SIDELINES...

EXCRUCIATING EEL

A man in Xinghua, China, inserted a 20cm (8in) eel into his rectum as a cure for constipation. Rather than relieving the blockage, the eel made its way up into the man’s colon and then bit through it, escaping into his abdomen. He endured the pain for a day as he was “too shy to see the doctor”, but then went to hospital where a life-saving operation removed the eel, still alive. This folk remedy has claimed other victims; in Guangdong a 50-year-old man had a 40cm (16in) eel removed in 2020, and an African carp was found in the stomach of a young man who claimed that the fish “slid into” his rectum when he accidentally sat on it. globaltimes.cn, 27 July 2021.

VERNACULAR MAPPING

Ordnance Survey has released a new mapping tool designed to help emergency services find people in need of help. It allows vernacular local names to be overlaid on the official OS maps to speed up rescue times when people use those instead of the official ones. 7,500 names have been added to the map, including Stinky Bay, Crazy Mary’s Hole and Nuncle Dicks, concentrating on coastal areas, but the intention is to add vernacular landmarks from right across the country in due course. BBC News, 22 Jul 2021.

SPERM REVOLUTION

A team led by Daiyu Ito at the University of Yamanashi in Japan has revolutionised the way that scientists can send mouse sperm samples through the post. Previously, samples had to be sent in vials in liquid nitrogen or a freezer, but Ito’s team have discovered that mouse sperm can be freeze dried onto paper and successfully revived after being posted. They have stored thousands of mouse samples this way, creating what the researchers have called a “sperm book”. New Scientist, 5 Aug 2021.