
This is certainly not the first time I've heard of scientists using scat for evidence. Wildlife enthusiasts often use dookie to track and locate animals. Because of my field trip to Taconic three years ago, I can now discern deer defecation from other animal leavings (they are small round balls often in neat little piles). And one of my coolest professors from Swarthmore College was an ethnobotanist who analyzed the chemistry of elephant droppings to determine the nutrients elephants consumed when they became ill -- information that could potentially be used to synthesize new medicines for humans. Pretty neat (though mildly nauseating) stuff.
So the next time you take time to vacate your bowels, ponder this: What are you leaving behind for the rest of the world to discover, and what is it saying about you?
:-/
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