The Origin Of The Feces

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KATHLEEN DAVIS: Speaking of dairy, food allergies and intolerances are pretty common these days. Can we learn about things like lactose intolerance from studying these fossilized feces and plaque? When I was growing up in suburban Chicago in the 1950s, after Sunday afternoon dinners that often centered on rare roast beef, my parents would take all four children on car rides into the countryside. We were grossed out by the smells of the dairy farms and incredulous that, as my father was happy to insist, our delicious dinner could have come from those animals. We had a mantra for the moment we got the first whiff: “Red meat from a cow? Pee-YOO!” Our Stone Age ancestors must have been very familiar with the smells of excrements. Hunters would have used those smells as other carnivores do, to locate their prey. Dogs joined human communities something like 30,000 years ago. Around 10,000 years ago, the first settled agricultural communities domesticated goats, sheep, cattle, and horses to take advantage of their milk and meat, hair and hides, and their plow-pulling muscle power. Archaeological remains indicate that their dung was used as a building material and fuel for fire, uses that live on today in less industrialized parts of the world, along with fumigation to eliminate insect infestations and even recreational cow “chip” throwing. Excremental smells must have permeated the life of the early farmers. IRA FLATOW: That was sci-fi producer Kathleen Davis speaking with Dr. Christina Warriner, assistant professor of anthropology at Harvard University.

In another instance of the band's sense of humor, circus impresario P. T. Barnum is credited as a co-producer for the record, despite the fact that he had been dead for over 100 years at the time the album was released. And then, of course, we also have dietary DNA that’s present. And this can provide a real important window into what people eat in the past. Stromberg, Joseph (22 January 2015). "Everybody poops. But here are 9 surprising facts about feces you may not know". Vox. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019 . Retrieved 3 December 2019.The appearance of human fecal matter varies according to diet and health. [11] Normally it is semisolid, with a mucus coating. A combination of bile and bilirubin, which comes from dead red blood cells, gives feces the typical brown color. [1] [2] In the Middle East, cow dung is consumed for a variety of reasons, such as curing dysentery, a belief of healing properties or as a food staple. [ citation needed] Terminology Cyclosia papilionaris consuming bird droppings CHRISTINA WARINNER: So the microbiome is this community of bacteria that lives in and on the human body. And they’re very important. For a long time, they were very difficult to study. And so we really underestimated their importance. But we now realize they’re a fundamental part of our biology. And we actually rely on many of their activities for basic biological functions. Everything ranging from digestion to even producing some of the vitamins that we require. This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. It also helps in fraud preventions But what we’re really after with this study is we’re trying to understand the evolution of the gut microbiome. We know that the communities of bacteria that live in our gut are highly responsive to the diets that we eat. And we know that industrialized diets have really changed the way that our microbial communities are structured.

KATHLEEN DAVIS: Mm-hmm. So does that mean that the coprolites that we do have are often found in the same places? IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. The fossil record is littered with countless interesting things. Ancient bones of giant beasts, the remains of long extinct plant life, to name a couple. For some researchers, though, nothing is more exciting than finding fossilized feces. Yes, you heard me right.

Christina Warinner, assistant professor of anthropology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, joins Science Friday producer Kathleen Davis to talk coprolites, and what ancient feces can tell us about our ancestors, and ourselves. The Origin of the Feces is the second studio album by the American gothic metal band Type O Negative, released in 1992. The liner note said this album was recorded in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn on Halloween of 1991, but it contradicts the fuller title The Origin Of The Feces (Not Live At Brighton Beach). The album was actually recorded in Systems Two Recording Studio a few miles from Brighton Beach, but produced to sound as if it had been recorded at a live show by adding crowd noises, banter with the fictitious audience, and even a song stopping because the venue supposedly had received a bomb threat. This was done to simulate some controversy the band had during the Slow, Deep and Hard tour in Europe. The band is well-known among fans for weaving this dry humor into their often gloomy music. Johnson, Steven (2006). The ghost map: the story of London's most terrifying epidemic--and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 1-59448-925-4. OCLC 70483471. Archived from the original on 4 March 2022 . Retrieved 21 February 2021.