax the intestinal muscles including the anal and stomach sphincters allowing gases to escape more readily either as burps or flatus. The Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), who ruled at a time when social norms frowned on passing wind, supposedly heard of a senator who had severe cramps because of an attempt to hold back gas. A likely apocryphal account claims he contemplated passing an edict that would allow guests at banquets to let loose without worrying about etiquette to prevent such calamities. Over the years, passing gas has always been looked on as socially unacceptable because of the foul odour produced. In 1781, Benjamin Franklin used his sharp wit to address the problem. In a famous essay he urged scientists to “discover a chemical substance or dietary additive that could be mixed with food to make intestinal gas inoffensive and as agreeable as a perfume.” Instead of bringing shame, this would allow people to “fart proudly.” However, another hundred years would pass until scientists began to get a handle on the problem. They suggested handling it with charcoal! In the late 1700s, German-Russian chemist Johann Tobias Lowitz discovered that charcoal can remove colors, smells, and tastes from liquids and pioneered its practical use for purifying drinking water and removing impurities from sugar syrup. Although charcoal found use in a number of industrial processes, only in the late 1800s did physicians think of giving powdered charcoal to patients troubled with excessive gas. The effectiveness wasn’t great, and charcoal also caused blackened stools, constipation and interfered with the absorption of medications. One idea to circumvent the problems with oral charcoal was to attack the problem at the other end. Why not try charcoal impregnated pads placed in underwear to absorb the emissions? Several patents were granted for these, but the first one to describe underwear designed to incorporate a replaceable carbon filter was granted in 1997 to American inventor Chester Weimer. It was made of air-tight polyurethane-coated nylon with elastic sewn around the waist and legs. There was an exit hole at the bottom covered with a pocket into which a pad made of layers of felt, glass fiber, polypropylene and “activated” charcoal was inserted. Activated charcoal is produced by heating carbon with steam in the absence of oxygen. This creates numerous tiny channels in the charcoal thereby greatly increasing the surface area to which gases can bind. Weimer’s invention was stimulated by his wife’s frequent odiferous emissions as a result of suffering from irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. The sewer-like odour of the hydrogen sulfide, methane thiol and dimethylsulfide released in her “wind” was very troublesome. The underwear Weimer finally produced to solve his wife’s problem worked so well that in 2001 he founded a company, the “Under-Tec Corporation,” to produce “Under-Ease” underwear. Weimer’s ingenuity did not go unnoticed. He was the recipient if the 2001 Ig Nobel Prize in biology for his invention of “airtight underwear with a replaceable charcoal filter that removes bad-smelling gases before they escape.” The Ig Nobel Prize is a satirical award honoring real scientific research that “first makes people laugh and then makes them think.” In 2010, the producers of the “Shark Tank” television program were looking for unusual products to feature and got wind of Weimer’s invention. They thought that inviting him and his wife to make a pitch for funding to grow their company would be entertaining. It was, but the Sharks did not bite, claiming that the market for such a product was too small. One of the Sharks, entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran, remarked that she “would rather have gas and wear sexy underwear.” Although they received no funding from the Sharks, the publicity the program generated boosted sales, especially around holidays when people bought Under-Ease as a joke item. Unfortunately, after an initial lift, sales flattened and the company went out of business in 2021. But prolific flatulators need have no fear. A number of similar products have entered the marketplace. “Shreddies” is a British Company that sells underwear with a built-in activated carbon impregnated panel that absorbs odiferous gases as they pass through. The name originates from British soldiers who found that during long marches underwear fibers would break down and “shred.” While “Shreddies” have been shown to work in trials, they are not problem free. They can only be laundered with washing soda since detergents inactivate the carbon and the fabric is also opaque to airport scanners. Wearing Shreddies may result in the uncomfortable situation of having to remove them but as the manufacturers says, they can be safely transported in carry-on luggage. The briefs, which have been joined by deodourizing pyjamas and jeans, also come with instructions for odour-free flatulation. “To avoid gas escaping around the filter we recommend that you stand with your legs together and try to let your wind out slowly. When sitting, keep your knees together so that flatulence escapes through the carbon panel.” One might conclude that wearing the right garment and following the instructions will, as Benjamin Franklin had hoped, allow people to “fart proudly.” @‌JoeSchwarcz

mcgill.ca

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disabled.social

Portret Kees Moeliker: van nijlgans tot bermeend - Vroege Vogels - BNNVARA

Kees Moeliker heeft zich het op onderzoek naar de nijlgans gestort, die volgens hem eigenlijk 'bermeend' zou moeten heten..

bnnvara.nl

mstdn.social

mastodon.social

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IG Nobel 36th Prize Ceremony - Soirée officielle de projection à Paris | PSL

Culture, Pour la première fois de leur histoire, les Ig Nobel s'installent en Europe… et vous pouvez vivre la cérémonie officielle depuis Paris ! , Le 3 septembre, la 36e cérémonie des Ig Nobel sera retransmise en direct depuis le Kongresshaus de Zurich. Pour la première fois en 35 ans, cet événement international, qui récompense des recherches scientifiques faisant « d'abord rire, puis réfléchir », quitte les États-Unis. À cette occasion, l'Université PSL organise une Watch Party officielle, accueillie à l'@Université Paris Dauphine – PSL, l'ancien siège de l'ONU ! Animée par un comédien du CNSAD-PSL, la soirée sera ponctuée de nombreuses surprises. Programme Accueil dès 16h30 17 h 45 : Ouverture des portes & présentation 18 h 30 : Début de la retransmission en direct 20 h 30 : Fin de l'événement , M'inscrire ,Université PSL

psl.eu

[Curiosity Science Festival] Ig Nobel Laureates Patricia Yang and Park Seung-min Deliver First Joint Public Talk in Korea on Excrement Research

Dong-A Science marks its 40th anniversary with a July 25 event at Seoul National University featuring Ig Nobel Prize–winning studies on urine, feces, and smart toilets

dongascience.com

July 23, 2026

I have been thinking lately about taxes and war and citizens and what the government should do for its people.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

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Pedagogical Density About Pedagogical Density

Some people worry about pedagogical density. Some of them write about that worry, so that others can read about it. A new addition to all this is the study: “**Introducing pedagogical mediation to make theory-dense linguistics research available for classroom intervention** ,” Eloy Romero Muñoz and Dilin Liu, _Research Methods in Applied Linguistics_ , vol. 5, no. 3, 2026, article 100335. The authors explain: Pedagogical relevance is increasingly treated as an important consideration in language education research. Frameworks such as Design-Based Research (The Design-Based Research Collective, 2003), Practice-Based Research (Sato & Loewen, 2022), and Relevance-to-Practice (Hwang & Coss, 2025), among others, have provided principled ways of strengthening the relationship between research and practice. This conceptual article argues, however, that theory-dense research findings may remain difficult to interpret pedagogically, even when they address phenomena potentially relevant to classroom practice. In such cases, specific interpretive work may be required before research findings can inform pedagogical reasoning. We term such interpretive work pedagogical mediation. Drawing on Lewin’s (2018) notion of pedagogical reduction, we conceptualize pedagogical mediation as a set of four epistemic operations—selection, simplification, reorganization, and illustration/contextualization—through which dense research findings may become available for pedagogical consideration. ### Share this: * Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky *

improbable.com

Bees of many species contain tiny magnetic particles – suggesting they may have an innate magnetic compass for navigation

Researchers were surprised to find how widespread this magnetic property was, not only across families of bees but also beetles, wasps and flies.

theconversation.com