Asterix comics contain 700 traumatic brain injuries, say academics

[Jazzy]

Academics have carried out a detailed analysis of the 700 head injuries suffered by characters in the Asterix comic books, in a paper published by a respected medical journal.

The German scientists calculated that the “plucky little Gaul” and his sidekick Obelix were responsible for causing more than half of the wounds, “under the influence of a doping agent called ‘the magic potion’”, with Roman soldiers their most common victims.



They found that many of those who were knocked out in the 34 books, more commonly enjoyed by schoolboys than neurosurgeons, were often left with an outstretched tongue or amnesia but none appeared to die.



The researchers, led by Marcel Kamp of the Neurosurgical department at Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf, conclude: “The favourable outcome is astonishing, since outcome of traumatic brain injury in the ancient world is believed to have been worse than today and also since no diagnostic or therapeutic procedures were performed.”



Their paper, published in the official journal of the European Association of Neurosurgical Socities, known as Acta Neurochirurgica, sets out with no apparent irony their aim to “analyse the epidemiology and specific risk factors of traumatic brain injury in the Asterix illustrated comic books”.



They explain how in the books, published first in France in the 1960s and 1970s, the inhabitants of a small village in Gaul resist the Roman invasion with the help of a magic potion brewed by a druid.



The main characters “thump” Romans, pirates and Goths but a “detailed analysis had not been performed hitherto” of the injuries they suffered.



By “screening” all 34 books, the authors found 704 cases of head or brain injury, all but six suffered by men.



Rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...0-traumatic-brain-injuries-say-academics.html

 

[Flurry]

Lmfao, wow!

 

[Evil Eye]

Who's paying these guys?

 

[Flurry]

Lol. Now you know these people got way too much time on their hands to be doing that sort of thing for a comic book. Next thing you know, they'll be counting up how many Cigars Wolverine has smoked, and how many people he's killed since his creation. o.0

 

[Evil Eye]

Lol. Now you know these people got way too much time on their hands to be doing that sort of thing for a comic book.

Yeah. I do hope no one's paying them for this though

 

[Flurry]

Lol, be a nice way to get paid though!

 

[beowulf]

dont they have more important things to do with their time?

 

[Sam.]

You would think so.

 

[EvanP]

How sad to have researchers studying how many brain injuries occurred in a fictional story or book, why don't they put their researching skills to use and start researching something that's worthwhile such as cures for diseases and things like that?