Here's the dirt on soil eaters

Answer: Soil-eating, or "geophagia," turns out to be common in many traditional societies, possibly an instinctive way of supplementing a diet deficient in trace minerals like iron and zinc, says New Scientist magazine. Canadian scientists who analyzed ingested soils from China, Zimbabwe and the United States found them to contain iron, calcium and potassium, and (in Zimbabwe) kaolinite, used for treating diarrhea. "Eating soil can be good for you," said the researchers, but beware of parasitic infections.

Expectant mothers in many sub-Saharan African cultures report that the rich smell of the soil drives them to eat it, perhaps related to their heightened sense of smell and taste. Cravings of clay and coal have also been reported.

Question: How did scientists recently lose and then recover Bigfoot, legendary pseudoscience sensation since the 1970s?

Answer: Best-known Bigfoot claims are from Teslin, in the Yukon Territory in Canada, where locals reported spotting the hairy protohuman beast outside their windows, then finding a footprint and tuft of its hair, says Anne Casselman in Discover magazine. Put to DNA testing, the hair sample matched bison hair DNA with 100 percent certainty. Wildlife geneticist David Coltman, who helped deflate the myth, got some curious phone calls.

Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com, co-authors of "Can a Guy Get Pregnant? Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So- Everyday) Questions," from Pi Press.