ovij

Why do we get allergies?

Many of us will get allergic reactions in our lifetimes. They can range from a minor irritancy, such as hayfever, to potentially life-threatening conditions, su...

Rhesus disease – When a mother’s immune system attacks her child

Surely a mother’s immune system cannot attack her own, unborn child. A child is part of its mother, it shares her nutrients, her blood supply, her oxygen. How c...

What are autoimmune diseases? Why do we get them?

What is autoimmunity? The immune system is designed to identify and attack foreign organisms within the body that cause disease (pathogens). However, sometimes ...

Creating instant ice – What is supercooled water?

Supercooling is the process of chilling a liquid below its freezing point, without it becoming solid. figure 1. Ice cubes In the experiment I conducted (shown b...

How would you measure the volume of all the blood in your body?

How would you go about trying to measure the total volume of blood in the human body? There is one simple solution to this question. Slash open someone at a maj...

Introducing SteemStem Distilled #1

Welcome to the first issue of SteemSTEM Distilled, a curation effort by the members of the @steemstem team. SteemSTEM is a community driven project which seeks ...

How do enzymes catalyse biological reactions?

Many of the reactions that occur in the body would happen at remarkably low rates under physiological conditions. In chemistry, a catalyst is used to increase t...

The fat that makes you thin – What is brown fat?

When most people think of fat, they will probably picture a tyre of flab lingering around the midriff (or something of the sort), much like the image below. Thi...

How do cells generate energy?

Everyone knows that oxygen is required to live. But, why is that the case? What is it about oxygen that is essential for life? To be able to harness the of ener...

Why can’t you hold your breath until you die?

Hold your breath for as long as you can. Breath holding kid How long did you last? No more than a few minutes, I would guess. If you try and hold your breath, e...

Malignant hyperthermia – An introduction to the pathophysiology

Many of you will have heard of hypothermia, a life-threatening decrease in body temperature. While hyperthermia is the opposite, a dangerous increase in body te...

How do muscles contract?

Contraction in the simplest sense is shortening of a muscle fibre. When muscles receive stimulation from the nervous system, the required fibres simultaneously ...

Is 99% of our DNA junk?

“Did you know 98.8% of human DNA is just junk?” “What do you mean, junk?” “It doesn’t code for proteins or contains genes. It just does nothing, has no function...

How does protein synthesis occur?

Proteins are by far the most important macromolecule within the body. What? Proteins are just muscles, aren’t they? Yes and no. All muscles are made up of prote...

How is DNA replicated?

Each time a new cell divides, the entire genome must be replicated in an error free manor in order to prevent cancer from arising. With around 3.2 billion base ...

How is information transmitted in the nervous system?

An action potential is the only means by which a signal can be transmitted along a nerve cell. It is therefore down to these action potentials to communicate no...

How does your heart beat?

A human heart will beat around 3 billion times in an average lifetime. The heart works continuously from birth till death, unlike many other muscles which requi...

How do nerves carry electrical impulses so fast?

Nerve impulses can travel at up to 119m/s. To put that into perspective, it is faster than a Bugatti Veyron travelling at its full speed (254mph). https://uploa...

OCD Daily: Issue #50

https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmSb25YrGzRjsyWGAU7NBRqwRN9VuPDTD58rf8Ca445AKT/ocdnewnew.png OCD DAILY - Issue 50 Welcome to the 50th i...

How do nerves conduct electrical impulses?

Nerves are just like wires aren’t they? Electrical impulses move through neurones just like electricity flows through a wire, right? No! Absolutely not. Nerves ...