Vomiting Larry is a humanoid robot designed to projectile vomit all over a lab at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Derbyshire, England. He's helping scientists learn about how diseases spread. Warning: If you read this Reuters story by Kate Kelland you will be forced to acknowledge the existence of "aerosolized vomit". (Via Microbe World)

  • http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

    Do they make the robot drink?

  • Donald Petersen

    I was really hoping for some video.  I’m no emetophile (if that’s even a thing), but dammit, I’m curious what a ralphing robot looks like in action.

  • Boundegar

    This is wonderful.  Technology will soon solve every problem!

  • chgoliz

    Do they have to feed the robot 1 tablespoon of Gatorade every 5 minutes for at least an hour, then try to up it to 3 tablespoons every 15 minutes, but of course the ralphing starts again and you have to reset the clock….for 36 straight hours?

    How was my holiday week, you ask?  I hosted a total of 17 people at my dad’s for a week and NO ONE — not even me — caught my youngest child’s stomach flu. Now that is expert hosting.

    Let’s just say, after nearly TWENTY separate episodes of aerosolized vomiting, I am keenly aware of the concept.

    Otherwise, I would have clicked on the link immediately. Gross science is the best!

    • Donald Petersen

      I feel your pain, though thankfully not this particular holiday season.  I am reminded of Christmasish 2010, when my then-toddler son whoopsed his cookies at a friend’s dinner party.  ”Aww, how cute,” thought the indulgent hosts who helped me clean up.  Within twenty hours, eleven people were felled, spewing slightly-used soup from both ends at 10-minute intervals.  I alone escaped to wield the mop and do more loads of laundry than I normally do in a month.

      I wish I had your gift for hosting, but in the end, I’m just glad my constitution held up.  I’d much rather wield the bucket than fill it.

      • chgoliz

        Remember: exposure to symptoms takes about 3 days….your son did not cause the outbreak, he was merely the canary in the mine shaft.

        Or else, it was something served at the dinner party.  Either way, you’re off the hook, Typhoid Daddy!

    • jellyfishattack

      “Stomach Flu” is just garden variety food poisoning, or not washing your hands after number 2, or touching a surface with a film of poop on it…

      And, yes, it does take 2 to 3 days to react with vomiting and diarrhea, so it isn’t what you just ate, but what you ate days ago that got you.

      • chgoliz

        A friend who worked the local children’s ER the same nights told me the place was packed with many other families dealing with the same thing.

        Fever was the clincher that convinced us it wasn’t food poisoning.

  • Florian Bösch

    Dissapoint, no vomit robot video.

  • theophrastvs

    oh ye non-resourceful vomiting-robot-vid fans! try typing:  “vomiting larry” into a video search, and lo:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjNtlkPofU8   then pull the slider out to about 2:43  and bobs-yer-emetic-uncle.

    • Donald Petersen

      Thanks.  Honestly, I was kinda afraid to search, thinking something much more… biological would pop up.

      As it is, good heavens.  When does his head spin around?

  • Antinous / Moderator

    Would it have killed them to name it Ralph Hurley?

    • http://twitter.com/spockosbrain Spocko

      You sir, go to the front of the Internet! Ralph Hurley. Ha!