| 2441/
Oil smoke consists of soot, organic carbon, salt, soil, sulfate,
and trace metals.
2442/ OIl Fires consumed
the equivalent of 4.6 million barrels of oil and gas each
day in Kuwait during the first Gulf War.
2443/ Air samples from
the smoke plumes over Kuwait in 1991 contained as much as
1113 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of a whitish
plume from burning natural gas and brine, and as little as
50 micrograms per cubic meter of an oily black plume. In studies
of air quality, Mexico City registered a maximum 24-hour concentration
of 542 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air in 1997,
and Beijing averaged 364 micrograms per cubic meter of air
for the entire year in 1996. An ongoing study at Denali National
Park shows an average yearly concentration of 1.4 micrograms
per cubic meter of air.
2444/ Open-water swimming
is a sport where women have had an edge over men. For 18 years,
Penny Lee Dean held the overall time record for swimming the
English Channel.
2445/ Mercury, is a metal
with such a low melting point that it's a liquid at room temperature.
2446/ The suicide rate
takes a nose-dive in December, and peaks in October.
2447/ All types of alcoholic
drinks contain some methanol, a substance blamed for the worst
hangovers. Whisky, cheap red wine, fruit brandy and other
dark spirits contain the most methanol, sometimes as much
as two percent by volume. Vodka and other clear drinks contain
the least. In the liver, methanol takes 10 times longer than
ethanol to break down.
2448/ The most obvious
source of headaches due to hangovers is dehydration caused
by alcohol blocking the signals that control the body's plumbing.
Alcohol riding the bloodstream eventually makes its way to
the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. There, it suppresses
an anti-diuretic hormone that tells the kidneys to reabsorb
water from urine. The hormone normally orders the body to
conserve water, but alcohol dulls the command, causing people
to lose far more water to urination than they take in with
the alcohol.
2449/ When in the deepest
stage of hibernation, ground squirrels are cold, furry balls
that seem more dead than alive. Besides a body temperature
that may fall below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, a squirrel may
take as few as two breaths a minute, and its heart may beat
just twice a minute (the normal heart rate for an active ground
squirrel is about 200 beats per minute).
2450/ Hibernating ground
squirrels' blood has four times the amount of ascorbic acid
(Vitamin C) than their blood contains when they are not hibernating.
2451/ Our body temperatures
drop several degrees while we sleep.
2452/ Leptin, from the
Greek word "leptos" or "thin," is secreted
by mammals' fat cells. The hormone is transported in the bloodstream
to the brain, where leptin fits in brain cell receptors like
a key fits in a lock. With enough leptin in place, the brain
seems to send sends out a message: "We're full now. Put
down that chocolate eclair!"
2453/ If a normal mouse
is forced to overeat, it becomes obese. When the force feeding
stops, the mouse won't eat as much as normal until it loses
the excess weight it gained.
2454/ Can increased quantities
of leptin control human appetites? Maybe not. Medical researchers
found that some obese people already have leptin levels 20
to 30 times higher than lean people, as was reported in the
April 1996 Harvard Health Letter. Some researchers believe
that obese people may have problems with leptin receptors
in the brain; the "I'm full" message is reaching
the brain, but it isn't being received.
2455/ Napoleon tried
to invade Russia in the winter of 1812.
2456/ Many studies show
that heading east is worse than heading west in terms of jet
lag. In tests of U.S. Army soldiers who recently transferred
between the U.S. and Germany, it took three days for the soldiers
who flew home to the U.S. to adjust to time and environmental
changes. Those transferring eastward to Germany took eight
days to adapt, according to a 1983 study in the Journal of
Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine.
2457/ A surplus supply
of melatonin, which is produced in the brain's pineal gland,
can affect a person in several ways. Symptoms of SAD (Seasonal
Affective Disorder) include irritability, a desire to sleep
longer, a craving for carbohydrates, and weight gain.
2458/ Over the course
of a marathon run, the human body burns about 2,600 calories.
2459/ Death occurs if
the body cools down to about 76 degrees.
2460/ Wind Chill
is derived from an equation based on a set of 89 measurements
made by scientists in Antarctica who in 1945 recorded temperature,
wind speed, and the time required to freeze a plastic cylinder
of water. Current-day meteorologists pad this equation to
make it more accurate at low and high wind speeds, mainly
because the human body reacts differently than a plastic cylinder
of water.
Click on the links below for more great
facts...
More
next week...
|
