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Who Farts? New Book Names Names

Hachette Press

A new book, co-authored by a Virginia Tech biologist, about-- well let's call it the aftermath of digestion, made it all the way to the New York Times' best sellers list. 

“Does it Fart?” 

Yes, that's the name of the new book co-written by Tech post-doctoral student, Nick Caruso. And here's the subtitle that qualified it for the science section.

“The definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence.”

It was the younger brother of Caruso's co-author, Dani Rabaiotti (PhD candidate and zoologist studying African wild dogs and climate change at the London Zoo) who posed the question. That got scientists buzzing about a topic once thought fascinating only to teen aged boys.

But it’s clear that scientists working on heavy topics need a break too, and there's nothing like a previously unexplored area, that has a laugh built, in to grab them.

“The vast majority of people think farts are funny, myself included,” says Caruso. “And the topic and title get people’s attention.”

And of course, this is how and why the internet began, as a portal for the scientific community to communicate about the big questions.

“When we started the original hashtag,we had dozens of scientists and other animal experts weighing in, contributing to the spread sheet or tweeting at us. We still get people sending us messages; anything fart related pretty much finds us.”

And soon the people at Hachette Press found out about it and asked the pair to transform the hashtag into a book. 

Being scientists, they put their formidable research skills to work.

“So, the first thing we had to do was to define what a fart is, since it is a slang term.

Caruso says the medical term is "flatus.”

“…which is, ‘digestive gases produced and expelled out the anus.”

But not all animals and insects have one of those, so they ended up with: “Any gas that's expelled out of an opposite end of the mouth."

As scientific terms go, that one is quite descriptive, painting a picture in the mind's eye. But when the giggling dies down, Caruso says what remains, is a great way to get people interested in science.

“Yeah, and that’s how we viewed the book. But, we approached that question as scientifically as we do, any of our research.”

That meant examining digestive systems, diets, and the microbiomes of animals and insects

And, that's how they got answers about most, but not all, the species out there

“Like spiders we still have no idea, which is a great area of future research for any future flatologists out there.”

But when it comes to mammals it's pretty much unanimous. In fact, there’s only one, what you might call, a ‘non-farter.

Nick Caruso says the only mammal they know for sure to be a ‘non-farter’ is the Sloth.

“Their digestive systems are very slow. Almost too slow, where if they have gas build up it would be pretty deadly to them. The gas they produce is resorbed back into their blood stream and is eventually breathed out.”

And even though some humans might prefer to pretend that they too, are among the non-farters, well...Caruso says, “The feeling of shame is definitely a human specific emotion”

Caruso points out that all Animals need to get rid of waste and most of them do it the same way. 

“We've had a lot of primate researchers describe their study species as farting without shame.  There are very proud farting animals everywhere.

"Does it Fart? The Definitive Guide to Animal Flatulence."

Robbie Harris is based in Blacksburg, covering the New River Valley and southwestern Virginia.
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