On the second day of Christmas –
Oh, yes, there is (slightly NSFW) video footage.
Jennifer Ouellette -Dec (****************************************************************************************************************, ********************************************************************************** (4:) pm UTC **************************
But by far the most widely read Christmas issue paper was (a) studythat produced the very first MRI images of a human couple having sex. In so doing, the researchers busted a couple of long-standing myths about the anatomical peculiarities of the male and female sexual organs during sex. Naturally, the study was a shoo-in for the(Ig Nobel Prize) for Medicine. ****************
Leonardo da Vinci famously studied cadavers to learn about human anatomy. He even drew an anatomical image of a man and womanin flagrante delicto, noting “I expose to men the origin of their first, and perhaps second, reason for existing. ” However, “The Copulation” (circa 1596) was based not on his own studies, but on ancient Greek and Arabic texts, with, shall we say, some highly dubious assumptions. Most notably, Leonardo depicted a ramrod straight penis within the vagina.
The modern era of the science of sex arguably began in the s with gynecologist************************** Robert Dickinson, who sought to dispel the absurd notion of “coital interlocking,” whereby the penis penetrates the cervix like a key fitting into a lock. Dickinson’s experiments involved inserting a penis-sized glass tube into the vaginas of female subjects aroused via clitoral stimulation, as well as making plaster casts of women’s vulvas and vaginas. (His work influencedAlfred Kinsey, whose own research produced the famous (Kinsey scaleto describe sexual orientation.)
His co-authors included gynecologist William Schultz, radiologist Eduard Mooyaart, and anthropologist Ida Sabelis. Sabelis was an actual participant in the first experiment, conducted with her then-boyfriend, identified only as “Jupp.” (Others would follow in her pioneering footsteps, including popular science author Mary Roach, who memorably persuaded her husbandto participatein an ultrasound imaging sex study for her (book, (******************************** (Bonk) **********************************************
Convinced the images were scientifically relevant, van Andel submitted their findings to Nature. The journal rejected the paper outright. Controversy erupted when the Dutch tabloids got wind of the experiment, and the hospital balked at letting him use the MRI for additional experiments, although van Andel persuaded them to let him continue in the end. Between then and 2012, eight couples and three single women participated in experiments. Sabelisrecently boasted to Vicethat she and Jupp were the only couple who’d managed the feat without the aid of Viagra.)
The paper finally found a publisher in the British Medical Journal, whose editors thought the study made a fine addition to their annual Christmas issue. (In the final paper, the authors thanked “those hospital officials on duty who had the intellectual courage to allow us to continue this search despite obtrusive and sniffing press hounds.”) Former BMJ editor Tony Delamothe recalledthe thought process behind the decision:
Delamothe puzzles over the enduring appeal of the paper, and he seems to conclude that it’s mostly due to the public’s prurient interest at “seeing coitus on screen (for free). ” But there is now tons of free pornography all over the Internet, yet these images continue to attract interest, and even admiration. Van Andel created a timeless piece of “body art” after all. The sexual act is, as Leonardo observed, “the origin of their first, and perhaps second, reason for existing” —and hence a thing of beauty.
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