The Yuck Factor is best explained with an example.  Suppose you pull off a panel to begin working on some network equipment, and you find a dead rodent.  That would be a YF = 7.  Other discoveries like multiple rodents – or their time of death – might raise the number.  If on the other hand you discovered a cute puppy, very much alive and thrilled to see you, that wouldn’t even register on the YF gage.  You get the idea.

The dictionary uses a less potable example – “water recycling is problematic even aside from the yuck factor of drinking purified sewage.”  For me, this would be YF = 10.  To each his own.

Yuck Factors are useful in understanding current technology trends, particularly in the medical field.  One of the primary vital signs for human wellness is blood pressure, traditionally measured by a sphygmomanometer.  Invented by Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch in 1881, its name is derived from the Greek for “pulse” followed by the French for “pressure meter.”  A practical device was developed by Scipione Riva-Rocci in 1896, and later introduced in the US by pioneering neurosurgeon Dr. Harvey Cushing. <continue reading>