Whether it’s a delicious plate of pasta with shrimp, a steaming lobster, or a salmon fillet cooked to flaky perfection, seafood is incredibly popular around the world. In some countries, seafood isn’t just the main meat that most people get to eat but one of the main food staples in general. Some parts of the world aren’t great for agriculture, and thus seafood is essential to the survival of millions of people. But despite its popularity, there are still many misconceptions about seafood.

10Lobsters And Crabs Do Feel Pain

For a long time, pro-animal activists have decried the practice of boiling lobsters alive when cooking them. They attest that this is an inhumane practice akin to torture. Those who enjoy lobster have always explained away the practice of live boiling by claiming lobsters—and other similar crustaceans—cannot actually feel pain.

According to recent research though, it looks like the animal rights activists might have had a point after all. Crustaceans may indeed feel pain. The common belief has been that since crustaceans have nociceptors (receptors that alert you to harmful stimuli but do not cause pain), they do not actually feel anything.

Robert Elwood and a group of researchers at Queens University Belfast spent some time testing this theory out. They did so by inflicting horrible punishment like dabbing acetic acid on prawns and shocking crabs. Each time, they observed the animals paying close attention to the affected area. They even responded positively to anesthetics. This marks a complicated pain response that might give one hesitation about dropping a living thing in boiling water ever again.

9Parasitic Nematodes

If you buy a nice thick fillet at the grocery store, there’s always the chance you will find a rather nasty surprise. Popular fish—like trout and salmon—are common targets for parasitic roundworms like Anisakis simplex. These cuddly little darlings curl up into a nasty little circle and nest themselves firmly in the flesh of your future meal. These parasites are common enough that many major fisheries will check carefully with lights and candles for parasites, though they still get through occasionally.

Aside from the nasty shock of biting into a worm carcass, you shouldn’t have any serious issues if your fish is properly cooked. However, if the fish is raw or undercooked, then this parasite could ruin your whole day or worse. If a live one ends up in your gullet and decides to make friends with your stomach, you could end up with anisakiasis. Symptoms of this lovely disease include vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps.

8The Great Shrimp Vein Debate

Shrimp is one of the most popular seafood dishes in the world. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of confusion about whether or not a shrimp should be deveined before cooking it. The “vein” is actually the shrimp’s intestine, so there’s a decent chance that when you caught the shrimp he still had the remains of his last meal. Shrimp are bottom feeders, and remains in the intestines are said to make the shrimp taste gritty.

However, this usually only applies to larger shrimp—with small shrimp, the vein will likely not even be noticeable. However, some people claim that there is a taste difference even with smaller shrimp. Some like it better with, some like it better without. There are also those who prefer their shrimp served alive or freshly killed. In short, you aren’t really risking your health with shrimp that hasn’t been deveined. It’s a matter of personal preference.

7The Salmon Of Knowledge

Irish legend tells of a salmon that possessed great wisdom and ability. The one whom the Salmon chose to eat it would receive divinatory powers. A druid named Finneigas was waiting patiently for the fish to swim by so he could catch it and eat it until he was all-powerful.

After a very long wait, he finally caught sight of the elusive salmon and snatched him out of the water. Since he wasn’t going to just eat it raw, Finneigas ordered a young lad named Demne to cook the magical fish. He then waited patiently to finally reach his ultimate triumph.

Unfortunately for poor Finneigas, Demne accidentally burned himself while touching the still-cooking fish. Without even thinking about it, the young man put his thumb in his mouth to wet and cool the sizzling digit. The next thing he knew, the powers of the salmon were his.

Finneigas was, as you might expect, greatly disappointed. There was nothing he could do though—clearly, the Salmon of Knowledge had not chosen him. Demne was henceforth known as Fionn and, blessed with the powers of the salmon, he went on to become a great Irish chieftain.

6Shark Finning

While sharks may not be everyone’s favorite ocean creature, most people would probably still find the practice of shark finning more than a little absurd. In order to complete an expensive delicacy called shark fin soup, shark finners capture sharks, cut off their fin, and toss the shark back into the ocean to die. Like we said: absurd.

