2016 is (finally) ending, and that can only mean one thing: the Seriously, Science? Top 10 of 2016, as voted on by you, our dear readers (and by “voted,” we mean “clicked”). Here are your top 10 favorite posts from 2016: apparently, y’all love sex, cute animals, and disgusting things... as do we! (Yes, these are exactly the same topics as last year--some things never change.) Happy New Year!
11. Why do so many people hate the word “moist”?
"People associate “moist” with sexual connotations, which explains the recent rise in aversion to the word. Be sure to check out the table below: it’s not every day we see a scientific paper that includes the words 'fuck' and 'pussy.'"
10. Study finds women try to hide their hot men from other (fertile) women.
"...they wondered whether women would be more likely to try to protect their mates from fertile women versus non-ovulating women. It turns out that, yes, they do… but only if their partners are 'highly desirable'!"
9. Think sloths are cute? How about when they crawl into a latrine and eat your poop?
"It was scooping with one hand from the semi-liquid manure composed of faeces, urine and toilet paper and then eating from the hand."
8. Whose cheating is more likely to doom a marriage: husband or wife?
"These researchers dug through decades of survey results and found that although husbands are three times more likely to cheat, the marriage was equally doomed if either partner got some on the side."
7. Want to avoid dying from a rattlesnake bite? Wear jeans.
"Turns out the snakes were only able to inject a third of the venom into the be-jeaned limbs, leaving venom to be harmlessly absorbed by the denim fabric."
6. Study finds that obese women have more sex.
"It turns out that over 40% of the women sampled had sex at least twice a week, and that obese women were more likely to have sex at least three times a week."
5. The funniest stand-up comedians are more likely to die young.
"These data reaffirm an adverse relationship between comedic ability and longevity, with elite Stand-up Comedians more highly rated by the public more likely to die prematurely."
4. Scientists catch male spiders giving oral sex.
"That is, if you define oral sex as 'salivat[ing] onto female genitalia pre-, during, and post-copulation.' I know I do."
3. Scientists finally figure out why whales like to jump out of the water.
"These scientists watched 94 different groups of whales to discover that loud noises made by jumping and slapping the water may actually play a role in communication between nearby groups of whales."
2. Chickens prefer beautiful humans.
"Surprisingly, they found that the chickens preferred the same faces as did human volunteers."
1. Case report: woman gives herself a C-section and saves her baby.
"She took 3 small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in 3 attempts in the right paramedial region, cut the uterus itself longitudinally, and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried." Related content: The top 10 best-clicked posts of 2015: from gorillas to female ejaculation!The top 10 best-clicked posts of 2014: from fart germs to conception by oral sex, and some odd places in between.The year in silly science: the top 10 posts of 2013… and beyond!Top 10 most popular posts of 2011! Top 10 most popular posts of the year! (2010)Top 10 absurd papers of 2009.
