Earthworm meal?
The phrase “a diet of earthworms” intrigues people in a variety of ways (if it intrigues them at all). For historians, it might spark a discussion of a political rally that took place in the German city of Worms in 1521. For nutritionists, the phrase might describe the work of scientists considering whether today’s roughly 8 billion humans could all survive, if necessary, on a diet primarily of earthworms.
Henry Miller, James Mulhall, Lou Aino Pfau, Rachel Palm, and David Denkenberger, whom Feedback considers an all-star team in the worm-eating community, recently feasted on a trove of data. Post-meal, that is, intellectually speaking, they published a study called “Could harvesting earthworms during a catastrophe significantly reduce global hunger?” biomass.
The five researchers analyzed four techniques for efficiently capturing earthworms: digging and sorting, spraying with anthelmintics, making worm noises, and electric shocks.
They asked the “canned” (worm) question: Given the constraints of “scalability, climate-related collection barriers, and pre-consumption processing requirements,” could earthworms collected in these ways feed all of us? Their answer is, in a word, “no.”
Their 48-word response reads: “The authors are not aware of any studies on the human health effects of consuming diets high in harvested earthworms. However, in the authors’ opinion, there is reasonable evidence that such diets may be harmful and therefore should not be recommended unless starvation is the alternative.”
Earthworm Meal
Miller, Mulhall, Pfau, Palm and Denkenberger are the latest pioneers in a long line of scientists who have come together to study earthworms’ feeding habits.
Many others have focused on the feeding habits of the insects themselves.
Charles Darwin achieved some fame through his 1881 book, Formation of vegetable mold by the action of earthwormsNearly a century later, Christian Forchard and Peter Jummers’s book “Diet of Earthworms: A Study of the Feeding Guild of Polychaetes” Annual Review of Oceanography and Marine Biology.
Forchard and Jumaz include a conversation-ending sentence that’s worth memorizing and reciting if you want to impress at a party: “Alciopids are holoplanktonic animals with a muscular, eversable pharynx.”
Other scientists have studied what happens when insects are eaten, particularly by non-humans.
In 2002, Mary Silcox and Mark Teaford examined the teeth of several habitual earthworm eaters. They summarized their observations: Journal of Mammalogytitled “Diet of insects: analysis of microwear on mole teeth.”
“We measured microwear from the shear surfaces of mandibular molars. Parascallops Brewery (the hairy-tailed mole) Scapanus orarius “We compared the genes of (coast moles) with those of other small mammals, including tenrecs, hedgehogs, three species of primates and two species of bats.”
Some of the wear patterns on the mole’s teeth “can plausibly be explained by interactions between the inner and outer teeth of the earthworm and the soil,” the researchers wrote.
Silcox and Teaford’s mole teeth study may take on new importance if people on Earth choose to live a diet based primarily on earthworms, despite Miller and others’ warnings.
in short
Feedback has been received on the news regarding height requirements for certain courses at Vietnam National University’s School of Business Administration (HSB).
Deutsche Welle On July 2nd, the school announced that “this year’s admission requirements are 1.58m or above for girls and 1.65m or above for boys,” because “the school aims to develop future leaders and excellent administrators” and “height is a determining factor, especially when it comes to leadership and self-confidence.”
The news report said that following public outcry, “HSB has adjusted its admissions criteria” so that “the rule now applies to only one course – management and security.”
Are there schools or other institutions in the science, medical, or technology fields that have strict height requirements for students or employees? If so, please send us a document in Feedback with the subject line “Big/Small Careers.” Some job requirements reasonably specify that applicants must be physically able to use certain job-related equipment. Please do not send such requirements. We are seeking examples in Feedback where numbers, not needs, are prioritized.
Toilet Humor
Inspired by Feedback’s collection of abandoned organisation slogans, Ken Taylor has been writing down slogans about abandoned things.
“I live in Cumbria, England, a very rural area. There are many isolated pieces of land that are not connected to the sewer network so we rely on septic tanks, which need to be emptied from time to time. I saw one such tanker at work. The slogan on the side was ‘Move Yesterday’s Meals’. Nothing more to add…”
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.
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