Solid Proof

September 14, 2010 3:04 AM

In 1983, at the Urodynamics Society meeting in Las Vegas, Professor G.S. Brindley first announced to the world his experiments on self-injection with papaverine to induce a penile erection... The way in which this information was first reported was completely unique and memorable (possibly NSFW)

A bit of a renaissance man, Brindley's previous accomplishments included the implantation of the world's first electronic visual prosthesis, in which "signals from radio transmitters worn on a hat..are transmitted across the scalp to 80 implanted radio receivers" and the Logical Bassoon, which simplified the playing of the instrument by "replacing the mechanical linkage between the fingers and the note-holes by an electrical one."

Everything you ever wanted to know about Giles Brindley.

(via Bad Science)

posted by Jakey (53 comments total)

I'm no stranger to strange things. I've attended a few BDSM/leather shows in LA where people have done various flesh-hook suspensions and literally, in the most exact sense of the literal meaning of the word literal, publicly demonstrated nailing their genitals to a board. Contextually, this was rather expected and mundane.

Comparatively this is some awesomely freaky, entirely unexpected stuff.

Whiskey, tango, foxtrot - over?
posted by loquacious at 3:19 AM on September 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Good news, everyone!
posted by Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam at 3:19 AM on September 14, 2010 [38 favorites]

Are you ready for some SCIENCE?


No? Oh, well, then. Never mind.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:23 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

This makes all those stories of porn wallpapers/popups/system sounds suddenly appearing during a computer slide presentation completely outclassed. Way to go, Professor Brindley!
posted by Iosephus at 3:31 AM on September 14, 2010

Power point?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:34 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm reminded of this comment made recently by smoke, which makes the assertion that scientists are not necessarily great communicators. In fact, they can be terrible communicators. .

However, in Brindleys case he was simply being overly derect and to the... erm... point. Is there really any better kind of communication?

I heart eccentric scientists. Stories like this make my day.
posted by sunshinesky at 3:35 AM on September 14, 2010

So during the peer review process, did anybody have a bone to pick with his research methods?
posted by chillmost at 3:37 AM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think I met him on Chat Roulette yesterday.
posted by qvantamon at 3:38 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's a good job for the front row that he hadn't come up with an ejaculation enhancer. (Opening act? Gallagher.)
posted by pracowity at 4:09 AM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I am so jealous of the unembarrassable!
posted by theredpen at 4:41 AM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

That's nothing. This guy injected his penis with silicone for six years. [NSFW | NSFL]
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:41 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

How he should have opened his lecture.
posted by tomcooke at 4:44 AM on September 14, 2010

You know it's a party when Brindley shows up.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:44 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, and: pics or it didn't happen.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:45 AM on September 14, 2010

It was relatively poorly attended, perhaps 80 people in all.

But each one of those people went on to have erections that were enjoyed by millions.
posted by Sutekh at 4:51 AM on September 14, 2010 [4 favorites]

¡¡WARNING!! :: CANNOT UNSEE CIVIL DISOBEDIENT'S LINK ::
posted by planetkyoto at 5:03 AM on September 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

And now I shall control the ENTIRE TRI-STATE AREA!!!
posted by briank at 5:06 AM on September 14, 2010

This guy injected his penis with silicone for six years.

Did he use a caulk gun?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:08 AM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Dude, did you see the link? Thing is a cock-gun.
where gun=bazooka
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:14 AM on September 14, 2010

Ah, yes, that's what you meant. I see that. Now.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:15 AM on September 14, 2010

The sad thing is at 3 minutes and 32 seconds, this was still Dr. Brindley's longest lecture ever.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:28 AM on September 14, 2010

It boggles my mind that not one person there stood up and did the slow clap.

Well, there was that one doctor's wife that turned to her friend and said, "Meh, is that all we've been sitting through this for?"
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:42 AM on September 14, 2010

I like the picture of him with Alan Turing.
posted by pracowity at 5:45 AM on September 14, 2010

To which the elephant replied, "It's cute, but can you really breathe through it?"
posted by jbickers at 5:47 AM on September 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

The whole experience was pretty hard on him.
posted by Drasher at 5:54 AM on September 14, 2010

The urologists I work with still talk about that meeting, even though some of them weren't even in college when it occurred. Given that urologists are pretty blasé when it comes to penis-related stuff, it really takes something unexpected to make an impression on them

Trivia: papaverine is one of two drugs derived from the plant Papver somniferum, better known as the opium poppy.
posted by TedW at 5:56 AM on September 14, 2010

[more inside]

That's what she said!
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:05 AM on September 14, 2010

South-east London reprazent.
posted by Hogshead at 6:24 AM on September 14, 2010

From the first link:

He was a true lateral thinker

But only while standing up?
posted by Forktine at 6:34 AM on September 14, 2010

South-east London reprazent rampant.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 6:40 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

