WIRED Science: Space, Health, Biotech, and More

The Strange Saga of the Butt Plug Turned Research Device

WIRED Science: Space, Health, Biotech, and More

Take it from sex researcher Nicole Prause: Cobbling together an orgasm detector that works on both men and women ain’t easy. You at least know that it has to go in the anus to detect the muscle contractions that the sexes share, so you begin with a butt plug. Many butt plugs, actually. β€œWe ordered like 20 of these butt plugs off Amazon, and it messed up my recommendation engine for all time,” Prause says. To the butt plugs Prause added piezoelectric discs, which detect deformation.

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