Is your stomach gurgling? Burping is something akin to bleeding the radiator
Q. What makes gorillas sing for their supper? Or if not that, at least hum hungrily for their food? A. Actually, our “gorilla cousins” sing—or hum—AS they supper, characterized by primatologist Dian Fossey as “belch vocalizations,” says Steve Mirsky in “Scientific American” magazine.
According to a recent study in “PLOS ONE,” these sounds are usually made by dominant males of the group and seem to signal contentment (bonobos and chimpanzees also produce feeding vocalizations).
As study co–author Eva Luef explained, these food calls seem to have some social function, since silverback gorillas are often the ones making group decisions. So the calls may signal to his group mates that he is busy eating at the moment. “In other words,” Mirsky says, “humming and singing may be the dominant male’s Do Not Disturb sign. And his eventual silence could be gorilla for ‘Ladies and almostmen, may I have your attention?’” Q. When the hungry human gut gets to rumbling, what’s producing the sound? A. The ever–present human gut gasses — hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane — gurgle audibly in a semi–liquid substrate that vibrates like the skin of a drum, writes Hugh Hunt of Cambridge, UK, in “New Scientist” magazine. A similar phenomenon occurs in central–heating systems where gurgling noises are also produced by trapped gasses. “The noises go away after ‘bleeding’ the radiators to release the gasses. In like manner, we bleed our stomach and bowels by burping and farting.” Q. Whatever can be so rare as a baseball pitcher throwing a perfect game or a batter slugging four homeruns in a single game? A. The first of these has been done 21 times since 1900, the second 16 times, says Dan Lewis in his book “Now I Know More.” But rarer than either of these is Major League Baseball’s (MLB) unassisted triple play, where all three outs in an inning are recorded in one play by the same fielder. The tally? Only 15 such plays in the league’s history.
For this rare play to be possible, there must be no outs in the inning and at least two runners on base. The unassisted triple play usually consists of a hard line drive hit directly at an infielder for the first out, with that same fielder then able to double off one of the base runners and tag a second for the second and third outs. Eight of the 15 fielders were shortstops, five were second basemen and two were first basemen.
The Cleveland Indians is the only franchise to have three players achieve this feat while on their roster: Neal Ball, playing for the Cleveland Naps, was the first in MLB under modern rules, on July 19, 1909; then Bill Wambsganns in Game 5 of the 1920 World Series; and Asdrubal Cabrera in 2008 (from Wikipedia). Q. At least how long ago did people start hearing the instructions to “Open wide”? A. According to University of Bologna archaeologist Stefano Benazzi, ancient dentistry goes back 5000 years earlier than was previously thought, reports Gemma Tarlach in “Discover” magazine. He and colleagues examined the lower molar of a 14,000-year-old skeleton unearthed in northern Italy, containing a large cavity. “Chipping at the top of the molar shows an attempt to remove the cavity, while a microscopic view shows striations on the tooth.” These marks were made with a stone tool in an apparent attempt to remove the infected material, which would have been “quite painful,” Benazzi says. Although the effort was only partly successful, at least the patient survived. “Benazzi’s analysis included replicating the damage on modern teeth — relax, he used teeth that were already extracted.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bill is a journalist, Rich holds a doctorate in physics. Together the brothers bring you “Strange But True.” Send your questions to