The British Medical Journal has provided an answer a burning – and smelly -- question of our time: Do farts carry germs?
The journal passed along the story of Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, who had been asked by a nurse if it was possible to contaminate an operating room by passing gas. This prompted Kruszelnicki to investigate the topic.
Dr Karl collaborated with Luke Tennent, a microbiologist in Canberra, Australia. Karl asked Tennent to fart onto two Petri dishes from five centimeters away.
He did this once with his pants on, and again with his pants off.
The next day, they found sprouted visible lumps of two types of bacteria on the second dish (no pants). The bacteria were the ones usually found in the stomach and on the skin.
However, they didn't find bacteria on the fist dish, meaning the clothes had acted as a filter.
The researchers said that the bacteria from farts were not harmful. Still, make sure you've got some pants on before you let one go.
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