The Daily Mail of September 16th, 2008, reported an improbable prawn cooking experiment:
An ambulance man placed a prawn on the chin of a patient awaiting electric shock treatment for a heart attack and joked: ‘Let’s see if we can cook this prawn,’ a medical panel has been told. While paramedics prepared to use a defibrillator, ambulance technician John Jones allegedly took a prawn from a colander in the patient’s sink and asked: ‘Does anybody want a prawn?’
After the electric shock had been given, Mr Jones is reported to have said: ‘360 joules won’t cook a prawn.’
Ambulance technician John Jones should have known better if he (1) had studied US Patent 6,247,188 (‘Method for steam-cooking shrimp at reduced temperatures …’ by Brent A Ledet et al.), (2) used Holly M Brooks’ cooking support for shrimp (US Patent 3,54,369) or (3) at least had had some general knowledge about recent shrimp cooking technology.
(Thanks to clinical ethicist Erwin J O Kompanje for bringing the prawn cooking experiment to our attention.)
*[here, for practical reasons, I regard prawns and shrimps as synonymous, but I know better]