Category Archives: Body

Getting High to Lose Weight

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Watch out, Colorado

Altitude Causes Weight Loss Without Exercise

The scientists ferried 20 overweight, middle-aged men by train and cable car to a research station perched 1,000 feet below the peak of Germany’s highest mountain, Zugspitze. During the week-long stay, the men could eat and drink as much as they liked and were forbidden from any exercise other than leisurely strolls. The team measured the men’s weight, metabolic rate, levels of hunger and satiety hormones before, during, and after their mountain retreat.

After a week up high, the subjects lost an average of 3 pounds. A month later, they were still 2 pounds lighter. The sceintists’ data showed this was likely because they ate about 730 calories less at high altitudes than they did at normal elevations. They may have felt less hungry, in part, because levels of leptin, the satiety hormone, surged during the stay, while grehlin, the hunger hormone, remained unchanged. Their metabolic rate also spiked, meaning they burned more calories than they usually did.

I love the imagery of “ferrying” the test subjects. Like they were cargo, or veal. “Easy there, young man, you’ll only make yourself tired and stringy. Now, to check on the free-range children.”

Anyway, it’s not all beer and skittles. It’s not clear if fat was lost (vs muscle or water) and there are certain risks involved.

Bring Out Your Dead

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Industrial robot hones virtual autopsies

The researchers are already pioneers of virtual autopsies, or “virtopsies”, which use non-invasive imaging of a body inside and out rather than the radical post-mortem surgery typically used to determine cause of death.

Now they are using a robot, dubbed Virtobot, to carry out parts of that process, making it more reliable – and standardised.

Their virtopsies combine 3D imaging of a body’s surface with a CT scan of its interior anatomy. The result is a faithful, high-resolution virtual double of the corpse (see diagram). This double can be used to accurately determine what killed someone. And it’s a more tactful approach: only needle biopsies are used to sample tissues, leaving a body essentially undamaged.

“Currently, organs are taken out and sliced for analysis of tumours and lesions, but if something is overlooked you have no chance of seeing it again,” says team member Lars Ebert. “All you have afterwards is a huge pile of organ slices.”

Mmmmm. Organ slices …

Beauty is in the Vision-Response of the Beholder

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Skulls in the Stars: Lord Rayleigh on Darwin

Darwin set out to show that insects play a crucial role in cross-pollinating plants, carrying pollen from one flower to another, and he published his results on orchids in a book in 1862, Fertilisation of Orchids. Among those results is the insightful observation that the colors and scents of flowers had evolved to attract insects and optimize the cross-pollination process.

This observation is what Rayleigh seems to be commenting on, and mildly criticizing. Rayleigh suggests that Darwin’s argument leads to the conclusion that insects must have vision similar to human vision — otherwise, why would a flower which is pretty to us be pretty to an insect? Rayleigh argues that this is a rather large assumption to make based on the limited evidence available in that era.

It’s well-known now that many insects are sensitive to UV, and plants look quite different to us in that spectrum. I have no idea what they look like to the bugs.

No Inoculation for Willful Ignorance

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An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. It is partly a reaction to Big Pharma’s blunders and PR missteps, from Vioxx to illegal marketing ploys, which have encouraged a distrust of experts. It is also, ironically, a product of the era of instant communication and easy access to information. The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none.

I'm Shocked, Shocked to find Bogus Medical Devices Being Sold Here!

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Trial raises doubts over alternative pain therapy for arthritis

“It appears that any perceived benefit obtained from wearing a magnetic or copper bracelet can be attributed to psychological placebo effects. People tend to buy them when they are in a lot of pain, then when the pain eases off over time they attribute this to the device. However, our findings suggest that such devices have no real advantage over placebo wrist straps that are not magnetic and do not contain copper.

Researchers conducted the first randomised placebo-controlled trial on the use of both copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps for pain management in osteoarthritis – the most common form of the condition.

I’m surprised this is the first study, but not at the results. As I have noted before, the way that magnetic bracelets are advertised to work means that they can’t possibly function.

Urine Trouble Now

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sciencegeekgirl: If a boy pees on the floor and there’s nobody there to see it

The boys’ urinals were often surrounded by a puddle of “liquid.” Were the urinals weeping water? Or were the boys purposely urinating on the floor (as the janitor believed)? And, most importantly, how can we use our good friend SCIENCE to solve this mystery, the teacher asked?

Is there a powder I can sprinkle on the floor that will turn a particular color?
A UV light to shine on the puddles that will fluoresce?

It turns out that, yes, there is such a device!

Note that I have not deigned to confirm this effect with my own UV light.

However, I had read about the etched fly “targeting system” discussed; I had charged a friend of my brother’s with the task of finding one of these when he was in Europe. I had read they had been installed in the Amsterdam airport, but he didn’t see any there. This was taken at a restaurant in Berlin

fly_target

No Butts About it: Truth is Stranger than Fiction

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An assassination attempt, with emphasis on ass: the bomb was concealed in the orifice of choice for concealing items. I’d say convenient orifice, but it’s probably not all that convenient.

The bomb couldn’t be that big, and water (being a large fraction of the human body) isn’t very good shrapnel.

While the assassination proved unsuccessful, AQAP had been able to shift the operational paradigm in a manner that allowed them to achieve tactical surprise. The surprise was complete and the Saudis did not see the attack coming — the operation could have succeeded had it been better executed.

We know this wasn’t The Onion because there is no remark about how hindsight is 20-20, mention of a thorough probe of the incident, or talk of a push for new security measures. Or discussion of market penetration of security technology. (Oh, strike that last one. They say it here)

Via Schneier, who cautions us not to tell the TSA.