Science & Fun - Jonathan Graehl

Homogenization is done by forcing milk through a small geometry valve at very high pressures (1500-2500 psi).  The effect of this treatment is to break the natural fat globule (average size ~10 micrometers) into  much smaller fat globules (average size

Within the first 10-20 seconds after homogenization, proteins and segments of the original membrane form a new membrane on the surface of the smaller fat globules.  The addition of the protein to the surface of the fat globules and the reduction in the size of the globules results in the reduction in the ability of the globules to float to the top of the milk.  During this process, the milkfat is not exposed to air as the process is done in an air tight system containing only milk.  Milkfat is made up of 98% triglycerides, which are extremely stable to changes during processing.  The only way that milk will spoil faster after homogenization is if the homogenizing system is not properly cleaned and sanitized.

Another factor that may be thrown out is the xanthine oxidase.  Dr. K. Oster proposed a theory in 1971 that xanthine oxidase released from the milk fat globule membrane during homogenization was a contributor to atherosclerosis.  To this end, I would have you read the following review article.

There is not much if any support for this theory but a lot of people are still using it to scare customers into paying higher prices for cream-line milk.

Dr. Partridge drinks homogenized store milk himself, although he said he has to take the jugs from the back to avoid the “light oxidized flavor that is prevalent in milk stored under direct fluorescent lighting.” This is not a man who drinks milk without consciousness.

by blocking the enzyme known as glycogen synthase kinase, or GSK3, lithium boosts the master clock’s strength threefold.

Understanding this mechanism, Meng says, companies are already developing drugs that can block GSK3, but which would be unlikely to trigger lithium’s unwelcome effects such as nausea, dry mouth, tremor, weakness and weight gain.

In 1985, the EPA, estimated that the daily lithium consumption for a 154 lb. adult ranges from 650 to 3,100 micrograms

Did basketball have a doping era? Talent + obsessive work ethic will get you a long way *if* you have enhanced physical recovery. Maybe that’s sometimes purely genetic. Kobe looked pretty buff for a few years post-Shaq (but not unbelievably so). Jordan was never huge but there’s more to chemically enhanced performance than bodybuilder physique (which hardly comes without specifically trying).

women who reported the highest saturated fat intake also had, on average, the worst scores on reasoning and memory tests. Those with the highest monounsaturated fat intake had the best cognition test scores on average, compared with those who ate mostly polyunsaturated fats

Long after the famous Kitty Genovese story — supposedly many people watched her being murdered without doing anything — doubt was cast on its accuracy. In the meantime, John Darley and  Bibb Latane, two professors of psychology, it as the starting point for a series of experiments on what they called the bystander effect — the more bystanders, the less likely that each one will help. They concluded there was “diffusion of responsibility” — the more people that witness something, the less each witness feels responsible for doing something.

In China the problem is much worse. A few years ago a woman was hit by a car. A second car stopped to help her. The woman told the police that the second driver had hit her. The second driver was furious, gave many interviews, and eventually a witness was found who said it was the driver, not the injured woman, who was telling the truth. Someone I spoke to attributed her behavior to the need to pay hospital bills. The driver who hit her would never be caught, she reasoned. Maybe the second driver could be forced to pay.

My Chinese tutor, who is Korean, told me a story that illustrates the depth of Chinese bystander inaction and suggests another reason for it. A friend of hers was visiting from Korea. When this friend was in Wangjing (in the Chaoyang district of Beijing), she saw a person lying on a busy street, bleeding but still alive. Apparently the bleeding person had been hit by a car. Three hours later, the friend returned — and the accident victim was still there! Now dead. So, with difficulty — she doesn’t speak Chinese — she called the police.

The police treated her as a suspect. She was forced to come to the police station five times, for hours each time.

