(no subject)
A little background:
I'm not usually one to brag, but I consider myself an expert in many fields. From science to technology, I have run the gamut (many times actually!). The problem is, I haven't done much for other people in my years on this planet and I feel like I could use some good karma.
Which brings us to today's post: I am going to be answering science questions sent in by disadvantaged minority children living in the American ghettos. I hope my answers will inspire these children to become as intelligent as I am!
As an aside: All of my answers to these questions have come straight from my noggin. It has been my observation that there is far too much misinformation on the internet. Instead of disseminating the lies that the other sites are dishing up, I am going to give you the facts!
Dear Andreas,
I don't get much sleep. My family and I live a couple of blocks away from an airport and the sounds of the planes taking off and landing keep me awake for most of the night. On really bad nights, I only get about 3 hours of sleep. Why is this lack of sleep making me go crazy?
Thanks,
Frankie
Tucson, AZ
Hey Frankie,
The reason you are going crazy has to do with the fact that your lack of sleep is causing your neurons to misfire.
To understand this, we're going to use a car analogy. How do the spark plugs on a car know when to fire? The distributor handles this important task! Basically the distributor "distributes" the electricity to the spark plugs with the correct timing so that they fire when they are supposed to. If the spark plugs were allowed to fire randomly, your car would be far less efficient (if it even worked!).
Now, back to your brain. Inside the brain there is a piece called the hypodistributan that has a task similar to the distributor in your car: it tells the neurons when to fire and in what order. Like your car, the hypodistributan needs fuel (except that instead of using gasoline, the hypodistributan runs on neurolical hormones). These hormones are regenerated as you sleep!
The longer you go without sleep, the less neurolical hormones are available for the hypodistributan to use. When your neurolical hormone reserves get low enough the hypodistributan shuts down and the neurons in your brain start misfiring.
If you allow this to continue for too long, your hypodistributan will eventually shut down for good, and you will stay in this "crazy" state permanently.
Good luck!
Dear Andreas,
I was just wondering who came up with the term "period".
Sherry
New York, New York
Dear Sherry,
It wasn't only one person that came up with the term "period" to describe the period during which a girl ejects blood, it was a whole committee!
Time for a history lesson. Back during the middle ages, women didn't have much of a way of taking care of their periods. Since tampons weren't invented until the late 1600s, women had to come up with clever solutions to keep themselves clean. Unfortunately many of these solutions backfired, and countless women died. Eventually, these deaths became an epidemic. A committee was formed to determine what to do about this issue. At one of the meetings, Sir Thomas Manchester made a comment about how they were in a "dark period". The name stuck.
During the civil rights era, the "dark" in period was removed because it had too negative a connotation. Many questioned how something that made life possible could be considered "dark". Eventually, in 1975, the American Medical Association decided to remove the "dark" from "dark period".
Quite an exciting history for such a simple word!
Keep those questions coming kids!
-Andreas
I'm not usually one to brag, but I consider myself an expert in many fields. From science to technology, I have run the gamut (many times actually!). The problem is, I haven't done much for other people in my years on this planet and I feel like I could use some good karma.
Which brings us to today's post: I am going to be answering science questions sent in by disadvantaged minority children living in the American ghettos. I hope my answers will inspire these children to become as intelligent as I am!
As an aside: All of my answers to these questions have come straight from my noggin. It has been my observation that there is far too much misinformation on the internet. Instead of disseminating the lies that the other sites are dishing up, I am going to give you the facts!
Dear Andreas,
I don't get much sleep. My family and I live a couple of blocks away from an airport and the sounds of the planes taking off and landing keep me awake for most of the night. On really bad nights, I only get about 3 hours of sleep. Why is this lack of sleep making me go crazy?
Thanks,
Frankie
Tucson, AZ
Hey Frankie,
The reason you are going crazy has to do with the fact that your lack of sleep is causing your neurons to misfire.
To understand this, we're going to use a car analogy. How do the spark plugs on a car know when to fire? The distributor handles this important task! Basically the distributor "distributes" the electricity to the spark plugs with the correct timing so that they fire when they are supposed to. If the spark plugs were allowed to fire randomly, your car would be far less efficient (if it even worked!).
Now, back to your brain. Inside the brain there is a piece called the hypodistributan that has a task similar to the distributor in your car: it tells the neurons when to fire and in what order. Like your car, the hypodistributan needs fuel (except that instead of using gasoline, the hypodistributan runs on neurolical hormones). These hormones are regenerated as you sleep!
The longer you go without sleep, the less neurolical hormones are available for the hypodistributan to use. When your neurolical hormone reserves get low enough the hypodistributan shuts down and the neurons in your brain start misfiring.
If you allow this to continue for too long, your hypodistributan will eventually shut down for good, and you will stay in this "crazy" state permanently.
Good luck!
Dear Andreas,
I was just wondering who came up with the term "period".
Sherry
New York, New York
Dear Sherry,
It wasn't only one person that came up with the term "period" to describe the period during which a girl ejects blood, it was a whole committee!
Time for a history lesson. Back during the middle ages, women didn't have much of a way of taking care of their periods. Since tampons weren't invented until the late 1600s, women had to come up with clever solutions to keep themselves clean. Unfortunately many of these solutions backfired, and countless women died. Eventually, these deaths became an epidemic. A committee was formed to determine what to do about this issue. At one of the meetings, Sir Thomas Manchester made a comment about how they were in a "dark period". The name stuck.
During the civil rights era, the "dark" in period was removed because it had too negative a connotation. Many questioned how something that made life possible could be considered "dark". Eventually, in 1975, the American Medical Association decided to remove the "dark" from "dark period".
Quite an exciting history for such a simple word!
Keep those questions coming kids!
-Andreas