A new crop of Ig Nobel Prize winners was announced Thursday. Not to be confused with the Nobel Prize, the Ig Nobel salutes the science that makes us laugh and think. This year, a Japanese team is being honored after discovering some mammals can breathe through their behinds. Takebe Takanori and his team took home this year's physiology award.
(Takebe Takanori / Professor, Tokyo Medical and Dental University / Osaka University) “First and foremost, thank you so much for believing the potential of anus for breathing potential.”
They realized loaches use intestinal breathing to survive low-oxygen environments and wondered if mammals could do the same. They experimented on lab mice and pigs that struggled to use their lungs and administered an oxygen-rich liquid through the anus. They found the pigs' oxygen levels briefly improved. Takebe and his team published their research in 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic. They believe it could be used to treat respiratory failure as an alternative to ventilators.
◆crop 作物、収穫高、群れ a plant such as wheat, rice, or fruit that is grown by farmers and used as food
◆salute 敬意を表する、たたえる to move your right hand to your head, especially in order to show respect to an officer in the army, navy etc
◆behind お尻
◆take home 獲得する、受賞する
◆physiology生理学 the science that studies the way in which the bodies of living things work
◆first and foremost 真っ先に、何よりもまず used to emphasize the most important quality, purpose, reason etc
◆loache ドジョウ
◆intestinal 腸の、腸に関する the long tube in your body through which food passes after it leaves your stomach 類義語 gut
way of doing things
◆respiratory 呼吸の relating to breathing or your lungs
◆ventilator 人工呼吸器 a piece of equipment that puts fresh air into a room, building etc doing things