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Compiled by Rachel Slaff
May we present the "bumpy nose" -- found in 9 percent of noses surveyed.
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.
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.
"This study is limited to the types of Caucasian noses," says Youn, author of the recently-published memoir "In Stitches." "It doesn't appear to take into account African noses, Asian noses, Latino noses and the various other non-European and non-Israeli types of noses. A complete study would include noses from the wide spectrum of ethnicities."
Still, according to Tamir's research, the fleshy nose, which is large and prominent, was the most popular proboscis for both men and women found in roughly one-quarter of the photos reviewed. It was the most widely seen beak in Israel observed on nearly 38 percent of the faces photographed in that country.
The turned up, or "celestial nose," was the most common shape in Europe, seen on 22 percent of the profile shots from this region. The research also considered it the "most attractive" snout shape, and its edge is sharper than a snub nose, which is smaller, slightly rounder and slopes upward at the tip.
And because of his interest in art, he also found it interesting that all the shapes of real noses were also demonstrated by paintings in one way or another.
A few other shapes identified in the paper included the hawk (thin, sharp, and downward hooking), Roman (long with a downward-sloping tip), Greek (straight), and bumpy.
The experiment even found a nose in Israel it considered extremely unique -- and the only one of its type in nearly 1,800 pictures viewed.
How about your honker? What does it look like? Are you happy with its look and shape?
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Leave a Comment:
Bo's nose knows about noses. Bo's nose knew this info on noses a long time ago.
For the record, I've got a Roman nose. Must be cause my family is from outside of Rome originally.
Now I know why the economy is going downhill. To spend money on all of these studies is ridculous. How about, why some people in the US do not have enough food or water while wasteful money is spent to go to mars to find water.
Oh for dumb. Did you read the article at all? This study was done IN ISRAEL. By an Israeli. No US government dollars involved at all. It seems like a a dumb article, granted, and very Eurocentric, but it's nothing to do with the US at all.
A nose by any other name...oh wait. That's a rose.
While mildly interesting - I hope he didn't get paid to do this!
Does it matter? It probably didn't come out of your tax money, unless of course you are in Israel....
"Does it matter? It probably didn't come out of your tax money, unless of course you are in Israel...."
or in the US...
Ok, this is (for lack of a better word) stupid. I don't see my nose or any nose even similar to my nose. Why would he exclude African, Asian, Latino and the various other non-European and non-Israeli types of noses in his (I'm using this word loosely? If I were a teacher I'd give him a 20% as a grade on his assignment. It's clearly incomplete!
I notice that they left out Clown noses: you know, those big, red,round, blob noses that look like fat cherries!
I couldn't tell if they covered the "split nose." The thing at the bottom of the nose that divides the nostrils, mine kind of "curles" or something. It's not actually a split nose, more of a divide, like the start of two noses, but not. It's not something I would have surgery on or anything like that, unless I was a Hollywood actress, then I could probably afford it, but I'm not a girl either, so I could hardly be an actress, unless I was Dustin Hoffman, Kurt Russell, Robin Williams, Wesley Snipes, or somebody like that who at least made pretend they were a girl, but I'm not an actor or famous or anything, it's just me, so no surgery, not like that I really needed it anyways. But like, yea, I got a split nose or something. Not sure if they covered that one...but it's got a button on it, though, kind of slants a little to the left.....I think.
@Sarcasticus1
It's nose cleavage! Ha ha we have that on my dad's side!
Do you mean like Jodie Foster's nose?
Kathy Dettwyler:
I had to look it up, but yes, like Jodie Foster's nose; only, to use hairdoharriet's term, I got more cleavage than Jodie Foster does, in my nose that is. So, thanks a lot hairdoharriet, I got cleavage, but I'm still not an actress, not like Patrick Swayze anyways...though he might have cleavage too.
Sarcasticus1 - sounds like it's part of your philtrum (the indentation between your nose and mouth). Perhaps it's extended further into the nose for your type of nose.
Everyone else - given that his position and normal research has nothing to do with art and the physiognomy of the face, I suspect this is research he did for fun rather than a funded project. As someone who studies face perception, there are lots of portraits available online from a number of different centuries. You can also find them in books at the university library. There are also a substantial number of free face databases (face-rec.org), so long as you are an academic or affiliated with some sort of research institution. Otherwise, it doesn't take much to have assistants snap some photos of people as they exit classes etc. (so long as you don't publish the photos without permission). The main work comes from examining it all and making measurements in Photoshop. Outside of the cost of Photoshop, this particular set of research costs nothing. So stop fretting about it being a waste of money etc etc. It's just a curiosity piece... hence "body odd". ;)
This dude nose it all...
Nose is a nose is a nose.....
"The experiment even found a nose in Israel it considered extremely unique -- and the only one of its type in nearly 1,800 pictures viewed."
This is not an experiment. If you look at the original article, it is a survey and classification with little applicability to science or art. It is sad to think these types of papers clutter the peer-reviewed literature.
