Category: Gigantism

Juvenile Coccoloba

December 3, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

The Coccoloba gigantifolia, or Giant Seagrape, has the third largest leaf of any plant or tree, just after those of Gunnera manicata and Victoria boliviana. Holding one of its leafs makes you feel tiny, but the trees themselves are not very large and belong to the undergrowth…

Human-sized Penguin

July 20, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

Global warming is causing many species of animals to shrink. That is why we’re intrigued by this counter-intuitive RESEARCH on prehistoric giant penguins. Most penguin species today are small to average sized flightless birds that live in the colder regions of the southern hemisphere. They…

Big Hand Hug

June 29, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

Acromegaly is a serious growth disorder that results in continuous growth of the body as a result of a benign tumor of the gland that produces growth hormone. Before medication made it possible to suppress this unnatural growth patients would simply grow to their untimely…

Suez-Maxed Out

March 30, 2021 By arne hendriks Off

At 07:40  on 23 March 2021, one of the largest containerships in the world, the Ever Given (400m x 59m x 21m) , was passing through the Suez Canal. After losing the ability to steer because of high winds the ship became stuck and blocked…

Bigorexia (DFM)

November 9, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

Bigorexia is a subtype of the obsessive mental disorder muscle dysmorphic disorder. The (mostly) men suffering from it have a delusional sense of being too small and insufficiently muscular, despite often already having exceptionally big and muscular bodies. Bigorexians spend inordinate time, attention and resources to gain strength…

Tall Tales: Langen Kerls

October 10, 2013 By arne hendriks 0

Tall Tales is a new series of stories that investigate our obsession with height. Throughout history there have been iconic moments, stories and situations that shaped the fundamental yet unfounded belief that taller is better. First up; the Potsdam Giants. The Potsdam Giants was a Prussian infantry regiment composed…

Pegvisomant

November 19, 2012 By arne hendriks 1

Pegvisomant (tradename Somavert) is a genetically engineered analogue of the human growth hormone (GH) that stops unnaturally vigorous growth in patients with acromegaly. It works as a GH receptor antagonist and blocks or dampens agonist-mediated responses by binding to growth hormone receptors on cell surfaces. Pegvisomant is used…

Universal Height Dysphoria

July 8, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

Perhaps humanity’s willingness to accept the damaging consequences of increasing human height is the the result of a universal case of height dysphoria. Height dysphoria is a mental disorder that leads to excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of physical size. Most often this means the…

Trijntje Keever / Groote Meidt

February 13, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

At 260cm Trijntje Keever from The Netherlands may well be the tallest woman known in history. Although she lived in the 17th century, when records were scarce and giants often exaggerated height for financial gains at the funfair, there is evidence that she was indeed that…

Outgrowing Life (Robert Wadlow)

December 31, 2011 By arne hendriks 3

Robert Wadlow was the tallest person that ever lived. He suffered from a rare condition known as Acromegaly where the anterior hypophysis produces excess growth hormone after the epiphyseal plates close. At the time of his death at only 22 years of age Wadlow measured 272…

Supersize Tourism

June 14, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

Jim Hejl keeps a website called Jim’s Big Things with photos of himself near (you guessed it) BIG things. He typically finds these things near freeways, in shopping malls, in restaurants and amusement parks. It started harmlessly with a single blurry photo of Jim next to a…

Shrink to Power

February 19, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Popular culture is ripe with examples of the playful desire to shrink. We’ve reported before on the peculiar desire of some people to sexually fantasize about very small men, and women especially. But not all forms of microphilia are of an erotic nature. On the…

Queen Voluptuous

December 27, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Once, when Nature’s overpowering vigorousness Conceived each day children this monstrous I would love to have lived with a young giantess Around her feet like a cat to a queen voluptuous. Would love to have seen the spirit that grew out of her Distending as…

Big Bird

December 7, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

The research for The Incredible Shrinking Man broadens, and some surprising connections are surfacing. In earlier reports on dwarfism and gigantism we discovered the special position of islands in regards to the size of its inhabitants. The Indonesian island of Flores is again the stage…

Megalophobia

October 15, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Quite often the  primary response to The Incredible Shrinking Man’s ambition to downsize the human body is the fear of being exposed to animals. As we’ll shrink, our environment and everything in it will appear a lot larger. The fear of large animals and objects…

Insular Gigantism & Dwarfism

May 16, 2010 By arne hendriks 1

On islands, it occurs relatively frequently that large species of animals tend to get smaller and small species tend to get larger. The greater interspecies competition or pressure of carnivores on the continent may actually force them beyond the limits of their optimum size. They…