IMO, the original article is SFW if you can read metafilter at work. It's just text, and a very dry, medical description of what he did.
posted by empath at 6:54 AM on September 14, 2010

This represents a great contribution, both to the medical community and to people telling the "Aristocrats" joke.
posted by PlusDistance at 6:58 AM on September 14, 2010

Protip: If Brindley offers to show you his 'Logical Bassoon', he ain't talkin bout no woodwind.
posted by RokkitNite at 7:22 AM on September 14, 2010

And uh, he didn't get fired and strung up with public indecency charges? Different era from today, that's for sure.
posted by Stagger Lee at 8:00 AM on September 14, 2010

he then summarily dropped his trousers and shorts, revealing a long, thin, clearly erect penis. There was not a sound in the room. Everyone had stopped breathing.

It boggles my mind that not one person there stood up and did the slow clap.

And it boggles my mind that he didn't take this opportunity to play a Logical Bassoon solo.
posted by mannequito at 8:06 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

He really pulled a boner.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 8:30 AM on September 14, 2010

So is he a grower or a shower?
posted by pianomover at 8:32 AM on September 14, 2010

Okay, I just got here. Have we had the Power Point joke yet?

Blazecock Pileon: Power point?

Right. Premature ejaculation?

The 10th Regiment of Foot: The sad thing is at 3 minutes and 32 seconds, this was still Dr. Brindley's longest lecture ever.

Anybody got Chat Roulette?

qvantamom: I think I met him on Chat Roulette yesterday.

‘Pics or it didn’t happen’ meme?

clvrmnky: Oh, and: pics or it didn't happen.

All right, we’re good then. Excellent job everyone. That’s some fast, efficient, precise dick-joke-work. See you all tomorrow.
posted by el_lupino at 8:34 AM on September 14, 2010 [11 favorites]

Power Point or it didn't happen.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:26 AM on September 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I am reminded of this, which I remember watching on TV when it was reported. Racy stuff for WWOR 9.
posted by hanoixan at 9:44 AM on September 14, 2010

Sounds like a hard act to follow.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:51 AM on September 14, 2010

Or as the next presenter said, "OK. Awkward."
posted by mosk at 10:33 AM on September 14, 2010

Aw! He indicated that, in his view, no normal person would find the experience of giving a lecture to a large audience to be erotically stimulating or erection-inducing. He had, he said, therefore injected himself with papaverine in his hotel room before coming to give the lecture, and deliberately wore loose clothes (hence the track-suit) to make it possible to exhibit the results.

I kind of love him. Not for the erection, but for his wonderful and brilliant innocence.

Does anyone know if he was married or otherwise romantically attached? Because a partner in such a situation would presumably (in most cases) help to keep the genius more anchored to social realities. I have a kind of sad image of him as sort of entirely adrift from anything but the physiological processes of sex, but for all I know he was just uncommonly actualized and transcendent. Anyway, my basic feeling is "Aw!"
posted by taz at 11:31 AM on September 14, 2010

I wonder if it put a damper on the reception afterwards? Imagine the buffet line, "No, really, Dr. Brindley, I insist! You go ahead of me. Really."

Seriously, it was a convention in Vegas prior to viagra, I wonder how many guys came by and asked him for a little injection for themselves later on?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 11:33 AM on September 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Professor Brindley’s seminal article from this research was published a few months later

Brindley's "Seminal article". Hur hur.
posted by The Discredited Ape at 12:27 PM on September 14, 2010

It was relatively poorly attended, perhaps 80 people in all.

I wonder if this is like Woodstock, and half of the urologists out there claim to have attended it.
posted by ymgve at 12:54 PM on September 14, 2010

Don't take the brown acid indeed!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:55 PM on September 14, 2010

Peer review, or peep review?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:02 PM on September 14, 2010

Metafilter: long, thin, clearly erect penis
posted by poe at 1:46 PM on September 14, 2010

"It was also in the late ‘80s/early 90s that Giles decided to train for the UK over 60s pole vaulting title."
(via)
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:49 PM on September 14, 2010

My long-ago paraplegic lover used papaverine. I'd seen people shoot up before, but never in the penis, my word. He did it with a lot of glee.

It worked.
posted by goofyfoot at 8:09 PM on September 14, 2010

Whenever you get a basically consequence free shot at saying something like "I’d like to give some of the audience the opportunity to confirm the degree of tumescence" to a room full of people, you gotta take it.
posted by kosem at 8:53 PM on September 14, 2010

What kind of urologist would bring their husband or wife to a conference lecture? Seriously, that would be grounds for divorce.

Yes darling, you will really want to hear this lecture on the prevention of ED.
posted by JJ86 at 11:26 AM on September 15, 2010