Professor of snot: biochemist researchers benefits of eating bogies
“SNOT has a sugary taste and that may be a signal to the he body to consume it and derive information for the immune system, ” says Scott Napper, professor of biochemistry at the University of University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
“Eating the pathogens caught in the mucus could be a way to teach our immunte system about what its surrounded by.
“I’ve got two beautiful daughters and they spend an amazing amount of time with their fingers up their nose. And without fail, it goes right into their mouth afterwards. Could they just be fulfilling what we’re truly meant to do? All you would need is a group of volunteers. You would put some sort of molecule in all their noses, and for half of the group they would go about their normal business and for the other half of the group, they would pick their nose and eat it. Then you could look for immune responses against that molecule and if they’re higher in the booger-eaters, then that would validate the idea.”
“From an evolutionary perspective, we evolved under very dirty conditions and maybe this desire to keep our environment and our behaviours sterile isn’t actually working to our advantage.”
“The greatest value of the snot-eating question is that, when he brings it up with his first-year science students they are instantly engaged in the class. Get the student to think, rather than just sitting there taking down notes.”
Who knew that picking your knows was research..?
Posted: 18th, June 2013 | In: Strange But True, Technology Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
