Pineapple Tongue

The other day, my friend Eric gave me a funny look as we packed our backpacks up after class, his mouth slightly twisted and his eyes squinting, "My tongue feels funny," he said.

"Why?" I asked. 

"I had pineapple earlier... I don't know." He shrugged.

"Ohh," I nodded, "yeah, that's why."

"Why what?"He laughed. 

"That's why your tongue feels funny."

"Okay, but, why does pineapple make your tongue feel funny?" Eric wanted to know. 

I had no answer. But, I promised to get him one. And, here we are. 

Firstly, you must understand that pineapple has a high concentration of two combining protein-digesting enzymes that work together really well. As a team, these enzymes are called bromelain.  

Now, a "protein-digesting" enzyme does pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it breaks down proteins. Proteins like steak, for example (turns out pineapple is actually a fantastic natural meat tenderizer) and proteins like, well... like your tongue.  

It's a little creepy to consider that our tongues and a tough steak have a similar Kryptonite in Bromelain, but there is some good news. The human tongue regenerates the bonds that bromelain breaks down - so, there is no risk of a completely - ahem - tenderized tongue. 

Though they might feel a little funny after eating pineapple, our tongues rebound nicely from a Bromelain Breakdown. 

So, Eric, enjoy your serving of pineapple with this small dose of science. 

The Better To See You With, My Dear

I have a friend. In order to protect their innocence, let's just call this friend "Sue."

Now, Sue is a social drinker who, on occasion, drinks to excess. One such occasion was a few years ago on New Year's Eve when, at a local pub, Sue approached a person at random and asked for a kiss. The person, sober and unamused, declined Sue's advances. Sue was relentless in her pursuit, which only made Sober And Unamused move more toward the direction of Offended And Appalled. Nearby, my friends and I huddled together, sipping champagne and giggling until we had no choice but to take Sue away from Sober And Unamused.

Why did we do this? I mean, Sue was in no danger and there was a chance (a very small chance) that Sue would get that kiss from Sober And Unamused. So, then, why'd we stop her? Well, firstly, we are good friends to Sue and, let's be honest, she wasn't doing herself any favors. Secondly, let's just say that Sober And Unamused wasn't exactly Sue's "type." To sum it up: You could say that Sue was "wearing"a pair of custom-made Beer Goggles.

Though, I suppose, in Sue's case, they were more like Vodka Goggles - but, similar principle nonetheless.

The term "beer goggles" refers to the perspective some people have after they've had a few too many - the kind of perspective, say, that would convince them that they are, in fact, extremely attracted to someone that, normally, wouldn't catch their eye at all.

Turns out, there's scientific evidence that suggests what Sue was experiencing was about symmetry - not just a loss of judgement. (Though, I'm sure that also has something to do with it; I speak from experience, and I'm sure I'm not alone.)

This article, published by the Smithsonian.com, cites a study performed by the journal Alcohol that suggests that the Beer Goggle Effect is essentially our brain's inability to decipher facial symmetry, which is typically - er, soberly - what we use to define a person's attractiveness.

But, why is facial symmetry so important? Well, because it's our inherent way of judging those who are in good health, and carriers of good genes.

So, next time you have a few, and think you've found Mr. or Mrs. Right (or Right Now), be careful: You might be looking at the world through beer-colored glasses.

Oh! And Ladies? The study says women are more susceptible to the Beer Goggle phenomenon, so make sure you get your DD's Go Ahead before pulling a Sue.

Cheers. Drink safely. 

Happy Valentine's Day

We've all been there, I'm sure. You know, that place where weak knees, sweaty palms, an irregular heartbeat, and a flip-floppy stomach are all the disturbing physical side effects of an arguably good thing: Love. (On a side note, some of us may wish our hearts weren't as flip-floppy as our stomachs... but that's a topic for another day entirely.)

Well, just in case you thought you had some control over falling in love, staying in love, or choosing the person you do either with... guess again.

Here is your Valentine's Day dose of science:

• This study published in TIME suggests that women are more likely to be attracted to the smell of a man who is genetically similar to their father. (Gross, I know - Freud is giving someone a high five as I type this.) Basically, I guess, at a very primal and subconcious level, females don't want to risk losing desirable genetic traits by mating with someone who is a complete shot in the dark, genetically speaking. Read more here. 

