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Physiology & Medicine / Why did I awaken unable to speak?

« on: 15/04/2024 05:20:31 »

Last night I had a very bad experience. I was exhausted after taking home my mom who had a stroke from the nursing home and taking care of my 2.5 months-old baby together with my wife (we were taking shifts). After 01.00 AM, I slept soundly until about 03.00 AM when suddenly I felt the urge to vomit. Thinking that it was no big deal because I estimated I that would only threw up a little, I swallowed it down later (still laying down) and went back to sleep. Several minutes later (about ten to twenty), I felt that my neck was locked. Not choked, I was still able to breathe, but I couldn't say anything, just managed to keep coughing (by the way, I was fully awake and standing up, so it was not sleep paralysis). Both my mom and my wife kept asking me what's wrong, but I couldn't say anything at all. I was afraid I would collapse, so I opened my fridge and reached a few remains of my cold tea inside. After coughing up some more, finally I was able to talk with an almost disappearing voice. I told what happened to my wife and my mom, but they couldn't figure it out. I also managed to threw up a little and only after that finally my voice started to come back to normal. I never experienced this before, so to any experts out there, what exactly was happening with me? Did it have something to do with the vomit I swallowed back when I was lying down?

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Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology / Re: Himalayan Pink Salt Origin?

« on: 04/08/2021 04:49:32 »

I had the privilege of visiting Salzburg in Austria. Best known today as the birthplace of Mozart, the city originally got its name for salt mining. I saw a sample of the natural salt straight from the mines. It had a very high concentration of iron oxide, giving it a strong brown color - not nearly so attractive as a gentle pink from Pakistan.

Now, THAT one must look like rust.

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Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 08.04.06 - Better to drink wine than to drink nothing?

« on: 04/08/2021 04:12:05 »

Also, in what people think of as a typical desert it's hot so you would need to drink a lot- that's a lot of alcohol which would be a problem in its own right. Most people don't realise that bits of antarctica are deserts too.
Now it's cold there so you wouldn't need to drink so much . I think it's possile that you might get by if the wine was fairly weak and the weather not too hot. Of course, if you are in  atntartica you haev a reasonable chance of finding water- you just need to melt it.

Wait, what is the scientific definition of desert?

The quick answer is "less than 10 inches of water (as rain, snow, whatever) falls in a year"
The long answer is here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert#Classification

Okay, I read that. There's a cold desert too, covered in snow. Does it not count as water? Can't it melt?

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Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 12.08.09 - Will your choice in cutlery alter how your food tastes?

« on: 04/08/2021 03:37:06 »

Even the carefully-chosen adjectives on the menu will alter the way you perceive the taste of the food.

Some researchers have tweaked the ambient sound in the restaurant - apparently, the sound of waves improves the taste of seafood...

I can imagine that. By listening to the sound of waves, my mind will wander that I am on a beach and eating a freshly-captured seafood products (despite how many days it has been since it was actually captured).

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Can Cataract be Cured without Surgery?

« on: 03/08/2021 04:47:31 »

It's okay guys, I underwent the cataract surgery just 3 days after I made this thread. Now my right eye isn't near blind anymore.

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Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 17.11.06 - Why do people pick their noses?

« on: 03/08/2021 04:42:52 »

Stories about people ending up dead after using a neti pot, or through some super bug in the shower are a put off!

What's a neti pot?

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: If a person is using their arms for different jobs do the muscles develop differently?

« on: 03/08/2021 03:32:03 »

Yes it can.  But one doesn't see it much now days, because of automation.

Do you remember Popeye's arms?  Those kind of arms come from hand milking.

Hand milk 12 cows every morning and evening for 1 year.    Instant(1 year) Popeye.

Does it have to be cows or other cattle? Can I do it with my wife?

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: From a Cry to a Smile

« on: 02/08/2021 04:08:18 »

Boy I hear that and have been there done that.. and sometimes even as an adult,  I'll be laughing about something, and all of a sudden feel that wave of joy leave, followed by a memory of something horrible that takes over, bring me to tears. Something in that joy triggers a stored memory of something not quite so joyful.

Ah, locked memory. Back then I didn't believe such things exist, but when I tried to recall a traumatic experience I was wondering myself why that particular memory got locked for so many years already.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: What is this strange insect found dead in my house?

« on: 29/07/2021 04:48:37 »

By the way, what is the definition of a "bug"? ...

True bugs suck ... https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/true-bugs

But Dipterans suck too...

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Are Moths good for your health ?

« on: 29/07/2021 03:34:43 »

The sting tasted spicy.

I would need to look into bee venom in more detail, but it's certainly true that other insects produce sting venoms with interesting tastes. In Australia on bush walks in Kakadu we had fun licking the rear ends of green tree ants. The formic acid they produce has a lemony taste.

It's also worth highlighting that the Cambridge Distillery are making gin from ants:

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/interviews/interview/1001895/

I've tried it and it is quite frankly f-ANT-tastic. No, it really is!

