Geekery: Scientists Create Fart Database
I bet you didn’t know that herring communicate using farts.
Methane is an issue.
Methane concentrations in the atmosphere, they report, were rising only at about .5 parts per billion per year in the early 2000s. But in the past two years, they’ve spiked by 12.5 parts per billion in 2014 and 9.9 parts per billion in 2015. With carbon dioxide rising more slowly, that means that a higher fraction of the global warming that we see will be the result of methane, at least in the next decade or so. – source
And a good deal of it is thanks to the inhabitants of the planet, so wouldn’t it be good to know exactly which species are contributing to this issue? The scientific community is attempting to make a list.
#DoesItFart by the numbers (non-existent taxa excluded) pic.twitter.com/pyMPJgCoyU
— Dr. Jeff Clements (@biolumiJEFFence) January 10, 2017
So, which animals cut the proverbial cheese? Tons, it turns out. Bats do, according to David Bennett, a PhD candidate at Queen Mary University of London. And the bigger they are, the harder they honk.
Rats, zebras and bearded dragons are also among Those Creatures That Fart. Birds, on the other hand, do not seem to have a biological need for passing gas, but they could let one rip, theoretically. Marine invertebrates such as oysters, mussels and crabs? Alas, they are whoopee-impaired.
Latest version is is here, you can read an article on the whole thing here, and you can join the conversation on Twitter with the official hashtag: #doesitfart
