How many different shapes of human noses are there? Ten? Fifty? Hundreds? The correct answer is 14, according to Abraham Tamir, an Israeli scientist. And while the study has its limitations, it is the first-of-its-kind survey detailing the shapes of schnozes.
How many different shapes of human noses are there? Ten? Fifty? Hundreds? The correct answer is 14, according to Abraham Tamir, an Israeli scientist. And while the study has its limitations, it is the first-of-its-kind survey detailing the shapes of schnozes.
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Tamir set out to count, sort and categorize the shapes of human noses mainly because no one had ever done this experiment before. A professor of chemical engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, Tamir also teaches a course on the interaction between art and science.
Analyzing the shape of noses fulfilled both his scientific curiosity and his artistic appreciation for the contours and appearance of this vital part of human anatomy. Tamir also likes looking into topics that others have not yet investigated — and the nose seemed, well, ripe for the picking.
To group and quantify noses, Tamir looked at nearly 1,800 photos. Four hundred images came from artwork, while he took almost 1,400 snapshots of real people in Israel as well as in three European countries — Holland, Belgium, and France. Around 1,200 of the pictures were of men and about 700 were women.
The results, reported in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, found 14 different nose shapes. But here it's worth noting the study's drawbacks, as Dr. Tony Youn, Michigan-based board-certified plastic surgeon, sees them.
Article continues: http://nocamels.com/2011/08/there-are-only-14-different-kinds-of-noses-study-says/
Image credit: Rice Universtiy
