Free Republic

If we've proven anything here at Not the Bee, it's that a lot of people (especially politicians) talk out their backsides. But that kind of idiomatic speech doesn't require breathing out the rear end too. In point of fact, I doubt anyone has ever even considered using their rear end to breathe. Until Now! According to Science News, medical doctor and stem cell biologist Takanori Takebe recently performed the first human trials of "butt breathing." When his father caught pneumonia and was put on a ventilator, Takebe was aghast about how awful ventilators were and figured there must be another...

As you're sitting there, reading these words, you're probably breathing. Down the air goes, into your lungs, via the upper respiratory tract that includes your mouth and nose; up it comes again, back out the same way, after delivering its precious oxygen payload. This, we assume, is how most mammals breathe - but maybe it's not actually the complete picture. According to new research, rodents and pigs can also respirate through their butts. Technically, delivery of oxygen via their rectal intestines suggests a new, enema-like means of ventilating patients under respiratory distress - if the same strange ability can be...