Nothing like getting the “scientific” end of the stick
Students sniff poop for science (and for pay) (MSNBC)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University students are making some extra cash through a project that might turn some of their classmates' stomachs — by sniffing livestock excrement.
Students earn $30 per session as they take whiffs of a variety of smells collected from barns filled with hogs, cows and chickens for odor research being conducted by Albert Heber, a Purdue professor of agricultural and biological engineering.
"Typically they're farm smells — manure, farm waste, hay. The only thing that is good is that we are not smelling it for a long time. It's just a sniff," said civil engineering graduate student Anuj Sharma.
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The students' work provides Heber with data for his ongoing research on ways to improve methods for estimating a given livestock farming operation's odor emissions.
Using an olfactometer they place their noses inside, they sniff diluted samples of air that are taken from different locations on farms and diluted to represent the odors that air would have at various distances from the barn.
Heber said the idea is to test different odor-mitigation techniques to see how effective they are. The less diluted the sample needs to be for the odors to be undetectable, the better the method works.
"If it has to be diluted 1,000 times, that's a pretty strong odor," Heber said. "We have had samples in the past that have been over 10,000."
Heber's work has led to a Web site in which people can input variables, such as the type of animal on the farm, the number of animals or how manure is processed, to determine how far the odors will travel.
The information can be used to decide how close a residence can be to a livestock operation and not be affected by the smells.
Heber's paid sniffers said the job isn't as bad as it sounds.
"It gets a little intense, but since I go out and collect a lot of the samples, it's not that bad," said Sam Hanni, a research assistant for Heber. "It's nothing really strong that would bother you."
Luca Magnani, a doctoral student in animal science, said the hogs farms are the worst to smell, but he's used to being around animals, so it doesn't bother him much.
Tourists trinkets made from panda poop?
"Grad students are kind of poor. I've done worse than this," he said.
Sallie Fahey, executive director of the Tippecanoe County Area Plan Commission, said having data that shows how nearby residents might be affected could lessen the tension between farmers seeking to build livestock farms and neighbors worried about its smell.
"If it's an area that's a little close to where there has been a development ... that's when it tends to be contentious," Fahey said.
Can you believe it? Some people think using unemployed, untrained young people to sterilize monkeys is unscientific. The nerve.
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI (AP) - A northern Indian state said Thursday it planned to use unemployed youths to sterilize monkeys to try to combat aggressive primates who have been raiding farms.
The idea drew immediate condemnation from conservationists, who said the plan was unscientific and would likely worsen the problem.
Indian authorities have struggled in recent years to deal with the tens of thousands of monkeys that live in and around cities. They are drawn to public places such as temples and office buildings, where devout Hindus feed them, believing them to be manifestations of the god Hanuman.
In recent months, the deputy mayor of New Delhi was killed when he fell from his balcony during an attack by wild monkeys, and 25 others were injured when a monkey went on a rampage in the city.
The mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh is infested with rhesus macaque monkeys, who have been driven to farms and cities after losing their natural forest habitat.
Prem Kumar Dhumal, the state's chief minister, said Himachal Pradesh would go on a "war footing" to fight the thousands of monkeys who have been turning farms into wastelands and attacking people, according to a statement from his office.
"Affected districts would be identified and local youth involved in the process, who would be provided training in capturing and sterilization by the experts," the statement quoted Dhumal as saying, adding that they would use "laser sterilization."
The capacity of zoos in the area would be expanded to accommodate captured monkeys, and camps may be set up for them in order to protect crops and other farmland from being encroached upon, the statement said.
Conservationists condemned the proposal to let inexperienced youths sterilize monkeys, saying it was cruel and would not solve the problem.
Sujoy Chaudhuri, an ecologist who co-authored a report by prominent primatologists and conservationists that was submitted recently to the federal and state governments, said the plan would make the monkey problem worse.
"It is a ridiculous idea and what is worse, it will do nothing to contain the problem and probably make it worse," Chaudhuri said. "Can you imagine what having badly sterilized monkeys running around will do to the levels of aggression?"
Probably be easier to just get them cable.
Headlines of the day
Man stabs another man with pork chop bone (Drudge)
Man who stabbed mom to death now wants part of her estate
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