How often do you fart? Is that more or less than the average healthy human? Who knows? Scientists aren't quite sure, yet, but that could change with new technology. Brantley Hall of the University of Maryland led a team in developing a special device to answer the question. It attaches to your underwear and then detects certain gases that indicate flatulence. They named the device "Smart Underwear," even though you have to provide your own underwear. One could imagine they had plenty of other possible names that were rejected. "Fart Finder" comes to mind.
They've tested the device on volunteers, first to see if it worked at all, then to see if the device will detect changes in the amount of farting when the person's diet is changed. Smart Underwear seems to work just fine, and Hall has applied for a patent. So far, they've found a wide variation in the number of farts per day and the amount of gas expelled, and hope to expand their experiments among the population, They are particularly looking for outliers, meaning people who fart very little or an awful lot. Read more about fart research and what they've found so far at Scientific American. -via Damn Interesting
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