Tag: medicine
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Corpse Medicine and Tetris Effects
The idea of ingesting human skulls from the freshly killed seems repulsive today, but it was shockingly common among British and other European aristocrats from the 16th century all the way up into the so-called Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. Jeff and Anthony discuss what it would take to try the recipe, and why it was so pervasive. Then, a new study reports that playing just 20 minutes of Tetris following an automobile accident can help prevent the formation of the painful, intrusive memories that can follow trauma. Anthony and Jeff investigate why this might be, and tip their hat to the greatest video game of all time. [more]
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Put Your Foot in Your Mouth
If you could taste human flesh in an ethical way, would you? A man was recently in a motorcycle crash that put him face-to-face with the macabre hypothetical. When a car hit his bike and sent him careening into a nearby forest, his foot was shattered to the point that he would never walk on it again. When the doctor asked if he wanted to amputate, his one question was, “Can I keep it?” He invited his closest friends for a very personal dinner. Jeff and Anthony make a pact. [more]
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Polyphasic Spree (Live From PAX East 2018)
Around a third of the population have trouble maintaining sleep throughout the night. While nighttime awakenings are distressing for most sufferers, there is some evidence from our recent past that suggests this period of wakefulness occurring between two separate sleep periods was the norm. Throughout history, there have been numerous accounts of segmented sleep, with a common reference to "first" and "second" sleep. Jeff and Anthony hope you can make it all the way through this episode. Recorded live in Boston at PAX East 2018. [more]
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Tooth Bomb
In the 19th Century, a Pennsylvania dentist called WH Atkinson came across a condition that sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Writing in The Dental Cosmos, the first major journal for American dentists, Atkinson documented an outbreak of exploding teeth. Jeff and Anthony chew this story over. [more]
Do NOT join our secret society. You’ll just wind up with a bunch of cool stuff. It’s gross.