• It turns out that what drives us to fall in love, stay in love, and crave being in love after a break-up is dopamine. Hence that high feeling of being in love and, subsequently, the craving to fall back in love after a break-up - it's like withdrawal.

• And, finally, though I don't believe it entirely because my very affectionate grandmother was German, a new book called The Science of Kissing notes that though the Germans rarely kiss, they have 30 words for "kissing" in their language, one of which being nachkussen, meaning a kiss to make up for those that have yet to occur. 

A History Lesson

Last night I was out celebrating my best friend's birthday when another friend of mine pulled me over to her, gestured in my direction and said to the girl she was with, "You have to read her blog - it's so good, you'd love it." (Thanks, again, B.)

I was surprised and flattered, and definitely psyched to hear some positive feedback from my audience. I've been putting links to Scientista on my Facebook wall lately, and I'm glad to see that the shameless promotion of my lil' ol' blog is working for me. Readers! Yay!

Scientista started as a thesis topic - a way for me to practice and showcase my skills as a wannabe science writer extraordinare. Don't get me wrong, it still is that same thesis topic, which, with any luck, will get me a nice little MA diploma in May of this year, but there's so much more to come for Scientista. At least, I think there is...

That being said, I'm accepting any and all topic suggestions. Consider things you've always wondered, topics you just can't grasp, something scientific you can't - or don't have time to - investigate. Let me do the dirty work for you! Well, as long as it's not too dirty. I have to keep my hands clean.

Girls, Eat Your Mud Pies

There is a picture of me as a little girl, I'm probably four or five, I'm grinning from ear to ear and presenting to the photographer - likely my mother or father - and the camera a delightful pile of mud, about the size and shape of a biscuit. My hands are smeared in mud, and some has dried on my cheek where I assume I tried to brush away a strand of my blond mop.


Mud pies. A delicacy. Well, not now. But, when you're five...  


I'm not quite sure what the mud pie allure was, but there was one. Probably because it involved getting dirty and making something that resembled what adults did. Kind of like playing house. 


I wasn't afraid to get dirty as a kid. And, now, according to a recent study, I might be able to attribute my adult health to that mud-pie-making habit I had as a little girl. 


Sharyn Clough, a philosopher of science at Oregon State University, has published an article in the journal Social Science and Medicine that finds that the high frequency of autoimmune diseases and chronic illness in women may be attributed to the societal stipulation that girls are kept to a higher cleanliness standard as children. 


With little or no exposure to bacteria at a young age, the body can't develop a resistance, making it more likely that the illness will be contracted later in life. 


Clough tells NPR's Whitney Blair Wyckoff that boys are more likely to have asthma at a younger age, while girls are more likely after puberty and into adulthood. Clough says, "boys are exposed to more of the allergens and things that inflame their immune systems more often than do girls. So boys will have higher rates of asthma early on. But then after puberty, girls have higher rates of asthma and then for the rest of their lives."


I guess I have my happy hippie parents to thank for my immune system. And all those glorious mud pies. 

From the Desk of Your Favorite Insomniac

I don't always have trouble sleeping, but when I do, it's epic.

I'm now reminded of the rhyme about the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. You know the one: "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid." That same rhyme applies to my insomnia. Tonight, it is horrid.

There's no telling what the trigger was this time; there are too many stimuli to consider. Perhaps it was the strawberries I ate. You know, too much sugar? Or, maybe it is because I watched the second half of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Last night, after struggling to make it through the whole film, I fell asleep mid-movie. Soundly, in fact. But, tonight, apparently, neither money nor I will sleep. 

Hmmmm.... maybe it was the movie! Or, more specifically, the frustration I felt after watching a love story/Wall Street thriller wrought with gratuitous graphics and bouts of nonsensical cinematography. Ahem. Moving on.

It could also have something to do with the fact that I can't escape the sound of snoring drifting in from the other room. I don't know who is worse, Jamie or the dog. I'm having trouble even telling them apart.

Anyway, enough with the What Ifs, a few things are certain.

Firstly, my gender. More women experience insomnia than men. Secondly, my room is chilled thanks to this frigid New England January and my reluctance to turn the heat past 62, and extreme temperatures make falling asleep more difficult.

And, lastly, the most unfortunate discovery is that the actual culprit is probably the glowing twenty-one inch screen that stares back at me as I type this. Studies show that any direct bright light - specifically the kind of blue light found in naturally occurring daylight, computer screens and cell phones - stalls the hormonal sleep triggers that your body uses to tell you to sleep. Basically, my body things it's still daylight, and it's telling me to stay awake.

So, while I thought this blog entry would ease the pain of another sleepless night the fact is, I may just be pushing my REM cycle further away.

If you have no reason to hit the sack right now, stare at your blue light a little longer and read more here.

Saying is Believing, And Believing is All We Need

I'm sure everyone's been there... After a gluttonous summer, far too many gin and tonics, and what can only be described as a lackluster, pathetic amount of energy (this I blame fully on this New England summer's record-breaking heat and humidity) I decided, about six weeks ago, to become fully engaged in a healthier lifestyle.

Some people start to shape up for bathing suit season; others don't wear bathing suits and shape up when we realize how we've continued to encourage our not-so-bikini-body over the course of the summer. Either way, it's a typical story - you can relate I'm sure.

To make it all happen, the rules included the following: Work out every day, eat lots of veggies, drink copious amounts of water, and - the most recent step - get stone cold sober. (Cheers, chardonnay. Adios, Absolut. This chick's gettin' her sober on, and you can't stop me!)

The concept is simple: Change habits to increase happiness, health, fitness. And, I'm happy to report - so far, so good! I've lost a total of fourteen pounds, I'm sleeping like a baby, and I couldn't be happier.

So, now that I'm off to a fantastic start, continuing to follow through shouldn't be that tough, right?

Well, according to Derek Sivers, I have just made it impossible to completely obtain the goals I have set for myself.

How discouraging!

But, why?

In this TED talk , Sivers explains that the satisfaction we normally feel upon completing the work necessary to reach a goal is mimicked by simply telling someone your goal. This "social reality" tricks the mind into feeling relief such as the kind associated with having completed a hard task, or reaching a difficult-to-attain goal. And, when we feel rewarded and satisfied without having done the work, our motivation to do the actual work diminishes.

Needless to say, just knowing this is slightly detrimental to my progress. Imagining that sharing my happy news is what could ultimately derail my progress is pretty unfortunate. I mean, really, what's a support system for, anyway?

But, you know, I'm going to plug away, anyway. Mostly because, well, I said I would.

Carbon!

To refer back to a previous global warming rant, I share this with you!

Junk Food Junkies

Growing up, the fridge and cupboards in my household were different from those of my friend's. Prohibited items included: soda, anything fried, artificial sugar, baked goods from a box, deli sliced American cheese,  sugary cereal... you get the point.

So, time away from home meant time with junk food. When I went to my friend Kacie's house we ate cheese curls and drank red Kool-Aid. At Karin's we had Coke floats and ate salt and vinegar chips. In junior high school, I ordered crinkle cut french fries and a Hostess cupcake for lunch almost every day.

I was never overweight or unhealthy despite my junk food escapades because my eating habits had enough balance; my mother was a health nut and I regularly consumed whole grains, fresh vegetables and fruit juices.

However, according to a new study - my eating habits outside of the home were the equivalent of a developing drug addiction.

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute recently discovered a relationship between junk food habits and dopamine receptors in the brain. In other words, the more junk food one eats, the better one feels - and the more food it takes to reach that "happy" feeling as time goes on. Very literally, it becomes a junk food addiction.

How does this happen? Well, much like a drug's effect on the brain, high fat/high sugar foods overstimulate the receptors that create reward patterns in the brain. Simply, you feel good - and fast. In order to regulate the spike, the body adapts by reducing the reward receptors sensitivity, making that "feel good" moment harder to obtain. As a result you then eat more of the stimulating food item, just like an addict would seek more of the drug - to feel "normal" again.

Lucky for me, between the ages of ten and seventeen, I wasn't "using" enough to develop a dependency; I regulated any over-stimulation. But the same can't be said for everyone. In 2003, the childhood obesity rate in Massachusetts was at 13.5% according to the NCSL and in 2005 it more than doubled, hitting 28.9%.

Warming Up To the Idea

If someone hacked my email, they'd probably find that I address my mother as "Mumma," that I bought The Ramones "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" from iTunes recently, and that I send myself all my short fiction ideas and save them in an email folder called "Storybored."

They wouldn't find anything incriminating.

Unless you object to a Ramones Christmas carol. Which, I'll concede, is slightly objectionable from a punk rock perspective.

Regardless, my hackers wouldn't walk away quite as satisfied as those who acquired incriminating emails from Britain's Climate Research Unit (CRU) just in time for the international climate talks in Copenhagen, which are happening this week.

So what's the controversy all about, anyway? All this global warming hype - is it real or isn't it? (Not the hype, the actual climate stuff, I mean.)

My instinctive answer is "yes," because in any battle between Fox News and Al Gore, I can be found on the Gore cheering squad, dressed head-to-toe in the team colors. (Blue and green, of course.) This puts me in the loyalist category.

Others I know alter their opinion on global warming from day-to-day. For example, the same person might make both these comments: "It's 32 degrees in December? Global warming is such a scam! It should be cold in December." Or, "It was 60 on December fourth! Well, of course, it's that devil global warming! December should be freezing!" These people are in the fair-weather fan (no pun intended) category.

So, is brand loyalty or the weather report enough to justify a stance on the global warming debate?

Probably not. Let's try science.

First we need to know - what does "global warming" entail?

Well, let's compare the earth, and it's atmosphere, to our human body - they're both highly functioning systems, and both exist because of a fine chemical balance.

Take Carbon Dioxide, for example. Both the earth and our bodies need it.

Our body uses a bit of Carbon Dioxide every time we breathe, taking it in with Oxygen, and releasing it when we exhale. Also, Carbon Dioxide is what makes the bubbles in our soda and beer, and it's how yeast makes bread rise. It's not a bad guy, that CO2.

In fact, CO2 is workin' pretty hard to make sure my Sam Adams Light and my sandwich have all the right stuff going on. I mean, what would my lunch be without CO2? Well, it would be a flat beer and turkey on flat bread.

The earth is pretty much the same; it has a little bit of CO2 that helps to keep it happy... just like me with my beer and bread.

The earth's bit of CO2 helps our plants stay lush and green, and most importantly, it hangs out with some other gases in the atmosphere and acts like an insulator, holding heat from the sun and warming the planet - kind of like a giant electric blanket. CO2 and it's buddies (the other "greenhouse gases") hold the heat and make sure none of it escapes to the less-worthy outer space area, keeping our planet warm in the process.

But, remember the beer example - we learned that there is a "right" amount, and a "wrong" amount of CO2. The right amount gives us beer, but too little results in flat beer, and too much - well, too much CO2 makes for an explosion. Not good.

So, then what happens when the earth has too much CO2? No, it won't explode. But, it does make the CO2 perform it's task more intensely. Which, in the case of the earth, means that the more CO2 there is, the more heat it holds.

Let's unpack what we've got so far. More CO2 means more heat; more heat means warmer weather; warmer weather means things start melting faster; more melting results in more water; more water means less land; and less land means fewer places to live.

Okay, so we're getting somewhere. But, the question remains: Where is the excess CO2 coming from? How can we be sure that we're the ones who are adding it?

Again, let's think about the human body and the earth as similar beings.

Have you ever considered taking less CO2 in when you breathe? No, of course not. You don't regulate that - your body does. It knows how to handle it's CO2 intake, and it's got it all goin' on without your help. What if you decided to add some CO2 to your body? Say, by breathing in some exhaust. Well, clearly, that would result in some problems.

The earth is the same way - it exists because of a delicate, predetermined setting of gases and chemicals and once we start adding, we can't be sure of the outcome, but the logic is that if we add something that's not supposed to be there, it's not going to go so well.

So, Scientista readers, there you have it; some science to help you rule on the global warming debate. Consider yourself armed and ready to make a decision.