Belly Button Lint
Channel: John Sakars
Date: 2021-12-29

I've got lint in my belly button.

How did it get there, this belly button lint? 
We can look this up and read the print. 
Maybe a scientist did research and published a finding.
Science is awesome, in case you need reminding.

I've got lint in my belly button.

Georg Steinhauser from VUT,
the Vienna University of Technology,
studied belly button lint for four years. 
For this important research, let's give him cheers. 

Georg found that scales on your stomach hair 
act like hooks and pull fibers out of your shirt, 
and direct them into your navel. 
New shirts produce more lint than old shirts,
because they have more loose fibers to give off. 
So if you want less belly button lint, wear old shirts.

I've got lint in my belly button.

If I pull up my shirt and have a look, 
I can see my stomach hair is a crook, 
stealing fibers from my shirt. Hey, that's okay. 
Finding belly button lint always makes my day. 

I've got lint in my belly button.

Georg Steinhauser from VUT,
the Vienna University of Technology,
studied 500 pieces of his belly button lint.
His results were published. Yeah, they went into print.

Georg found that scales on your stomach hair 
act like hooks and pull fibers out of your shirt, 
and direct them into your navel. 
New shirts produce more lint than old shirts,
because they have more loose fibers to give off. 
So if you want less belly button lint, wear old shirts.

Belly button lint used to be a mystery, 
then one day Georg Steinhauser chemically 
analyzed the lint and found it's mostly cellulose,
the material that makes up cotton.
Belly button lint also contains nitrogen 
and sulfur, likely from sweat and skin cells.
Thanks to science, now we know how lint collects 
in the place where your umbilical cord was once attached.