What a deterrent to calling the police! I cannot believe the police were so stupid as to consider a Korean tourist on foot who calls the police a serious suspect in the death of someone lying in the middle of traffic. I believe that by causing her a lot of trouble, they wanted to send a message: Leave us alone. The fewer calls they get, the less work they have to do. No wonder everyone ignored the bleeding victim.

ok: Martha Marcy May Marlene

The researchers carefully controlled for intakes of total energy, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables; age; body mass index; race (white or nonwhite); smoking status; alcohol intake; physical activity level; multivitamin use; aspirin use; family history of diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction, or cancer; and baseline history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, or hypercholesterolemia. In women, they also adjusted the data for postmenopausal status and menopausal hormone use.

brain cell death (both neuronal and glial) is a process that begins at ~ 2 years of age – at least for the neurons that comprise the gray matter of the cerebral cortex, and which proceeds relentlessly throughout the individual’s lifetime (Giorgio, 2010) Brain cell loss and degeneration become morphologically apparent in the brain’s white matter by the time we are in our early 20’s, although there is evidence that more subtle changes have been afoot for much longer. (Hedden, 2004) Losses in gray matter volume proceed approximately linearly with age in normal aging, and the average gray matter volume decreases from ~390 mL at age 22, to ~300 ml at age 82. (Courchesne, 2000) Total loss in brain mass between age 20 and age 80 is, on average, ~450 g, or roughly 1/3^rd of our youthful brain volume.

ok: Fracture, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

the average roll, if people reported honestly, should have been 3.5. This gave them a baseline from which to calculate participants’ honesty. Those forced to enter their results within 20 seconds, the researchers found, reported a mean roll of 4.6. Those who were not under any time pressure reported a mean roll of 3.9. 

good: Take Shelter (even though the ending is awful)

 A recent meta-analysis found that men who drank moderate amounts of alcohol had considerably less risk (a risk ratio of 0.3) of liver cirrhosis than men who drank no alcohol.  It wasn’t clear if some forms of alcohol (e.g., wine) were more protective than others. I came across this study because another article called the association “biologically implausible”, whereas I think it is highly plausible due to vast experimental literature on hormesis (animals given small amounts of poisons are healthier than animals given none).

The findings about cirrhosis join a much large body of evidence that moderate drinking is associated with less heart disease.  A recent meta-analysis reached this conclusion once again and found, in addition, that moderate drinking is associated with less all-cause mortality.

These are more examples of the health benefits of fermented foods …

your body can either improve the circulatory system or strength, but not both, so which one you start an exercise session with determines whether or not you build strength or aerobic fitness. This is a counter-intuitive result, and therefore worthy of attention.

Running is given extra attention, as is weight lifting. You’ll get interesting answers as to whether you’re lifting heavy enough weights, or whether your cardio workouts are intense enough. What’s good about the book is when it steers into areas that I always wanted to know but never bothered to find good answers to because Google searches would only turn up advocate’s results.

For instance, I’ve long suspected that Yoga doesn’t actually do anything good for your body compared to actually doing cardio or weight lifting, and this book confirms that with references to literature.

Where the book covers topics I had previously read about elsewhere, it doesn’t contradict well known existing literature. For instance, it points out that your spouse is the biggest influence on your exercise habits. It also shows that if you want to stay young, “vigorous aerobic exercise makes your DNA look several decades younger than it is. And that’s bad news for the sedentary groups.” In recent years, it’s been fashionable to dismiss exercise as useless for losing weight, but the reality has been that exercise is important for reasons more than losing weight:

Only the diet-plus-exercise group had significant improvements in insulin sensitivity, LDL chloresterol, and distolic blood pressure—crucial risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, but changes you can’t measure by looking in the mirror or stepping on a scale… (Pg. 157)

In addition, the author takes on the typical prescriptions for exercise as being too little to even maintain your weight and not gain weight: “Managed to avoid significant weight gain throughout the study, and these women averaged a full hour of moderate exercise every day. Anything less was unusuccessful. That’s a lot of execise—unless you compare it to the daily lives of our ancestors who didn’t spend most of the day sitting at desks or in cars.” (Pg. 160)