When I had a depression episode, I got to taste a living fire ant. It tastes spicy as well.

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General Science / Re: Don't drink and dress !!!...(Plastic bottles make clothes !!)

« on: 12/11/2020 01:56:39 »

This summer I saw, that here in Austria there were made bathing suits and bathing pants (for men & women) out of straws from Mc Donalds. Bc they wanted to quit the plastic straw production at Mc Donalds. But as this was only a limited edition I guess that not many people got the striped bathing wardrobe

Ah, so they will get bathing clothes which have been kissed by other people when they were straws...

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General Science / Re: What is it with hamsters and wheels?

« on: 12/11/2020 01:40:40 »

Haha what a funny video! I guess if a hamster has no much space in its cage and sees the wheel, it automatically thinks of going inside and when it sees, that is spins, it will stay in so that it can do movements for its legs. Bc hamsters need movement, as they are going miles in the wild and therefore they really need to do "sports". For them this is the only possibility in the cage mostly.

So a maze will also work?

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General Science / Re: Why Does Adding A Spoon Make This Coffee Cool Quicker ?

« on: 10/11/2020 02:44:59 »

I'm with Bored Chemist on this. I don't think it will make a huge difference. If you put a fairly heavy spoon in there, then that will absorb some heat initially until it reaches thermal equibrium. I doubt the rest of the spoon will have much of a wicking effect - compare the area of the exposed spoonhandle to the exposed top-surface of the coffee (and the cup/mug).
While you stir the drink then it should cool down quicker as you keep mixing/bringing the hottest liquid to the periphery (without stirring you'll get a more gradual thermal gradient which will reduce the rate of cooling).

Then should we use a knife instead? Or a sword? Or a lance?

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Empaths: Could they exist by simply reading body language?

« on: 09/11/2020 05:54:41 »

Re gesture:
the same gesture can have completely different in meanings in different countries,
 e.g. the "O.K." hand gesture is offensive in most countries.

Which hand gesture is "O.K." and what does that hand gesture mean in other countries?

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General Science / Re: Which Animals That Lived In Dinosaur Times Are Still existing Today ?

« on: 09/11/2020 02:48:13 »

The closest living relatives of dinosaurs are Archosaurs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archosaur

Reading the name, I never thought that it was a bird. I thought it was a turtle/tortoise whose body looks like a lizard because I thought that Archosaur = Archelon + Sauros

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Chemistry / Re: What made my milk turn to rubber in my coffee?

« on: 07/11/2020 07:31:51 »

Takes me back to a book of home chemistry experiments I had a a kid. Clifford is right, the coffee or the milk must have been acidic and what you have got is casein plastic, the casein in the milk has formed a long chain. I suspect that although the milk was ok it might have been close to turning hence more lactic acid.

I remember back then when I was a teenager, my parents often asked me to buy milk from the dairy farm. After I boiled it, there's something which looked like a layer of thin plastic covering the surface. I tried to eat it and immediately feeling dizzy afterwards. What was that?

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General Science / Re: What is it with hamsters and wheels?

« on: 07/11/2020 05:50:21 »

Well, we once had two mini hamsters (those that are approx the size of your first thumb joint). They had a 3 floor cage of approx. 80cm x 40cm. Plenty of room for two such whimsical creatures you'd think yet they still LOVED nothing better than that wheel.

Glad to know that the hamsters did having fun with the wheel. I recall some months ago I encountered a video on Facebook showing a cat trying a hamster wheel and gave up after just a few spin with annoyed expression.

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General Science / Re: What causes aeroplane Vapour Trails?

« on: 07/11/2020 02:02:00 »

There are a few indoor snow ski slopes in the UK. Far better to injure yourself near an NHS hospital than have to be helicoptered to a Swiss clinic and fill in lots of paperwork. As the outdoor ambient can be as high as 40 deg C,  you can get sunstroke, frostbite and a broken leg all in one day. It's even better than sailing!

That's kinda... ironic. To be able to be damaged by heat and cold at the same day...

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General Science / Re: What causes aeroplane Vapour Trails?

« on: 06/11/2020 01:53:52 »

But I live near the equator. Can a lake nearby from my place be used to make snow?

The Himalayas are near the equator, and you can make snow there.

But the general condition for a stable snow pack is temperatures less than 0°C, over a period of weeks.

Near the equator, you need to be at high elevation to get temperatures that low (see the Wikipedia link above suggesting that temperatures reduce by about 6.5°C for every kilometre in altitude)..

So it is still impossible. In fact, there's only one snowy mountain in my whole country.

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General Science / Re: Vacuum Sealing Versus Cryogenics !

« on: 06/11/2020 01:51:24 »

Cooling things down on the other hand slows down all chemical reactions and if you get it cold enough it virtually stops everything so preserving the body.

Just the body, right? If a living person is cooled down to the point that everything stops that means it includes the heart, right?