Recently, the United Arab Emirates and many other authorities have banned the practice. Their new rules state that if someone fishes a shark, they have to bring the entire body back to the port. See, apart from slow murder by painful mutilation, finning is also an incredibly wasteful practice with tons of live sharks being tossed back into the ocean as the swimming dead.

In China, shark fin soup is an expensive delicacy that can run as much as US$100 a bowl. It was once a food only royalty could obtain and was thus a mark of high status. In modern times, it has become more of a ritual to mark special occasions or business meetings. Worse yet, the main purpose of the shark fin isn’t even to add taste—it simply gives texture to the soup. That’s all we get out of a practice that kills tens of millions of sharks per year while leaving many other species critically endangered.

5Raw Fish Is Usually Frozen

If you’ve eaten sushi or sashimi in the United States, it was likely frozen long before it ever reached your plate, despite the whole point being to eat it raw. It turns out United States food inspection authorities are pretty concerned about people eating raw food. Any raw fish sold in the United States has to first go through a deep freeze to kill off bacteria before selling the fish to customers.

Tuna is the one exception to the freezing rule, though many of those who sell it freeze it anyway. Many United States sushi bar patrons are deeply concerned with having their fish fresh, but they also want fish that isn’t in season. This means that many sushi bar operators are often freezing tuna—sometimes for up to two years. Interestingly, some connoisseurs will admit that they themselves cannot tell the difference between frozen and fresh tuna.

Of course, you can’t always be certain the raw fish you’re eating was properly frozen, as the FDA can’t inspect every piece of sashimi. There simply aren’t enough health inspectors out there for that. Plus, due to the ambiguous wording of the regulations, freezing can be done either by the restaurant or by whoever sells the fish to them. Sometimes, one side will simply assume that the other side has already started the freezing process, when in fact nobody has and probably never will.

4Mahi Mahi Is Not Dolphin

Many people get very confused about mahi mahi and think that it’s somehow related to the dolphin family. This confusion is understandable—for a long time, mahi mahi was actually known as the dolphinfish.

While it might seem odd that we were calling this fish a dolphin when it looks nothing like one, it turns out there’s a totally reasonable explanation. Mahi mahi have a habit of swimming alongside boats, so people began associating them with dolphins. Unfortunately for commercial fishers, this was about the worst thing that could happen.

Most people don’t want to eat dolphins due to their cuteness, intelligence, and incredibly high levels of mercury. If people confuse some product at the store with dolphin, it’s about the worst bit of PR one can get. In order to deal with this problem, they renamed the dolphinfish to mahi mahi. “Mahi” means “strong” in Hawaiian.

3Scandinavian Fish Spread

For those who live in the United States, peanut butter is one of the most ubiquitous food items around. However, in parts of the world like Scandinavia, peanut butter is viewed as more of a strange curiosity that those crazy Americans slather all over their food for some reason.

Scandinavians do agree that spreads are a great way to eat your favorite foods, but they prefer theirs come from fish. Apart from turning roe or herring into a delicious salty spread, fish are also sold pickled in jars there. Pickled herring is one of the more popular dishes, coming in a wide variety of flavors.

Swedish researchers have begun actively studying fish spreads for any and all health benefits, especially due to the Omega-3 fatty acids present in the fish. If you live in the United States and want to sample this Scandinavian taste sensation for yourself, you can find it at your local Ikea.

2Eating Shellfish Only During ‘R’ Months Isn’t Necessary

You may have heard how you’re only supposed to eat shellfish during months containing the letter “r.” The reasons given for doing so are both numerous and dubious. Some people still follow this advice today while others question whether or not there’s actually any need to do so.

The “r” rule seems to have originated with the Native Americans who passed the advice on to pilgrims and other international settlers. Back then, not eating shellfish during those months made perfect sense. All months without an “r” in their names fall around summertime, when algae can bloom and fill shellfish with nasty toxins that you certainly don’t want coursing throughout your body. Also, shellfish breed a lot during the summer, and some people believe they don’t taste nearly as good while actively fertile.

In the modern world, however, you’re unlikely to deal with any of these problems. The shellfish that you buy at the store are usually cultivated commercially as part of a very streamlined process. In addition, shellfish are usually imported from somewhere else during the hot summer months. So unless you like to hit the beach and catch your own shellfish, you don’t have much to worry about regardless of the month.

