Monitoring gastric distress is hard to do and often involves sliding camera-equipped scopes or catheters through the nose to internal places of interest. A new ingestible device may soon hit the market: a camera about the size of a quarter.

In tests on pigs, researchers said it delivered location measurements comparable to an X-ray, but without the obvious gagging. There are already "smart pills" on the market that measure things such as pH, pressure, transit time and temperature along the gastrointestinal tract. The new device works by detecting a magnetic field generated by a coil outside the body and could, in principle, allow patients to watch something moving through their bodies in three dimensions.

Body of Knowledge

Human fingers can feel objects as small as 13 nanometers. Mark Rutland, a professor of surface chemistry, says that means that "if your finger was the size of the Earth, you could feel the difference between houses (and) cars."

Get Me That, Stat!

A new report in Nature Human Behavior estimates that school-aged children around the world lost, on average, 35% of an academic year's learning — and still haven't made up for that loss — due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stories for the Waiting Room

Most women do not smoke during pregnancy. That's a good thing. Even better, the CDC says the small number who do has shrunk by more than a third. Smoking is a major risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes and health problems for newborns later in life.

Among pregnant women who continued to smoke, the CDC said they tended to be under the age of 30 and live in these 10 states: Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Doc Talk

Neuralgia: a burning or stabbing pain that follows the path of a nerve

Phobia of the week

Scoleciphobia: fear of worms

Best Medicine

Man: "My wife went to a self-help group for compulsive talkers."

Friend: "Really? What's the group called?"

Man: "On and On Anon."

Observation

"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." — Steven Wright, American comedian (1955-)

Medical History

This week in 1987, a patent for "keeping a head alive" was issued to Chet Fleming (U.S. No. 4,666,425). The invention consisted of a cabinet providing physical and biochemical support for an animal's head severed from its body. Oxygenated blood and nutrients would be circulated by means of tubes connected to arteries and veins that emerge from the neck. A series of processing components would remove carbon dioxide and add oxygen to the blood. If desired, waste products and other metabolites could be removed from the blood, and nutrients, therapeutic or experimental drugs, anticoagulants and other substances could be added to the blood. After being thoroughly tested on research animals, Fleming suggested the device might be used on humans suffering from various terminal illnesses. He was clearly a head of his time.

Sum Body

These are the 10 riskiest foods, based on government health safety recall data. The primary culprit is bacterial contamination, usually E. coli, salmonella or listeria.

1. Leafy greens

2. Cheese and deli meat

3. Ground beef

4. Onions

5. Turkey

6. Chicken

7. Papayas

8. Peaches

9. Cantaloupes

10. Flour

Epitaphs

"I see dumb people." — Headstone of Micah G. Green (1985-2001)

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: stevepb at Pixabay