Yet More From The Annals of Scatology

Folks, I do not know what people are thinking these days and spending their parents' hard won dollars on education but we are faced yet again with the subject of ....well....poop.

As if there wasn't enough said about the stuff we are reliably informed that the Australian wombat is the only animal that puts out neat little cubes, rather than the more traditional round ones or piles of slop.

It seems that scientists are interested in the subject as well, and Patricia Yang, a research scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology decided to investigate the matter.

There are practical applications of interest to engineers involved in the study of fluid dynamics because squares and cubes do not often appear in nature.

Studies of a delicate nature were undertaken and one can only pity the poor wombat subjected to such indignities in the name of science.

Former wombat that is, because the experiments were conducted on parts harvested from wombats who had met an untimely end in The Land Down Under at the hands of automobiles, trucks, and the odd motorcycle or farm wagon.

Not only that but the subject was presented at the annual meeting of  the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics in Atlanta not too long ago.

Yang's presentation was followed up by an investigation of dolphin blowhole nastiness. You can read all about it here .


 Lest it be thought that they are a bunch of cranks and voyeurs, the American Physical Society is an august body of scientists that has been pushing the boundaries of the possible for almost 120 years. They're serious about this stuff and you should be too.

The possibilities are endless. Perhaps when we next retire to the Dougloid Papers garderobe we will contemplate this subject with all the gravitas it deserves.