Thursday, May 27, 2010

Schmidt Sting Pain Index

When Zuddy finds something online he thinks I will like, he'll leave it up on the computer for me.  

This Wikipedia entry had been up for days, but it didn't register in my tiny little pea brain that it was for my enjoyment.


I'm sharing it with you.


Because I care.


Enjoy.

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index or the Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different Hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center. Schmidt has published a number of papers on the subject and claims to have been stung by the majority of stinging Hymenoptera.
His original paper in 1984[1] was an attempt to systematize and compare the hemolytic properties of insect venoms. The index contained in the paper started from 0 for stings that are completely ineffective against humans, progressed through 2, a familiar pain such as a common bee or wasp sting, and finished at 4 for the most painful stings. In the conclusion, some descriptions of the most painful examples were given, e.g.: "Paraponera clavata stings induced immediate, excruciating pain and numbness to pencil-point pressure, as well as trembling in the form of a totally uncontrollable urge to shake the affected part."
Subsequently, Schmidt has refined his scale, culminating in a paper published in 1990[2] which classifies the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera. Notably, Schmidt described some of the experiences in vivid and almost synesthetic detail:

7 comments:

Michelle said...

Brilliant. I think Zud and Kris should market beers with these descriptions.

Kim said...

Wow. Someone wrote two papers on that.

Thirkellgirl said...

This is great! My theory is that because he was one of the three scientists who can write using adjectives, he got a grant. Great find Zuddy!

Janet said...

Wow, he really does care!!

Laura said...

Your Zuddy is amazing. How weird are those decriptions?

Elle Jay Bee said...

Martha!!
Just checking in. You delivered a laugh as usual.
That Zuddy sure is useful!

Ingrown fingernails said...

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