Dr Robert Lopez had bugs in his ear. He put them there himself, partly on behalf of a client, partly to satisfy his own curiosity. Lopez conducted his experiments with ear mites from cats. The vet, from Westport, New York, was the type of doctor who goes to great lengths to help someone in need. He was a man of endurance, a marathon runner and the father of 14 children.
A chance observation prompted him “to investigate the possibility of transmission of the ear mite, otodectes cynotis , to human beings”. Lopez later wrote a study, Of Mites and Man, for the 1993 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association…
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So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.