Discoblog » Scat-egory

So Long, Colostomy Bag: British Man Gets Remote-Controlled Sphincter

Andrew Moseman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:15:40 +0000

Briton Ged Galvin survived that vicious car wreck that nearly took his life. Unfortunately, the accident crushed some of his organs and left him needing a colostomy bag to go to the bathroom.

That was until his doctors created his cyborg sphincter. Yes, you read that correctly. Doctors removed muscle from above Galvin’s knee, wrapped it around his damaged sphincter, and attached electrodes to the nerves. Now, when Galvin goes to the bathroom he simply presses a button on a remote control.

From The Telegraph:

Mr Galvin, who had previously endured the indignity of carrying a colostomy bag, added: “I thought that in these days of modern medicine surely there was something they could do. They’d mended everything else – why not this? Anything was better than a colostomy bag.

“The operation changed my life and gave me back my pride and confidence. Because of the remote control I can lead a normal life again.”

Outstanding. Though hopefully Galvin’s remote has a lock that prevents him from accidentally triggering it while it’s in his pocket.

Image: Anna Lythgoe/SWNS.COM

Thanksgiving for Fish: Food Chemicals Go Through People & Back Into Water Supply

Brett Israel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:06:16 +0000

Pulses of certain Turkey Day food ingredients are detected in the water supply in the days after the holiday, according to researchers. But as reported in National Geographic News, it doesn’t stop there:

For instance, thyme and sage spike during Thanksgiving, cinnamon surges all winter, chocolate and vanilla show up during weekends (presumably from party-related goodies), and waffle-cone and caramel-corn remnants skyrocket around the Fourth of July.

A research team from the University of Washington tracked pulses of food ingredients that enter Washington’s Puget sound to learn more about how our actions on land affect the water supply, and to determine what slips through sewage treatment plants. Similar monitoring is underway worldwide, and scientists have turned up things such as flu vaccines, cocaine, heroine, rocket fuel, and birth control in waterways.

Click on over to team leader Rick Keil’s lab Web site to learn more about the Puget Sound research. But Keil told National Geographic News that the no one knows yet whether the subtle seasoning of the water is having an impact.

For now, there’s no evidence that a sweeter and spicier sound is a bad thing—salmon, which can smell such flavors, could be enjoying their vanilla-enhanced habitat, Keil said.

Image: flickr / Lana_aka_BADGIRL

A Literally Crappy House Protects Beetle Larva From Predators

Brett Israel — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:59:03 +0000

Leaf beetle mothers give their children an inheritance that many people wouldn’t quite appreciate—a mobile home made of poop. Gee thanks, mom. As Not Exactly Rocket Science describes:

After [a female] lays her eggs, she seals each one in a bell-shaped case. When the larva hatches, it performs some renovations, cutting a hole in the roof and enlarge the structure with their own poo. By sticking its head and legs out, it converts its excremental maisonette into a mobile home, one that it carries around with them until adulthood.

This beetle behavior has been well established by scientists. However, the leaf beetle Neochlamisus platanithey has been singled out by researchers for its “elaborate example of faecal architecture.” The larvae add a little insulation in the form of plant hairs, called trichomes, which help ward off predators, according to new research.

Staged attacks on larvae with and without fecal shelters demonstrated that poop-protected larva were less likely to be attacked by crickets, spined soldier bugs, and green lynx spiders than unprotected larva. NERS explains why:

Even if a predator investigates the case, they must first breach the unappetising shield, and the larva doesn’t make it easy for them. [The researchers] saw that, in some cases, the larvae pulled their cases down flush with the floor, making them even harder to penetrate. That defence was particularly effective against the bugs, whose stabbing mouthparts couldn’t break through the wall of the case. Some of the larvae also wiggled their cases back and forth, which could serve to shake off or startle a predator.

Even if a predator breaks through the case (as frequent holes in the structures suggest), they’d meet a large concentration of trichomes in the attic before they reached the larva underneath.

For beetles at least, putting up with their mothers’ crap can save their lives.

Image: Wikimedia Commons / Neochlamisus

Finally! An iPhone App That Lets You Track Your Bathroom Habits

Brett Israel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:23:17 +0000

The folks behind the best-selling book, “What’s Your Poo Telling You?” aren’t satisfied with being mere bathroom reading material. So they’ve dropped a new iPhone app, the Poo Log, which allows you to time, log, and graph your BMs—and learn about your gastrointestinal health while doing so.

Via The Presurfer:

The ‘Poo Log’ is a digital timer and journal for recording and studying the wondrous uniqueness of each bowel movement. With a clever mix of bathroom humor and legitimate medical information, the ‘Poo Log’ allows the user to track his/her digestive workings and graph their ‘poo’ – all with one hand.