1Eels And The Discovery Of Anaphylaxis

As mentioned earlier, we freeze raw sushi and sashimi so they can be safely served. However, there is one tasty delight that needs to be cooked no matter what: eel.

Eating uncooked eel can do more than just ruin your day—even a small amount is likely to kill you. Eel blood is really, really poisonous. While freezing is usually fine for dealing with bacteria or rendering anisakis inert, it does nothing to remove the toxicity of eel blood. The only way to kill the toxic protein is to thoroughly cook the fish.

However, while eel poison is something you certainly don’t want to ingest, their poisonous blood has been used for some important scientific research. In the early 1900s, Dr. Charles Richet found himself intrigued by Louis Pasteur’s experiments in building up tolerance to disease through exposure to weaker versions of it. He wondered if someone could build up resistance to poison in a similar manner.

In order to test his theory, he injected small amounts of eel blood into dogs. Instead of slowly tolerating the poison more and more over time, the dogs actually developed anaphylaxis. This is a severe (and sometimes fatal) allergic reaction that usually develops after multiple exposures to an allergen. Dr. Richet’s discovery, while bad for those poor dogs, opened up new avenues of research. For his efforts, he received a Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Gregory loves seafood.

Liquid ivory? This lost craft is among the oddballs of history that nobody saw coming. More surprises lead to unknown kingdoms, bizarre corpses, and deadly weapons made from people.

Top 10 Fascinating Discoveries Involving Fluorescence

10 A Mummy Full Of Grasshoppers

In 1937, a mummy turned up in Texas. The man died between 1,400 to 1,000 years ago and his body was naturally preserved by the dry conditions of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. The guy died horribly.

The man had a parasite that gave him Chagas disease. This bummer causes deadly constipation, massive swelling of the colon, and prevents proper digestion. Near the end of his life, the man was malnourished and probably too weak to care for himself. Somebody fed him a near-exclusive and protein-rich diet of grasshoppers for months.

The mummy was unique for reasons other than being full of undigested grasshoppers and about 2.6 pounds (1,170 grams) of feces. His colon was so backed up that it created enough pressure to crush plants that normally pass through the digestive system unscathed, something that had never been recorded before.^[1]

9 A Man-Sized Mask

 

In 2019, archaeologists buried a mask at a secret location. They had just renovated the artefact, which was a stone mask the size of a person. These items are known as stucco masks and show a specific god or a person from real life (the identity of the individual shown on the mask is not clear).

First discovered in 2017 in Yucatán in Mexico, researchers realized they had a unique mask on their hands. Created somewhere between 300 B.C. and A.D. 250., this was the first stucco mask to be discovered in the area and it was also brightly painted.

Due to its rarity and the site having no official protection, the artefact risked being stolen. To fool looters, the structure was buried for its own protection at the site. But a year later tests showed that it was deteriorating. So it was excavated, restored, and buried again in 2019.^[2]

8 A New Maya Drug (Marigold)

 

Marigold won’t get anyone high. But the ancient Maya appeared to have smoked the plant anyway. This was discovered by Washington State University after they tested 14 ceramic pots that were used as drug containers by the Maya over 1,000 years ago.

The discovery is also unusual because the marigold is the first non-tobacco plant found inside these vessels. Indeed, the plant shared the drug containers with two types of tobacco. Why the Maya stuffed their pots with marigold is not clear. But perhaps the marigold was a flavour enhancer to give smoking a better taste.^[3]

7 A Mysterious 6-Foot Statue

 

In 2021, farmers ploughed a grove in Mexico. At one point, they hit a rock. After trying to remove it, the farmers discovered that the object was a large statue of a woman. Mexico is no stranger to ancient artefacts but this was not your everyday find.

The region, located near Mexico’s Gulf Coast, had never produced anything like this. The limestone carving stood 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and was made between 1450 and 1521 A.D. While she did not come with a name tag, her ornate clothing suggested that she was a pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican leader, goddess or a blend of both.