Depends on how the article is written. Many people who study the perception of art in the vision sciences would be quite interested in knowing how well art represents our visual perception. To know that that element of the face is accurately reproduced by artists could well be of interest to them... at the very least it may suggest that we have a veridical mental representation of facial features.
My nose shape was not included.
Why are there no African/African American or Asian noses? These ethnic groups clearly where not included... doesn't seem very scientific to me.
Because this was a study of the population in Israel. There probably weren't many African/African American or Asian noses there. :P
Then why say "There are 14 different kinds of noses?" Why not say "...14 ...in Israel?"
Besides:
Maps change like the weather, but last I heard, Holland, Belgium and France were all outside of Israel.
Why? Bad journalism. Poor title choice.
That's true but there probably aren't many African/African American or Asian noses in those countries either. Nothing to get upset about. :3
I doubt anyone here is crying in their milk. Just pointing out big gaping holes in logic and language. Didn't mean to offend.
Did he get paid to do this?
I want to get paid to do a completely pointless study -- where do I sign up?
Somewhere in Israel?
who the hell cares? time and i'm sure money well spend
A lot of Asian women with a low-profile nose shape pay the cosmetic surgeons big money to uplift their nose. Be a cosmetic surgeon and open your office in Asia!
i'm not asian but my nose is so teeny, tiny, narrow at the top, hardly anything there, that i have a hard time keeping glasses in place on my face and sometimes wish the top of my nose was shaped differently so i didn't constantly have my glasses sliding down onto my cheeks. my son is half asian and his nose is very flat and low at the top so his glasses fall down too.
I see studies like this and I think...
The purpose of science is to serve mankind. You seem to regard science as some kind of dodge... or hustle. Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable! You are a poor scientist,
OK...14 types of noses from bits and pieces of Europe. now how about amongst the rest of...oh, sorry, the MAJORITY...of the world? The title needs a qualifier indicating the research's limited context.
i like how the headline says that a study says there are 14 different types of noses, but all the noses studied where in europe and israel and all on caucasian people. the headline should be more like "study says there are 14 different caucasian nose types in europe and israel." but even than, he only studied 1,400 noses of actual people. that doesn't seem like a high enough number to make the conclusion that there are 14 types. how did he think that such a small number of people, confined to only two different countries, and one race of people, was enough to make a conclusion?
i'm mixed race, living in america and didn't see my nose in any of those noses. i didn't see my son's either, or the nose that most of my relatives on my mom's side have, or the nose that almost everybody on my dad's side seems to have. i didn't see the type of nose that the majority of my friends have either.
It was only 6-7 decades ago, in Europe, that the shape of a nose could easily lead to a person's execution (under the Nazis).
What this scientist has sniffed out is a quick way to get paid for doing BS.
It's easy to tell who has had a nose job in town, as everyone goes for the snout, piggy-like, upturned nose. Not me, I will keep my Roman nose. It says a lot about my strong personality and believe it or not, a lot of great rulers and fierce warriors had Roman noses, so I like to think of my nose as special :)
personally, i think it's somewhat boring when people have plastic surgery to make their nose look like whatever the new "fad" nose is. maybe they didn't have a "perfect" nose before, but at least they didn't have one that looked like a clone of everybody else's
Fourteen kind of white/European noses. This article would be interesting if they pointed out the intense bias but as it is, it's completely erasing everyone who doesn't fit into those 14 white/European categories. Just a note, some context, ANYTHING would help ease the reporting bias, though no help can be given for the study itself.
Gross.
Why would a nosy scientist go nosing around in useless matters?Unless of course it's money matters.
To me, the nose determines how attractive or unattractive a person appears.
Just look at pictures of (handsome and beautiful) movie stars from the past -- most of them had great noses!
One can say the same about eyes...
Wow, that is important research
I'm sure that the people around the world who are dying of cancer, AIDS or any other disease will think this is money well spent.
no dummy, there are africans in israel, black jews from africa, you dumb smuck
Did they get this information from the the Nazi Germany Eugenics Library?
the connection is obvious
More like ironic.
I think it's shocking to declare "There are 14 kinds of noses" and only include Caucasian noses!! How can anyone take this person seriously?? Plus you'd think an Israeli scientist would have some sensitivity about the Nazi-esque taint to this "study" -- which could be re-named "14 Aryan Noses." All in all, just creepy and horrifying!
Well I like my nose, it really knows how to boogie
Then you call it a brown noser.
Who "nose" what goes on ?
THe Nose "nose"
first study of its kind? NOT !!!!! Nazi anthropologists did an exhausting study of the variations found, worldwide, in the human body - and this included nose shapes and a lot of other stuff that the average person would never consider as testable variables... perhaps the headline should read "Israeli scientist does first study of its kind in 70 years" or "Israeli Jews steal Nazi thunder (again)"
i've had two nosejobs. one to remove the bump, and then a second one to narrow the width. great result!
you can see the work here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MyNoseJobStory