(Roughly) Daily

Colonoscopies are a right of passage into late middle-age. One dreads getting a “surprise”– the finding of a polyp. But one doesn’t anticipate other kinds of surprise…

Doctors in Missouri were baffled to spot a fly inside a man’s intestines during a routine colon screening.

Images taken during the colonoscopy and published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology show the intact fly inside the man’s colon.

Matthew Bechtold, the chief of Gastroenterology at the University of Missouri, told The Independent that he had prodded the fly and confirmed it was dead.

The 63-year-old patient told doctors that he had only consumed clear liquids the day before the procedure and had no idea how the fly had gotten into his colon.

He said he had eaten pizza and lettuce for dinner two days before the procedure but did not remember a fly being in his food.

The finding was described as “a very rare colonoscopy finding and mystery on how the intact fly found its way to the transverse colon.”…

Wonder never cease: “Bizarre Discovery of Intact Housefly in Man’s Intestines Shocks Doctors,” in @ScienceAlert, via @BoingBoing.

* Charles de Lint

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As we investigate intrusive insects, we might spare a thought for Seymour Benzer; he died on this date in 2007. A physicist, molecular biologist, and behavioral geneticist, he developed a method for determining the detailed structure of viral genes, did much to elucidate the nature of genetic anomalies (called nonsense mutations), and identified mutant genes useful for studying Creutzfeld-Jacob (CJ) disease and other human brain degenerative disorders… all using the ubiquitous cousin of the housefly– the fruit fly– as a research subject.

Benzer was awarded the National Medal of Science (in 1982), among many other major awards and recognitions.