One Gender Difference the World Could've Lived Without Knowing

Except for me.

Via economist Steven Levitt, whose father Michael, a gastroenterologist and the foremost expert on flatulence, was recently profiled here:

...producing less gas may create another problem for women -- and the people around them. Levitt's research suggests women's flatulence is more ... aromatic.

The study was the first ever attempt to provide an objective evaluation of the odour of flatus, Levitt explains. Volunteer judges, blinded to the identity of the generating gender, were asked to rank the potency of the end product.

Volunteer producers -- primed by a diet of pinto beans -- farted into aluminum bags via a rectal tube. The contents of the bags were measured for volume and for sulphur concentration. (Sulphur gases give farts their foul odour.) Syringes full of gas were withdrawn from the bags and wafted by the nostrils of the unfortunate judges.

"Some journal reviewed the worst jobs ever performed in science and this became the number 1,'' Levitt says with a chuckle.

"Now I might say the judges were paid well. Some of them complained of being dizzy and having a headache at the end of session.''

The conclusion: "Women had more sulphur gas and were judged to have more potent odour.''

More fascinating facts.