The statue had Aztec traits but not enough to belong to the culture. While the carvers remain unknown, they probably belonged to the Huastec people who are descendants of the Maya. If so, then the complete lack of other Huastec artefacts is puzzling.^[4]

6 A Mud Mummy

 

Egypt is known for its mummies. Normally, they are wrapped in bandages but a few years ago, an Australian university discovered that one of their Egyptian coffins contained a unique corpse—a woman wrapped in mud.

Her name and cause of death are unknown but after she died in 1207 B.C., she was wrapped in textiles and buried. Sometime after her death, something or somebody disturbed her grave and damaged her body. The ancient morticians then tried to repair the harm by enclosing her in a hardened mud shell.

Nobody is sure why they chose mud when resin covers were normally used. One plausible theory suggests that the woman came from a low-status family. They tried to emulate the resin wraps used by the elite but chose mud since it was cheaper.^[5]

5 The Golden Tongue Mystery

 

Early in 2021, Egypt announced another unique discovery. At Taposiris Magna, a mummy was discovered. Nothing weird about that. Egypt is full of them. But this is the only mummy in the history of Egyptology to sport an artificial tongue made of gold.

The 2,000-year-old corpse is a mystery. Since there are no other mummies with golden tongues and no ancient writings that explain why embalmers thought this was a good idea, one can only guess at the reason. Some have suggested that the person might have had a speech problem in life and needed help to talk to the gods in the afterlife. Even if that were true, it still does not explain why gold was used to create the tongue.^[6]

4 A Sign Post To A Lost Kingdom

 

Most people know the legend of King Midas. He had the ability to turn anything he touched into gold. The ability was an invention of storytellers but the king really existed. Around 3,000 years ago, he ruled a kingdom in Anatolia called Phrygia.

Phrygia was not the lost kingdom. And researchers had no missing civilizations in mind when they investigated a site in Turkey back in 2019. While working at Türkmen-Karahöyük, a farmer approached and told them about a rock with funny writing on it. The script was identified as the Luwian language from the 8th century BC.

The stone told a remarkable story. Phrygia had been defeated and King Midas had been captured. The stone celebrated this victory and was carved by somebody who belonged to an unknown kingdom—the one that had crushed Phrygia. History was unaware of this rival kingdom and at the moment, the name of this nation is lost. The stone did name their ruler—King Hartapu. Nothing is known about him, either.^[7]

3 Skulls That Point To Punt

 

Depending on who you ask, Punt was a myth or a real place. The land had such wealth that some say Punt helped to create the crucial trade routes known as the silk roads. Ancient Egypt was a regular customer and bought myrrh, frankincense, and gold from Punt. But the most valuable commodity that attracted the Egyptians was an animal native to Punt—the Hamadryas baboon.

In the past, researchers realized that they could find Punt if they backtracked the baboon trade. They gathered Hamadryas skulls from Egyptian tombs and temples and only studied the animals born outside of Egypt. This showed that the animals came from an area that spanned Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Yemen.

In 2020, a new study examined baboon heads that were mummified 3,000 years ago. They did not reveal the location of Punt but the skulls narrowed the location down to Somalia, Eritrea or Ethiopia.^[8]

2 Weapons That Were Once Human

 

Doggerland was a strip of land that once connected mainland Europe with Britain. Around 10,000 years ago, the inhabitants made distinctive weapon points. Used as tips for harpoons, arrows, and spears, the points were carved from bone into slender saw-like barbs. Over 1,000 have already washed up on Dutch, Irish, and Russian beaches.

For a long time, nobody really studied them. But in 2020, researchers looked at 10 and made a disturbing find. While 8 were made from red deer bones, 2 came from human skeletons. The mystery has many questions. Why use human bones when other materials are more durable and available? Why turn your cousin into an arrow?

Most experts feel that the unusual practice was done for symbolic reasons. But this does not explain the practicality of the human points. They were not blunt or decorated as symbolic items might be. They were not different from the “real thing.” The human barbs were well-crafted and capable of being deadly weapons.^[9]

1 A Bizarre Skill

 

Ancient people had impressive skills. But one craft is so unusual that it defies explanation. A prehistoric community in Siberia had the ability to soften mammoth tusks into a playdough-like state, shape an animal figure, and then harden the ivory back into its seemingly original state.

