Nature
PUBLISHED
A discussion on Twitter about how bad biologists smell after a solid day of work led to scientists revealing the worst thing they've ever smelled in their line of work.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.David Steen, an Assistant Research Professor of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, asked fellow biolgists on Twitter to retweet him if they'd ever wondered why they smelled bad. Unsurprisingly, this seems to be a common thing to ask when you're a field biologist.
A lot of people had no hesitations about why they smell bad, either. They smell bad because they do things like wade through bogs for large portions of their days.
But soon this discussion of smelling bad spiraled into a discussion of "what's the worst thing you've ever smelled in the name of science".
It turns out that scientists smell a lot of awful things that no human being should ever have to smell.
However, the overwhelming consensus seems to be that the worst smell in science is the stench that comes off a dead sea turtle.
Though other smells are bad – including many different types of animal vomit and corpses – none even come close to a dead turtle, according to Twitter's scientists. Though all these smells sound horrific, turtle corpses are the only ones described as soul-destroyingly awful.
So there you have it. If you fancy a career in field biology, you might want to invest in a nose plug.
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