The Science of Batman in Turkey

Many non-Turks are unaware that Batman is in Turkey. And Batman’s contributions to science – like the city of Batman itself, and like the province of Batman, in which the city is located, and like the Batman river, which flows through the province – are less well known than one might expect, considering the fame of the name Batman.

Batman became Batman in 1957. Until then it sported the less superheroic name “Iluh”. A monograph called Falls From Heights in and Around the City of Batman appeared in the March 2009 issue of the Turkish Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery. Co-authors Behçet Al, Cuma Yildirim and Sacid Çoban are based at Gaziantep University, about 200km to Batman’s west. They studied the cases of 538 people who fell to earth in Batman and wound up in Batman state hospital.

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