Gibson’s gas-emitting gizmo

The poo machine of Professor Glenn Gibson (of Reading University), as described in New Scientist (thanks to investigator Donna McMahon for pointing this out):

As poo machines go, it is a magnificent creation. A vessel on the top shelf holds a mixture of semi-digested nutrients which trickles down through three chambers representing the three segments of the large bowel – the ascending colon, transverse colon and descending colon. The fifth vessel, which sits on the floor, is a jar of brown muck. “That’s the loo,” says Gibson.

The model is for testing the effect of different ingredients on the output of the colon. Gibson’s group feeds them to the model and analyses the output – including the gases. He is one of the world’s leading fart scientists, and can talk at length on the subject.