Last week, tucked at the end of a voluminous list of cutting-edge science, Nature hid a gem I covered for Wired Science: Human penis spines may be a missing piece of DNA away.
Beyond the giggles, the real news is that researchers have almost certainly identified deleted portions of life’s code that guide development and, ultimately, contribute to making us the humans we are today. Bigger brains for everyone, smoother penises for guys, and all of that stuff.
I wasn’t the only one to notice. Google News shows 40 different outlets pushed something out the day embargo lifted. Yet no major outlet, to my knowledge, actually published any clear depiction of the, er, spines. (Hey — those abstract mouse penis cross-sections in the study don’t count.)
Some ethical principle of journalism is probably about to violated here, i.e. “Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.” But in the name of science, so be it!
Below are a few pics that turned up during my research. Naturally, I take no responsibility for your NSFW activity:
