Farts can cause infection if the emitter is naked, but not if clothed (2001) | Hacker News Reader

Farts can cause infection if the emitter is naked, but not if clothed (2001)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

249 pointsjonwachob9157 comments

"He asked a colleague to break wind directly onto two Petri dishes" ... "first fully clothed, then with his trousers down."

"Our final conclusion? Don't fart naked near food."

It may not seem significant but someday everyone will consider these findings obvious. That's because of this brave study.

I am already hard at work verifying whether the results can be replicated.

When I was a medical student I was assisting on an operation when I let loose with a horrible sulfurous fart. I was sly about it and made no noise. At some point the surgeon made a comment about how "it didn't smell too good in there" so I had to come clean; didn't want him further exploring and maybe cutting the abdomen to track down the smell.

I tell this because that story is rarely relevant in my life and also to tell you that farts actually are relevant in a surgical context. The study is not as silly as it sounds

Every time I hear stories like this I think back to the episode of Scrubs were Turk farts in during an abdominal surgery and he lets the attending think he nicked the colon.

that was The Todd, not Turk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdxTcpbOki0

I heard that story in a Phil Hammond sketch years ago. Either it's a well-known funny story amongst doctors, or else it's something that happens fairly often!

Bad news for the bikini barristas? http://people.com/celebrity/topless-coffee-shops-the-bikini-...

Depends on the bikini, probably. If the posterior portion thereof has sufficient coverage, there shouldn't be any major issue.

Or better yet, adapt those "As Seen On TV" 'fart absorbing undies' to the task. As bonus the baristas can go back to their kale and cruciform diet, without worrying that their mighty trumpets would disturb the customers.

NSF Certified thongs really do need to be a thing I suppose.

I think it's fair to say that if you're in a position to be directly farted on by a nude person, more intimate contact has or will occur.

Ah.. If only..

There's so much contained in just a few words and some punctuation. Don't worry, you'll find someone to um... fart on you.

Not necessarily. There are people who just like to be naked. (unless you meant farted in someones face)

Just this morning I saw a person with no pants entering the Subway sandwich store on Market St. (This is in San Francisco... Civic Center.) Bare cheeks to the wind.

I... stand corrected. I guess if he was wearing, shirt and shoes...

Lol

She (!) seemed to have everything else clothes-wise, including a hat.

Suddenly I have a tune by Mark Knopfler stuck in my head...

So long, I guess that's that Hey, hey, don't forget your hat...

>She (!)

That should have been obvious. Nobody thinks twice about women wearing less than they typical minimum of clothing in public. When men do it people call the cops.

Or you're a nudist, in a shared shower in a hockey arena (or your local equivalent), etc.

I would have put money on this happening in Australia.

See also: 'where have all the bloody teaspoons gone?' http://www.bmj.com/content/331/7531/1498

French data indicate global phenomenon! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1326950/

Wow. I'm curious if any of these Australian researchers have done a study correlating the number of birthday's someone has with their health. I can see the abstract now - "Study shows that birthday's are good for your health. The more birthdays you have the longer you live"

Delicious quote:

"...splatter ring around that was caused by the sheer velocity of the fart, which blew skin bacteria from the cheeks and blasted it onto the dish... they're similar to the ‘friendly’ bacteria found in yoghurt."

You're welcome, you pervert.

Now that's funny. Someone just ruined your yogurt-filled snack? ;-)

In all seriousness ... the experiment failed to control for potential differences between the farts.

Did this win an Ig Nobel and if not, why not?

Didn't publish. As far as I know, the Ig's are for published research only.

It's not on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners .

However, Karl Kruszelnicki did receive Ig Nobel Prize for his research on belly button fluff.

This was from the BMJ Christmas issue - every year they publish a 2-week special full of nonsense like this. As it happens, 4 of the papers in BMJ Christmas Issues have gone on to win Ig Nobels:

http://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i6679

- Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches (winner 1994)

- Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal (1999)

- Sword swallowing and its side effects (2006)

- Pain over speed bumps in diagnosis of acute appendicitis (2012)

Aaargh!! Too late, wish I had known this a few minutes back

> But the results of the experiment should not be considered alarming, because neither type of bacterium is harmful. In fact, they're similar to the ‘friendly’ bacteria found in yoghurt.

so you are saying we can make our own yoghurt using this method?

that's one biohacking experiment I'm in no rush to try out.

you can make it with your own vagina's yeast, at least: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/11/vagina-yogurt_n_666...

(nsfw, apparently)

>you can make it with your own vagina

Where does someone get one of these? Check your privilege! ;)

I seem to remember that there is a cured meat product... salami maybe, which was shown to be improved when cultured with um... baby shit.

Ah yes, here it is: http://www.livescience.com/43465-baby-poop-sausage-probiotic...

Can you call it organic?

Lesson of the day, don't work in a clean room naked.

This brings all new meaning to the phrase "silent but deadly".

Far too small sample size. This research needs to be redone with a lot more farts.

Cake farts are even more dangerous than I had realized.

Well this definitely leads credence to the rumor you can give someone pinkeye if you fart on their pillow.

Apparently, only if you do that while being naked.

I hope someone reaches-out to the Ludacris team about this but I fear it may be too late.

Seems like the study may be self-contradicting. If the bacteria studied is the "good" kind, like the one in yogurt, don't you want this in all your food?

That is so awesome on so many levels.....

Not if the experiment takes place in an elevator....

Amusing that this is sitting just under the "Bare bottom simplest example of machine learning in TensorFlow" story at the moment.

You must admit this arouses your curiosity. I mean why the infections are more likely to occur if the subject is naked? What's the difference?

Is it not what HN is about?

At least one filtering mesh. Hopefully two.

I don't want to butt in on your thread but I noticed the same thing

Don't we have diseases to cure, cancers to heal?

What if the results were worse? Would it not have been important to know that farts were actually contaminating a sterile operating room, leaving patients at greater risk of an infection?

The discovery of penicillin was an accident. If there was even a 1% chance that the study of farts could lead to the next great drug it was worth it.

I don't know what it is about this type of comment, but whenever someone says something like this it really infuriates me.

Yes, freedom of speech and opinion and all, but my first thought is "How dare you criticize someone else for wasting time on something you don't feel is important. Unless you've never, once in your life, done a sub-optimal or unnecessary task. Go to a movie lately? Why didn't you send that money to a food bank? Why didn't you use that time to do some small piece of work to save the world?"

desireco42 put a lot of hard work and effort into that criticism, who are you to say it's no good?

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