Bitten where it hurts!

On a list of places to be bitten by a red back spider, no doubt that genitals would come right at the bottom. Unfortunately Jordan, a 21 year old tradesman from Australia knows all too well how bad that bite really is, as he has now been bitten on the penis twice by the nasty Australian resident. But why is it that it hurts so much?

Doctors say the worst places to feel pain, especially from an insect bite is anywhere fleshy where there is extra room to inject venom into. To make things worse, areas with lots of nerve endings are even worse on the pain scale. However, Biological Natural Sciences applicants might want to think about which parts of the human body would be better; largely this depends on the animal. Many people in Thailand suffer each year from snake bites, which are better off on your extremities, further from your torso, given the lethal nature of many snakes in South East Asia. Very little has been done to test which pain is worst beyond the Schmidt Pain Index. Although one grad student, Michael Smith, experimented which part of the body was worse to experience a bee sting after being stung in the testicle. He found that the most painful locations were in fact the nostril, upper lip and penis shaft. 

Its not just insect bites that have been measured for pain, tattoos are also a source of contention when it comes to competing war stories. A group survey found the top places for pain were in fact the scalp and the sternum. Potential Medical applicants might want to think about why those areas of the body hurt so much, and what benefit pain has to play in our evolution as humans.