Can giraffes float?This (and the related "can giraffes swim?") is the question--"one of the biggest scientific questions ever faced by the scientific community"--that scientist Darren Naish discusses in his post on "Testing the flotation dynamics and swimming abilities of giraffes by way of computational analysis".
Skipping to the end, Naish and his collaborator Don Henderson conclude the animals would float at an awkward angle that "looks downright uncomfortable", and therefore "that giraffes can swim, but not at all well."
Naish also goes on a brief rant about how "it isn't widely realised how much work scientists do FOR FREE and FOR FUN, IN THEIR SPARE TIME. "
The whole article is a delightful look at investigating questions that may or may not "have any implications whatsoever for anything".
It goes straight in my Humanity Is Not All Bad (H.I.N.A.B.) file.
I appreciate such cheering up because yesterday I had a wisdom tooth pulled.
Yesterday I was fine, fine, oh so fine, floating like a thing that is designed to float, because I was popping Vicodin.
I love those narcotics.
But today I've scaled back to ibuprofen and am no longer feeling quite so very fine, but rather more like a floating giraffe, I imagine.