New Scientist magazine reports they found the coronal ridge of the penis, found where the glans, or head, meets the shaft, could scoop out more than 90% of the cornstarch mixture with just one thrust.
(Via Medpundit.)
It doesn't say whether the latex penis was "circumcised". This would make a critical difference.
An intact penis wouldn't scoop anything, I suspect.
Posted by: dipnut on August 11, 2003
Dip! Yer back! Huzzah!
Hmm. Well, they were making an evolutionary argument. I assume they accounted for "intact".
Posted by: Moira on August 11, 2003
I presume otherwise, which makes this experiment seem pretty damn silly. But there's no need to guess when I can just ask. I've emailed the fellow who dreamed this thing up, and I'll let you know.
In the meantime...
Some primates do have sperm competition, and the strategy is to flood the other guy out. This also makes a nice protein gift for the female, who eats the excess. Yup!
Squirrels plug their mates with semen that hardens in the vagina. The next suitor has no chance if he can't dig out the plug. As a result, penises have evolved into prybars, scoops, shoehorns, etc. In fact, the particular form of the penis for this purpose is a differentiator of squirrel species that are otherwise indistinct. Yup!
Posted by: dipnut on August 11, 2003
Watch your language, young man. What do you think this is, the Discovery Channel?
Email the researcher? Why didn't I think of that? Please let me know what he says. Enquiring minds want to know.
In fact, all across America tonight one will hear "Honey, I'm home! Um, what's with the cornstarch?"
Posted by: Moira on August 11, 2003
No comment.
Posted by: Jonathan on August 11, 2003
Here's the email I sent two days ago, with the subject "penis as scoop":
Professor Gallup,
I read an article about a recent experiment of yours, where you measured the effectiveness of a latex penis at scooping material from an artificial vagina. The hypothesis was that the shape of the glans evolved in order to remove competitive suitors' sperm.
There was no mention of the prepuce, which seems important to me. On withdrawal, I'd expect the prepuce to cover or occlude the coronal ridge of the glans, which would affect the scooping action. How did your team account for this?
Here's the reply:
(silence)
Personally I think the good Professor was brought up short. But I'll keep trying to penetrate the matter...maybe there's an abstract of the research online somewhere.
Posted by: dipnut on August 13, 2003