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Science Unlocks The Mystery Of Belly Button Lint
After three years of research, including examining 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button, Georg Steinhauser has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel. Dr Steinhauser's observations showed that "small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day." Chemical analysis revealed the pieces of fluff were not just made up of cotton from clothing. Wrapped up in the lint were also flecks of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust. Unfortunately, further study has failed to yield a hair or fiber that would give Dr. Steinhauser the last three years of his life back.
That's right folks. You read it here first!
This week's educational film will be "Groundbreaking Discoveries of the 21st Centuty!" followed "Zinc Oxide and You".
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
A question that has been keeping me up nights my whole life.
"No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
This must be genetic - I've never experienced this myself and I wear the same kind of clothing like everyone else. Actually, I have, but usually it's my feet eating my socks. Never my innie.
Please Slashdot, keep this kind of stuff off the front page or at-least make it like a sub-post. (Those little mini-categories)
Is this how you want a sophisticated site to look like when a new user views it?
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
I thought everyone knew that the man who goes around putting fluff in your belly button is the same man who goes around putting bits of carrot in your chunder, even though you haven't eaten carrots for a fortnight...
I have mod points,How do I mod bomb the article into oblivion?
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I have never observed this phenomenon on myself or anybody else...but then I wash regularly. When he says "end up in the navel at the end of the day", I think he really means "end of the week".
Oh no... it's the future.
I dunno. Seems like you wouldn't have that much trouble at all, and, in fact, it could be quite beneficial. For instance, I made that rug your standing right now out of mine.
My blog
If I were a subscriber I could have seen this story early!
On the other hand, having just RTFA,
Maybe one can be too hairy to gather belly button lint. Or perhaps you wear only polyester? I wear lots of cotton t-shirts, I am thin, with 6-pack abs, I shower every day, and with a moderately hairy stomach I get belly button lint on a regular basis. Now, I never once wondered how or from whence it came to be in my belly button, as it was only way, way too obvious. Is this "Dr." at a community college?
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Because it's on the freaking front page. It's easy to either overlook the "Idle" tag in the title, when you're just skimming the story bodies or to get curious despite knowing better. I mean, it's like telling someone not to think of elephants -- it's too late already.
So why not complain? Idle is on rare occasions amusing to read when you've exhausted everything *else* that you normally read online, but it's not like it's "A-list" material* that deserves to be on the front page.
* Even for relative definitions of "A-list" material.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
ie. Why is belly button fluff predominantly blue? I believe that the anatomical feature known as a 'navel' or 'belly button' is in actual fact a previously unrecognised organ that serves a vital role in the human body.
As we all know, blood is red. Indeed the red colour of blood is integral to the role it plays in the body. I propose that the belly button is actually a chromatic lung which is capable of absorbing redness from the environment into the blood and similarly expelling excess blueness in order to maintain a healthy balance. This may be the reason that environments containing excess blueness cause people to feel cold: the blood looses redness, in turn diminishing it's oxygen carrying capacity leading to an overall reduction in the metabolism that actually serves to lower body temperature.
Interestingly, there are reports that the navel fluff of aristocrats has a reddish hue, leading to speculation that they are in fact a distinct species. This has yet to be demonstrated under laboratory conditions and remains a controversial area of research.
This is old news. Dr Karl completed a survey and concluded the same result back in 2002. Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/lint/
Skim the headline and move along ... two seconds.
Post about it being a waste of time, twice ... two minutes.
Thrill other slashdotters with the hypocrisy of it all .... priceless!
Infuriate left and right
Didn't Dr Karl Kruszelnicki win an Ig Nobel prize for similar research in 2002? http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/04/1033538774048.html '...concluded the lint was a combination of clothing fibres and skin cells that were led to the navel, via body hair, "as all roads lead to Rome". "Your typical generator of belly-button lint or fluff is a slightly overweight, middle-aged male with a hairy abdomen," he said.'
I predict at least a nomination for this year's award for Medicine.
I was thinking more along these lines:
Special hair...
Drawing debris into the intestinal area...
Sounds a lot like a primitive sea creature, or even a carnivorous plant.
I wonder if there's any shared evolution/genes here.