Science can be beautiful and amazing. It can also be slimy, weird, and just plain gross - like legless amphibians who eat their mothers’ skin, or cocaine that makes users’ ears rot. That kind of science is some of Anna Rothschild’s favorite, and it’s the subject of her new YouTube video series, called Gross Science.
Here are some examples:
- Kangaroo farts could fight climate change. Bovine flatulence (cow farts and burps, in common terms) is a major producer of the powerful greenhouse gas, methane. Rothschild says its a common misperception that farts are the main culprits when, in fact, burps are the primary offenders. Either way, some serious attention has been paid to the role livestock farming plays in climate change, and kangaroos may have something to offer. While they have a similar diet, the collection of bacteria in their guts differs from cows, and they produce almost no methane. If we could make cows' guts more like kangaroos', it might be a step toward having our climate, and eating beef, too.
Someone else's feces could save your life. Fecal transplants might eventually be a way to transform cow guts into kangaroo guts, but right now, they're helping cure human patients with Clostridium difficile (often shorted to "C. diff") infections. C. diff is a bacterium that can get out of control after antibiotic treatments, causing diarrhea, colitis, and even death, in some cases. One of the most promising cures for C. diff is to give infected patients a dose of good bacteria that can out-compete C. diff and re-establish a healthy microbial community. Where to get said good bacteria? The feces of a healthy patient, of course.
- Your face mites never poop. Let's start with the fact that you have mites - microscopic cousins of spiders and ticks - living in the pores of the skin on your face. Yeah. In some cases, mites may be associated with skin problems, like rosacea, but most of us live in blissful ignorance of our tiny hitch-hikers. That might end after you get this unforgettable factoid: your face mites have no anus, and never poop. Any waste they produce is stored inside their little bodies until the day they die and decompose ... inside your skin.
Of course, gross science is more than just geeky potty talk. Animal sex and parasites are also big themes. There's also the de-worming medicine that contaminates nearly 70% of cocaine in the U.S. and can cause a user's ears to rot.
Every one of Rothschild's Gross Science videos will stick with you and make you think about things differently. That's the point. But the videos themselves aren't all that disgusting. Most feature collage and animation - quite beautiful, actually. And that is also by design. Rothschild is a journalist, a science advocate, what you might call an edu-tainer. She's passionate about sharing the weird, amazing - gross - science she loves with as many people as possible.