According to the app’s developers, AvatarLabs Inc, the tracker features medically accurate info that is suitable for all ages, and of course helpful tips such as, “Light a match. Now.”

Weekly News Roundup: Burning Bunnies and Stolen Hands

Brett Israel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:26:22 +0000

• Waste not, want not: Stockholm burns culled bunnies for heating fuel.

• Helicopters search for radioactive rabbit poop near the Hanford nuclear reservation. Workers to begin removing the poop soon, which might be the worst job ever.

• Mathematician predicts an ESPN fantasy—a Dodgers-Yanks World Series. FOX Sports also has its fingers crossed.

• Doctors enjoy the five-fingered discount by pocking watches, severed hands from hospitals.

• Think technology is invasive now? A new camera is under development that could capture your entire life.

Brazilians Urged to Pee in the Shower to Conserve Water

Allison Bond — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:09:47 +0000

Sometimes the best way to get people fired up about a cause—be it environmental, political, or anything else—is to get them angry. But instead of trying to piss citizens off, a Brazilian environmental group is trying to get the country’s residents to, well, urinate in the shower.

The group says that if a single household flushed the toilet just one fewer times a day, it would save a whopping 1,157 gallons of water each year. The organization has even come out with a video touting the idea. Urine is sterile, so peeing in the shower is harmless (except if someone has a disease that can be transmitted through their pee, such as hepatitis).

The AP reports:

The spot features cartoon drawings of people from all walks of life – a trapeze artist, a basketball player, even an alien – urinating in the shower.

Narrated by children’s voices, the ad ends with: “Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!”

Watch it here:

Image: flickr /stevendepolo

Scientists Examine Underwear Astronaut Wore for a Month

Allison Bond — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:11:47 +0000

If you think changing your underwear day after day gets tedious, try doing it while orbiting the Earth. What better opportunity is there, then, to test a new type of undies that are anti-odor, anti-bacterial and water-absorbent—and that allowed an astronaut on the shuttle Endeavour to wear the same pair for a month straight.

Koichi Wakata, who was in orbit for four-and-a-half months, also tested socks, pants, and shirts that use the same technology. The AP reports:

NASA’s space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, stressed the importance of testing new products, especially those aimed at improving astronauts’ quality of life. There’s no way to wash clothes in space. Station residents simply ditch dirty outfits, along with other garbage, in cargo ships no longer needed that are sent plunging in flames through the atmosphere.

Scientists say they are excited to examine Wakata’s high-tech underthings to see how well they worked. For their sake, let’s hope that the undies are, in fact, as odor-resistant as the manufacturers claim.

Image: flickr / hans s

To Track Penguins, Scientists Use High-Tech Satellite Images of…Droppings

Allison Bond — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:19:29 +0000

When emperor penguins are in your vicinity, their signature tuxedos and waddling gaits make them hard to miss. But when scientists from the British Antarctic Survey tried to track Antarctic emperor penguin populations using satellites, the birds proved too small to be seen. That’s when they got the idea to focus on something much larger and darker than the penguins themselves: the stains left by their feces.

Using the patches of poop as a guide, the scientists examined the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica and spotted 38 penguin colonies, including 10 that had never before been recorded.

Emperor penguins, which starred in the adorable documentary March of the Penguins, are at risk of becoming endangered if climate change threatens their habitat and food supply. In fact, populations in some of the colonies could drop by 95 percent by 2010.

Satellites provided the perfect penguin-monitoring solution: Winter is the best time to count the penguins, because they inhabit the ice instead of the water. But the frigid temperatures make studying the birds on-site uncomfortable for humans.

This poop-tracking technique, written up in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, could be useful in detecting changes in penguin populations, showing scientists how the birds react to climate change.

Image: flicker / lin padgham

Worried About Swine Flu? Perhaps Your iPhone Will Save You

Rachel Cernansky — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:19:11 +0000

As if bad government responses to swine flu aren’t enough, now there are bad technical ones too: a swine flu iPhone app that keeps tabs on the status of the pandemic (is it one yet?) and maps the latest cases.

So, um, if you’re planning a trip to Mexico City on the go, your phone can now warn you not to.

Image: IntuApps

“Electric Fart Machine” Could Lead to Greater Fuel Storage Efficiency

Rachel Cernansky — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:59:46 +0000

While it may sound like every six-year-old boy’s dream, a new electric fart machine could actually improve fuel cell technology.

The machine takes single-celled microoranisms called archea and gives them little electric jolts, which trigger the organisms to turn carbon dioxide from the air into methane and release it as, um, micro-farts. The methane can then be used to power fuel cells or store the electrical energy chemically until it’s needed.

Shockingly, the farting machine won’t solve global warming, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. What it might do, though, is improve the efficiency of storing alternative energies such as solar and wind. (No mention of whether increasing the efficiency increases the smell as well.)

Image: Flickr / s_mestdagh