Improbable Research

As the 21st century arrived, two distinguished psychiatrists offered mankind proof, written proof - in a study called A Preliminary Survey of Rhinotillexomania in an Adolescent Sample - that most teenagers pick their noses.

Dr Chittaranjan Andrade and Dr BS Srihari, colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India, were inspired by an earlier published report by scientists in the American state of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin research claimed that more than 90% of adults are active nose-pickers. But it was silent as to whether teenagers are less or more picky than their elders.

Andrade and Srihari decided to find out….

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.

Although people say that “a penny’s not going to kill you,” that’s not strictly true. Sometimes a penny will kill you.

There are several cases on record where ingesting a penny has killed a child,1 but, this report deals only with adult misadventures.

Four hundred sixty-one pennies can kill you. Investigators at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center claim credit for the discovery. In their words:

“This is the first reported case of human fatality associated with zinc intoxication following a massive ingestion of coins. Four hundred and sixtyone coins were removed from the gastrointestinal tract of a schizophrenic patient during the course of hospitalization. Many of the post-1981 pennies, which consist primarily of zinc, showed severe corrosion due to their prolonged contact with acidic gastric juice. The patient presented with clinical manifestations consistent with the local corrosive as well as systemic effects of zinc intoxication and died 40 days after admission with multi-system organ failure.”

(That’s an excerpt from the article “A Penny’s Not Going to Kill You,” by Ernest Ersatz, published in AIR 14:3.)

Dr. Morhard and colleagues from the Campus Grosshadern of Munich University, Germany, tackle the problem of how to avoid the disgusting experience of eating a mustard filled donut. “Die DiagnostischeWertigkeit von Dual-Energy-CT und 3 Tesla-MRT in der Diagnose von Faschingskrapfen (Berliner Pfannekuchen) “Wo ist die Marmelade, wo der Senf und wo der Pudding?,” (The Diagnostic Value of Dual-Energy CT and 3 Tesla MRI in the Diagnosis of German Mardi Gras Donuts - Where is the Mustard, Where is the Custard and Where is the Jam?), D. Morhard, O. Dietrich, M. Reiser and B. Ertl-Wagner, Fortschr Röntgenstr., vol. 180, no. 4, April 2008, pp. 318-24(http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-2008-1027145). The authors report:

PURPOSE: As a Mardi Gras joke, the original jam or custard fillings of German Mardi Gras donuts are frequently replaced with mustard which cannot be identified on the outside of the donut. The aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of modern CT and MRI techniques on the diagnostic evaluation of donuts filled with mustard, jam or custard….

(That’s an excerpt from the article “Peer Review: Donut Innards,” by Siegfried Peer, MD, LFHCfS, Professor of Radiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria. It was published in AIR 14:3.)

Jan or Johann Josef Loschmidt (March 15, 1821 - July 8, 1895) has joined as a historical member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Dr. Siegfried Peer, who nominated him, says:

He was the first to determine the number of molecules of an ideal gas in 1 cm3. This is now known as the “Loschmidt number” L = 2.687 × 1019 cm-3. The number of hair per cm2 in his luxurious flowing beard by the way is around 60.

Jan or Johann Josef Loschmidt, LFHCfS
Chemist/physicist
Austria

Ernst Mach (February 18, 1838 – February 19, 1916) has joined as a historical member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Dr. Siegfried Peer, who nominated him, says:

He described how passing the sound barrier compressed air in front of bullets and shells. Some people think that he discovered this principle when he experienced the compression of air in front of his luxurious flowing beard while running.

Ernst Mach, LFHCfS
Physicist and philosopher
Austria