1

The Environment / Are there references for atmospheric CO2 before 1900?

« on: 28/09/2017 20:00:01 »

Dear all,

in the discussion about climate change I ran into the following argument.
"Historical literature speaks of basically the same amount of CO2 in the atmosphere as we have today"

Followed by a reference from a german lexica from 1890 that speaks of a mean volume percentage of 0.04% CO2 in the air.

What would be your counter-argument against this? Are there any printed references as old as this one refering to lower amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere?

Or is it just, that the measurements back then were just to unprecise?

Thank you for your help
atrox

2

Physiology & Medicine / How does fructose malabsorption develop, and is it reversible?

« on: 20/04/2017 10:53:31 »

Hi there,

I began this year with a good intention and started to drink a home-made smoothie every morning. I have to admit that I did not inform myself about smoothies before but just followed a gut feeling and actually also just liked those drinks (now I know that I should have been more critical, there actually seems to be some critisism around).
Well, it went in another direction than expected, as after some weeks I suddenly develop some digestive problems. After excluding infectional or organic reasons and reduced symptoms after stopping to drink those smoothies it turned out that I had developed a fructose malabsorption.
I now wonder what physiological processes are behind that sudden intolerance. Granted, I was never much of a fruits eating person (more veggies), but every now and then I ate fruits even in large amounts without any problems. Recently (about 3-4 weeks after my symptoms had disappeared) I ate pancakes with applesauce, something I never had any problems with and so I actually did not even give it a second thought. But after an hour or so I started to feel really bad and it was only then, when I considered the apple sauce... so I would deem a nocebo-effect as unlikely here. There seems to be a real physiological effect.

So what happend in my guts when I started to feed it fruits in the form of smoothies regularly? I read that there is a special protein that has to be there to absorb fructose. Has it been there before but now somehow it is not? How would that work? Is the production site destroyed, maybe due to an inflammation? Could you train your body to produce it again?

Thanks for your thoughts
Aj

3

Just Chat! / (english)running gag in book - didn´t understand

« on: 12/04/2010 16:48:27 »

Hi there,

I read a book called "The raw shark texts" by Steven Hall.
The author had a kind of runnig gag in the book. I realized that it should be kind of funny, but I just didn´t understand, because I don´t have the british background to do so.
There was someone who called his two cats Ian (and Gavin, but this cat disappeared).. these two names seem to be unusual for cats... why?... what´s so funny/strange about that?

please explain the joke to me if you can.
thanx a lot
Aj

4

Just Chat! / What books do you read?

« on: 02/08/2008 00:27:08 »

Hi there!

Because Í´m a big fan of reading, I just wondered if you love to read to, and if so, what kind of books? Of course scientific books I think ...but what else?
Besides my popular sciences books, I love all kinds of fantasy-books, especially horror and funny fantasy.


cu
aj

5

Guest Book / Just want to say Hi!

« on: 11/07/2008 23:47:00 »

Hi there!

I just found this forum a few days ago when I was searching an englishspeaking forum that would fit my interests. I had to find out, that this is not that easy (didn´t find a good forum for general book-discussions..they are allways related to special themes or authors).
But then I got to this forum and I´m amazed. The last few days I spend a bit with just reading through the sections, and what I found was quite intresting! So I decided to register today.
I hope you will be patient with me and my english-writing-skills. I was searching for an english forum, because i noticed, that understanding spoken and written english is just not the same, than to have to use it yourself. It´s so much harder to impress yourself, find the right words and (especially [] ) tenses. But I would really like to get much more into this. And I thought being active in a forum would be a fun way. (so please feel free to correct me, if I´m doing the same mistake over and over again ;-) ).

Ny the way, I´m from Germany, 26 years old, student of a biological subject and therefor my major intrests are in biological, natural sciences.

cu
aj