When the figurines were discovered in 2000, several ivory bars were found among them. Incredibly, the bars showed that the playdough technique was not the softest option. The bars were been turned almost fluid before being shaped and hardened. How ivory can temporarily turn into a near-liquid or clay cannot be explained. Considering that the craftsmen lived 12,000 years ago, it makes their brilliant skill even more exceptional.^[10]

10 Strange Archaeological Discoveries

Every culture and religious group on earth has some form or another of healer or doctor. Pseudo healers who claim to work miracles with infinitely diluted extracts or carefully selected herbs. Witch doctors and Sangomas who can increase the length of your male appendage, help you win the lotto, or bring back lost lovers—all at a fee, of course. In Western medicine, we tend to place our trust in medically trained doctors who practice science-based medicine to treat human ailments, mend broken bones, or fight international headlining pandemics in full protective gear.

The modern world has come to benefit from the advances in medical science, and we are, therefore, surviving long past the expiration dates of our ancestors from previous centuries. Not all medical treatments, however, are what they are chalked up to be. Here are 10 surprising medical treatments (applied and used by medically trained doctors) you hope you will never need:

10 Nose Job

Let’s start off with an easily avoidable one—the simple nose job. Looks are important as we are visual creatures and appreciate beautiful lines and features. However, there aren’t many noses that are misformed enough to warrant putting them through the process of rhinoplasty.

As expected, the procedure starts out with a decent dose of sedation. This is followed by a trained professional placing a chisel as far up your nose as possible. Then they violently hack at it with a mallet until the desired shape is achieved—either by removing cartilage in your nose or by inserting cartilage or bone removed from elsewhere in your body. If you drive by a construction site again, stop and listen to the clang of the hammers on the steel and concrete and then consider whether it’s worth it.^[1]

9 Open Eye Surgery

Nothing is allowed near my eyes. I can feel the windows to my soul watering just thinking about what I am about to write. Eye surgery happens, as one would expect, with your eyes open. I repeat—open eye surgery requires your eyes to be open while they cut and burn your corneas and iris using nothing but a local anesthetic. As a recent eye surgery patient—detached retina surgery—noted, “It’s strange—you know your eye is open, and the doctor is working in there with sharp objects. You can hear the scraping or whatever they’re doing, but you can’t feel or see it.”

Your eyeballs do not have pain receptors, which helps, but the feeling of something scraping at your lenses and then cutting into it like grapes are enough to leave any person thinking—should I just go blind instead?^[2]

8 Natural Childbirth

Let’s get something straight, I am an advocate for a natural birth if advised by your medical practitioner. However, what people do not always know about natural childbirth is that pushing a human wrecking ball out of your vagina can and will cause tearing of the vaginal walls. Therefore, even with your average, run-of-the-mill natural birth, the doctor will get all snippy and be inclined to make an incision.

To limit the damage of an expected tear, the doctor may perform an episiotomy. In other words, they would anticipate the point of pressure and cut small slits in the vaginal wall—with scissors—preventing the vagina and anus from becoming one orifice of blood and feces. On second thought, just skip the children and move directly to the empty nest phase of life, characterized by happiness and relief. And adopt a dog instead!^[3]

7 Black Mamba Venom Treatment

In Africa, there are many things that can and will kill you at the drop of a hat. In particular, snakes. Snakes are responsible for roughly 20,000 deaths per year on the African continent, with Black Mambas having the highest bite to death ratio. If a Black Mamba bites you, and the wound is left untreated, you will die. Almost 100% assured.

So, what can doctors do about it? In the rare case the hospital has anti-venom in stock, they will administer and monitor. If not, then good luck. In some instances of severe envenomation, and where anti-venom isn’t enough (or none available), then they hook you up to life support and let go, hoping that the machines keep your body working long enough to outlast the poison by itself. Whereafter they will wake you. If you do wake.^[4]

6 Skin Graft

If you had a close encounter with an open flame, or perhaps you were dragged behind a moving Roman chariot, and you need new skin, why not just get a skin graft? A skin graft is where they harvest skin from another part of your body (usually your buttocks, upper leg, or back) and then “plant” it over the affected area. Easy right? Obviously not.

