Mental Floss: Instant Knowledge (2 page)

(a.k.a. Chicken Throat for the Soul)

USEFUL FOR:
waiting rooms, chatting up scientists, and hitting on pharmacists

KEYWORDS:
penicillin, Alexander Fleming, or chickens

THE FACT:
Believe it or not, biologist Selman Waksman discovered a revolutionary antibiotic in the back of a chicken’s throat.

In the 1930s, Selman Waksman, working at Rutgers University, became interested in isolating antibiotics from fungi, hoping to find another “penicillin.” To aid his quest, he asked his colleagues to send him samples of any unusual species they encountered. One day a farmer came to see a Rutgers veterinarian with a sick chicken in tow. All of his chickens, he said, were suffering from the same kind of disease as the sample. The vet found that the bird had a fungal throat infection, and remembering Waksman’s request, he sent him a throat swab. From a culture of this fungus, Waksman eventually isolated streptomycin, an antibiotic that revolutionized the treatment of infections, particularly tuberculosis. So the next time you’ve got strep throat, make sure to thank a chicken for the cure.

(for construction)

USEFUL FOR:
making small talk at the salad bar

KEYWORDS:
iron stomach, all you can eat, or I’m so hungry I could eat a plane

THE FACT:
Looking for inspiration when trying to down your mother-in-law’s meat loaf? Just consider the story of Michel Lotito, the French gent who once ate an entire Cessna 150.

Yes, that’s an entire plane we’re talking about, and the guy who did it goes by the nickname Monsieur Mangetout (French for “eats everything.” See what he did there?). Lotito engaged in the stunt to earn a place in the
Guinness World Records
(his actual record is for the Strangest Diet: 2 pounds of metal per day), but his iron stomach’s downed a lot more than just a plane. He’s also the proud eater of 18 bicycles, a bunch of TVs, a wooden coffin, and several supermarket shopping carts. Not to mention all the lightbulbs, razor blades, and other knickknacks he’s downed on variety shows. Looking for a reason why you shouldn’t try this at home (or with your home)? Well, Lotito’s got a natural advantage because his stomach lining is twice as thick as a normal person’s. He’s also aided by the fact that he’s French, which means he’ll eat just about anything if prepared right (escargot
,
anyone?).

(you’re not the only one who hates it)

USEFUL FOR:
irritating your math teacher, impressing your (other) liberal arts profs, or just plain comforting anyone who hates math

KEYWORDS:
asymptote, parabola, or quadratic equations

THE FACT:
Despite the fact that it can be applied to just about everything, there’s still no Nobel Prize given out for mathematics.

When dynamite inventor (that’s not a comment on his abilities; he really did invent dynamite) Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that his fortune be used to establish a fund to award five annual prizes “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind,” he mysteriously left out math. And all kinds of theories have popped up to explain the omission, most of which claim that Nobel hated all mathematicians because his wife was schtupping one on the side. Nope. The most likely reasons for Nobel’s ditching math are 1) He simply didn’t like math all that much, and 2) Sweden already had a big, fancy prize for mathematics, from the journal
Acta Mathematica
. Although math is still a Nobel bridesmaid, a prize for economics was added in 1968, thereby giving the extremely boring sciences their due.

(and your tee-tee)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, explaining yourself at the urinal, and chatting up people from the Philadelphia Historical Society

KEYWORDS:
kites, Ben Franklin or “I really, really have to powder my nose”

THE FACT:
Who would have guessed that the genius who figured out that asparagus and unscented urine don’t always go together was none other than Ben Franklin?

Benjamin Franklin made many contributions to science, including bifocals, the Franklin stove, and lightning rods. But he was also the first to record that some people produced urine with a disagreeable odor after eating asparagus. You’ll be grateful to know that the smell has now been identified and due to sulfur-containing compounds produced when asparagus is metabolized. It seems, however, that not everyone can generate these compounds. A study examined the urine of 115 people who dined on the green vegetable, and only 46 produced the smell. Strangely, not everyone can smell it either.

(“the honey pie”)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, wakes, and proving too much lovin’ will actually kill a barbarian

KEYWORDS:
lucky, truly blessed, or what a way to go

THE FACT:
Attila the Hun, history’s perennial bad boy, was apparently also a perennial playboy. In fact, the guy actually died in the act.

The leader of the Huns, Attila somehow also found time to marry 12 women and father an unknown number of children. Despite his insatiable appetite, though, Attila probably should have kept that last relationship platonic. After all, it was on his wedding night in 453
CE
that the middle-aged Hun burst an artery while celebrating his most recent installment of conjugal bliss. Burying him with vast treasures for the afterlife, his followers reportedly ensured that grave robbers would never find his burial place by diverting a tributary of the Danube, burying the body (in a gold coffin inside a silver coffin inside a lead coffin) under the exposed riverbed, and then diverting the water back to its original course to cover it. Of course, the captives who buried him were all killed afterward.