Should researchers refrain from eating their research subjects? [study]

If you are a researcher studying, say, concrete bridge structures, or microprocessors, then you probably wouldn’t have to be overly concerned about potential criticism from peers regarding the possibility that you might eat your research subjects. But this is not the case for all academic fields. Take for example, ‘Animal Studies’. A 2018 paper published […]

Advertisements for desserts – should they include bite marks?

Those in the business of marketing desserts might be interested in new research from Donya Shabgard at the University of Manitoba, US, who has investigated, possibly for the first time, the influence of an advertisement’s dessert portrayal on consumer perceptions of desirability. Specifically, should advertisements show desserts with a bite taken out of them or […]

Oh: Brief Walks, and Chocolate Eaters

What of walks and chocolate eaters? Oh, maybe this: “Brisk walking reduces ad libitum snacking in regular chocolate eaters during a workplace simulation,” Hwajung Oh [pictured here], Adrian H. Taylor, Appetite, Volume 58, Issue 1, February 2012, Pages 387-392. The authors, at the  University of Exeter, UK, report their discovery: “A brief walk may help […]

What snot for dinner

Chapter 15 of the book Consuming the Inedible: Neglected Dimensions of Food Choice is called “Eating Snot – Socially Unacceptable but Common: Why?” Maria Jesus Portalatin wrote that chapter. Investigator Wilson Maslin brought it to our attention, and now we bring it to yours. BONUS; The 2001 Ig Nobel Prize-winning study  “A Preliminary Survey of Rhinotillexomania in an Adolescent Sample,” Journal […]

Advice: To chew or not to chew

It is not an absolute, inviolable rule that one should always chew one’s food. Whether or not this Time report is accurate, its advice at the end is basic and good: A fishmonger in southern China found a live bomb inside one of his squid. The man — identified only as Mr. Huang by the Guangzhou Daily — said that while […]

Medical reasons not to ingest living earthworms and geckos

There can, this report implies, be definite medical reasons not to ingest living earthworms and geckos: “Visceral larva migrans associated with earthworm and gecko ingestion: a case report,” Tao Yu1, Li-Na Zhao, Miao-Jing Fan, Huan Wu and Qi-Kui Chen, Journal of Medical Case Reports, epub July 18, 2012, The authors, at Sun Yatsen University, Guangzhou, […]