Down and up in a cat, dried plasma, animalistic us, snot useful

This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: A sick experiment —The phrase “what goes up must come down” isn’t obviously relevant to the insides of a cat. The countervailing “what goes down must come up” is, when that cat has swallowed something of dubious […]

On the non-omnipotence of Elephant Snot: Cactus graffiti

Elephant Snot is not the solution to every problem. The Arizona Daily Star confirms that, in this article: Elephant Snot isn’t the answer. Saguaro National Park officials tested a viscous product — with the odd brand name of Elephant Snot — to remove graffiti from saguaros at the park. It didn’t work. “Elephant Snot is out,” […]

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 […]