Science can be fun and farts can be funny

First published 12 September, 2008 | 4 Comments

Following my previous flatulence flirtation, I decided it was time for some research. Three cheers for the internet!

Obviously combining science and flatulence was the holy grail for Dr. Michael Levitt, the American gastroenterologist who conducted ground breaking research in the odour of flatulence.

Dr. Levitt is a pioneer, and his studies on the potency of farts and gender should sit right next to belly button lint as research to be admired.

The study was the first ever attempt to provide an objective evaluation of the odour of flatus, Levitt explains. Volunteer judges, blinded to the identity of the generating gender, were asked to rank the potency of the end product.

Volunteer producers - primed by a diet of pinto beans - farted into aluminum bags via a rectal tube. The contents of the bags were measured for volume and for sulphur concentration. (Sulphur gases give farts their foul odour.) Syringes full of gas were withdrawn from the bags and wafted by the nostrils of the unfortunate judges.

"Some journal reviewed the worst jobs ever performed in science and this became the number 1,'' Levitt says with a chuckle.

"Now I might say the judges were paid well. Some of them complained of being dizzy and having a headache at the end of session.''

The conclusion: "Women had more sulphur gas and were judged to have more potent odour.''

Source: CTV.ca

Freaky Fun Fart Facts

Here's a collection of interesting and weird flatulence facts:

The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
Farts have been clocked at a speed of 10 feet (or a nudge over 3 meters) per second.
Generally flatulence is made up of five gases - nitrogen and oxygen, which are swallowed while talking, chewing or drinking fizzy beverages, and carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane, which are produced in the gastrointestinal tract during digestion of food.
Fart has been used to name cocktails, for example the 'Duck Fart'.
The term 'fart sack' is military slang for a bed or sleeping bag.
An Australian study that followed a group of men and women for a couple of months concluded men let rip on average 10 times a day, while women lag with eight emissions.
A 'nun's fart' is a French term for a type of sweet dessert sprinkled with sugar.
Cockney rhyming slang developed the alternative form 'Raspberry Tart', later shortened to 'Raspberry', and occasionally 'Razz'. This is where the phrase 'blowing a raspberry' came from.
Only certain people have bacteria in the gastric systems that produce methane and only methane-producers can perform the time-honoured frat house trick of igniting a blue flame when they hold a match to an escaping fart.
In the 1800s Frenchman Joseph Pujol apparently became so adept at controlling his flatulence flow he could sound musical notes. Called "le Petomane'' - the fartiste - he was reputedly the highest paid performer in France at his prime.