There are various ways to perform a skin graft (i.e., split-thickness, full-thickness, autograft, allograft, xenograft, etc.)—most processes involve harvesting skin from the patient him/herself. A handheld electric human peeler called a dermatome is used to slice off the top layer of the dermis, after which the skin is meshed. The meshing, in short, means running the removed skin through a machine that makes slits, allowing for expansion.

If you are imagining a human skin fishnet, you are on the right track. The net is placed over the wound and stapled to the body with special surgical staples. There is no guarantee of success, meaning there is a possibility the sliced-off skin, removed from a perfectly healthy part of your body, will simply dry and shrivel…while stapled to your body.^[5]

5 Electroconvulsive Therapy

Mental Health has recently come under the spotlight in the media and in popular culture, and rightly so. Depression can have adverse side effects on a person’s general wellbeing. Sometimes, however, therapy and medication simply do not make a difference in severe cases. Enter Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT).

ECT involves general anesthesia and blasting the brain with electric shockwaves in an attempt to trigger seizures. The procedure first began in Italy in the 1930s, even though psychiatrists had already known that inducing seizures could be useful in treating certain mental illnesses. Before ECT, they used chemicals, which caused episodes of terror in patients before the seizure started.

After losing popularity in the ’60s and ’70s, ECT use increased again in the 1980s, though still considered an extreme treatment to most people. A few years ago, they would administer ECT without anesthesia, which led to memory loss, fractured bones, and other little niggles, which highlights what the process involves.^[6]

4 Transsphenoidal Surgery

The ancients had cleverly figured out the shortest way to the brain is up the nose. They weren’t wrong. Anybody who has had the pleasure of receiving a COVID test (most of us surely) knows what it feels like when an unstable hand forces the tip of a cotton swab so far up your head you want to faint. It, therefore, makes sense that doctors have perfected the art of removing tumors through your nose. You heard me.

With the assistance of a nice long endoscope and curette, which is an instrument made for scraping or debriding tissue or debris from bodily crevices and surfaces (in particular when doing a biopsy), they go in through your nose like the Magic School Bus on a science outing, looking for the tumor.^[7]

3 Amputation under Local Anesthesia

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=124631&page=1
We have all heard the horror stories—you go under the knife, and the doctor amputates the wrong leg, or in this particular case, your penis. What they don’t tell you is that sometimes another horror story plays out. If you have a terrible baseline and are not suited for full, dreamy, general anesthesia, they use a local anesthetic. In other words, it’s a targeted painkiller and can be applied to numb the lower half of your body or one side in particular.

What this means for the poor patient is simple—you cannot feel the pain, but you do, however, notice your body rocking as they saw through your limb, the smell of burned tissue as they seal your blood vessels, and the sound and vibrations of a bone saw making its way through your body. You are merely a spectator at your own amputation, and it’s not just a bad dream.^[8]

2 Fecal Transplant

Have you ever thought about having another person’s poop inside you? No? Congratulations, you are normal. In some rare instances, it might be necessary to restore your health. Human feces and the intestinal tract contain large amounts of microbes and healthy bacteria. When the body has an adverse reaction to certain types of antibiotics, a condition known as Clostridium Difficile Colitis (C. diff) may occur.

While the condition can be treated with oral or intravenous antibiotics, severe cases may require a “poop transplant,” officially fecal microbiota transplantation. To restore the balance of “good bacteria,” a sample of healthy feces is delivered (usually via colonoscopy) throughout the colon. In other words, another person’s poop is shot straight into your body.^[9]

1 Methanol Poisoning

During the height of the pandemic, in many countries, lockdown rules included curfews, stay-at-home orders, and alcohol bans. The ban on alcohol had an adverse impact on people who depend on wine to stay sane being cooped up at home (I am looking at you mothers and writers), leading many to attempt brewing their own. Reports across the globe indicate that failed home brewing had led to a significant increase in methanol poisoning.

Ethanol, found in most of your favorite alcoholic beverages, is safe if consumed responsibly. Methanol, on the other hand, is not. The treatment for methanol poisoning, ironically, is the consumption of ethanol. In other words, if you drink too much of your failed homebrew, you would need some vodka or wine to save your life. What a cruel game of irony life played on people who consumed methanol for the sole reason there wasn’t alcohol available in the first place. Lucky for you, the hospital should have more than enough of the right juice.^[10]