20 MAR 2018 by ideonexus
Human Females Menstruate to Eliminate Unviable Fetuses
From a female perspective, pregnancy is always a huge investment. Even more so if her species has a hemochorial placenta. Once that placenta is in place, she not only loses full control of her own hormones, she also risks hemorrhage when it comes out. So it makes sense that females want to screen embryos very, very carefully. Going through pregnancy with a weak, inviable or even sub-par fetus isn't worth it.
That's where the endometrium comes in. You've probably read about how the endometriu...Folksonomies: human evolution pregnancy
Folksonomies: human evolution pregnancy
1 20 MAR 2018 by ideonexus
Human Pregnancy is Adversarial Between Mother and Fetus
Inside the uterus we have a thick layer of endometrial tissue, which contains only tiny blood vessels. The endometrium seals off our main blood supply from the newly implanted embryo. The growing placenta literally burrows through this layer, rips into arterial walls and re-wires them to channel blood straight to the hungry embryo. It delves deep into the surrounding tissues, razes them and pumps the arteries full of hormones so they expand into the space created. It paralyzes these arteries ...Folksonomies: human evolution pregnancy
Folksonomies: human evolution pregnancy
22 JUL 2014 by ideonexus
Human Respiration is Carbon Neutral
The very first time you learned about carbon dioxide was probably in grade school: We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Any eight-year-old can rattle off this fact. More specifically, the mitochondria within our cells perform cellular respiration: they burn carbohydrates (in the example shown below, glucose) in the oxygen that we breathe in to yield carbon dioxide and water, which we exhale as waste products, as well as energy, which is required to maintain...
1 We exhale carbon and that carbon is sequestered in the next plant we eat.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Happiness Comes from Finding Balance
I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity. Science in itself appears to me neutral, that is to say, it increases men's power whether for good or for evil. An appreciation of the ends of life is something which must be superadded to science if it is to bring happiness, but only the kind of society to... 1 
notes
notesBertrand Russell's observations in his old age.
09 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Earth Speaks
The Earth Speaks, clearly, distinctly, and, in many of the realms of Nature, loudly, to William Jennings Bryan, but he fails to hear a single sound. The earth speaks from the remotest periods in its wonderful life history in the Archaeozoic Age, when it reveals only a few tissues of its primitive plants. Fifty million years ago it begins to speak as "the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life." In successive eons of time the various kinds of animals leave their rema... 1 notes
notesThe evidence is there, but biblicalists refuse to see the it.
24 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
A Succinct Definition of Lactate
Lactate is a dynamic substrate with great potential as an energy
source in sports drinks. To date, however, the efficacy of adding
lactate to these drinks has been sparsely assessed [5,15,16]. Lactate
was once considered a metabolic waste but is now recognized as an
important energy substrate in the body. Lactate is the main
product of carbohydrate metabolism and can be used as a fuel in
working muscle cells shuttled to other tissues such as the heart where lactate is fuel [17], or to the liv...A byproduct of our muscles converting carbohydrates to energy, which appears to serve as a secondary energy source.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Hen's Teeth
Some atavisms can be produced in the laboratory. The most amazing
of these is that paragon of rarity, hen’s teeth. In 1980, E. J. Kollar and
C. Fisher at the University of Connecticut combined the tissues of two
species, grafting the tissue lining the mouth of a chicken embryo on top
of tissue from the jaw of a developing mouse. Amazingly, the chicken
tissue eventually produced tooth-like structures, some with distinct roots
and crowns! Since the underlying mouse tissue alone could not prod... 1 notes
notesAn experiment from 1980 that stimulated hens to grow teeth by triggering a gene holdover from their ancient reptilian ancestors.
09 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Uselessness of Nitrogen in the Atmosphere
My 165-pound body consists of about 110 pounds of oxygen, 30 pounds of carbon, 16 pounds of hydrogen, 6 pounds of nitrogen, and 3 pounds of everything else. Basic stuff, mostly, the stuff of water and air. You'd think we could get almost everything we need to build our bodies by taking deep breaths and gulps of water. But it's not quite that simple. Consider those 6 pounds of nitrogen in my body. Our cells build proteins by stringing together chemical units called amino acids, and every amino... 1 notes
notesRaymo describes how many pounds of each element there are in his body, and why, despite them mostly all existing in the air we breath, they are bound up in molecules so that we cannot access them.
