Just had a fine late-evening snack because Pam and I had some hors d'oeuvres a few hours ago at the museum's 75th anniversary kickoff event, but no real dinner. So we were hungry. For a snack, I prepared two small plates of sliced pepper-jack cheese, about eight spears of cold salted asparagus, a pile of walnuts and a banana. It hit the spot.
Which leads to the experiment. It came up at dinner the other night that it would be nice to know what factors might affect the distinctive odor that is a byproduct of asparagus consumption (let's call it asparagus "water"). How long does it take to become evident? If you are drinking a lot of water, does that dilute the perfume? What if you're a bit dehydrated; does that mean that if you don't need to urinate for six or 10 hours, you'll still get the A-E (asparagus effect)? How quickly can the effect present itself? I seem to remember that Michael once identified very rapid release of the perfume. What conditions were present for that to happen?
Here's my own initial data, from yesterday. Four hours after consumption, a pretty impressive odor. Two hours after that, definitely still there. The following morning, nothing I noticed.
I'll have more data later, what with the snack and all.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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4 comments:
Dad - being your daughter and all, this blog entry is a little embarrassing...but, I'll play along anyway.
My biochem professor also likes to talk about the A-E, and uses it as an example of genetic variation. There are two genes involved here: one that metabolizes asparagus to produce the byproduct that cause the odor, and another that allows detection of the odor via smell. Not everyone has these genes. Some people may produce the byproduct, but not smell it, and vise verse.
Therefore, in regards to A-E, there are four types of people: smelly smellers, non-smelly smellers, smelly non-smellers, and non-smelly non-smellers. The Barrys all seem to be smelly smellers.
I don’t know what the frequencies of these genetic variations are. This could be determined with another experiment, although it would involve smelling other people’s urine…
ROTFLOL
We had a lovely dinner with Maryanne - asparagus was on the menu. We ate at about 6. At 10:10the asparagus effect was evident.
Two hours for me yesterday.
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