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Scientists Identify How the Body Senses Cold
Vicissidude writes with a link to a story on the Nature website, discussing the discovery of a protein that may enable us to sense cold temperatures. It's been pinned down in mice, and the same protein may perform a similar function in humans. Mice rely on a single protein, called TRPM8, to sense both cold temperatures and menthol, the compound that gives mints their cool sensation. The sensor also controls the pain-relieving effect of cool temperatures, but does not seem to play an important role in the response to painfully cold temperatures below 10 C. TRPM8 is in the same family as the protein that detects heat and capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers hot. These proteins lie in the cell membranes of select neurons, and form channels that open and close in response to external signals."
Literally cool, that is!
Give Kashyyyk back to the Wookies
I don't have any problem sensing cold temperatures. When your eyelashes and nostrils freeze shut when you blink or breathe, it is fairly obvious...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
licet differant, aequabitur
Makes you wonder what our computers and I/O devices will be like when we get to the point where we really grok biochemistry.
Yeah, just imagine sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
Apparently this protein enables the body's reactions to cold including motivating feelings of numbness/pain in response to cold temps.
This must not be a one-size-fits-all type thing. I spent my first four Winters in VT wearing only light jackets even in the middle of winter.
Some research would be nice to discover if you can test for sensitivity levels. If so, it would also be nice to have someone incorporate that testing into a dating service. My (beloved) lady cranks the heaters all but about three months out of the year and it just might be the end of me.
I now have to wear heavy jackets throughout the winter to keep myself from going into shock over the temp differentials.
I guess you could incorporate this ability into research into Seasonal Affectation Disorder as well. I hear that motivates a good number of suicides every year, and treatment would inprove if you could show a quantifiable correlation between sensitivity to temperature and seasonal depression.
Regards.
Not to detract from the joke, but this isn't true on two levels. First, shivering is the response to a low core body temperature, not the "sensing" of it. Something else in the body is senses the drop in body temperature and triggers the shivering. It may be the way that the conscious brain "senses cold" but its not the way that the body does it. Second, this protein is not for detecting low body temperatures, it is for detecting "cold" surfaces and substances. TFA says this protein triggers at 27 C which is far too cold for use in the shivering mechanism (which triggers at about 35 C).
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Strangely, those temperatures you mention are both below 10 C...
Of course, our top-down-generated silicon computers only took a few decades to develop, while it took millions of years for evolution to produce the intricate mechanisms that make up modern life. We're not really doing too bad, considering.
50 F is not "painfully cold". In fact, I'm not sure I would describe 50 degrees as cold at all. Hell, 50 degrees won't even make me start to consider putting my shirt back on at Badger games.
The coldest temperature that I've ever been outside in is -60 F. That is air temperature. Who cares about the wind chill at that temp? At that temp, you leave your car running in the parking lot while you're shopping, you don't have a square inch of your skin covered by fewer than 3 layers, and you sure as shit better put your shirt back on while cheering on your Wisconsin Badgers.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
Haven't you heard? Humans were intelligently designed in a single day!
Um... I think you mean manufactured in a single day. Who knows how many coffee breaks and napkin doodles the design process actually took?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I imagine that's skin / nerve temperature, not air temp. At 50F air temp, your skin is a lot warmer than that.
I and my World of Warcraft character got very excited.
It's a long story. Back in 1996, in the early days of Slashdot, people wore onions on their belt, as was the style at the time. In any event, it was at the start of Clinton's second term in office. Things were looking up. It was still a pre-9/11 world, and things were different then, as was the style at the time. Google had only recently started buying up San Francisco real estate. Michael Jordan stopped playing baseball. IBM stock was up. CowboyNeal posted a story about sharks, as was the style at the time. CmdrTaco did not approve and said so in a comment, saying he didn't know what Cowboy Neal thinking. Paraphrasing, he said: "Unless these sharks have lasers attached to their heads, this story doesn't belong here."
After all, I am strangely colored.
"I'm trying to find a possible practical use of this research but can't think of any."
you can turn off the cold sensitivity in my teeth any time.
And yes, I'll pay for the privilege.
Nerves in teeth other than pressure sensors. Dumbest idea ever.
Nerves in teeth other than pressure sensors. Dumbest idea ever.
Best argument I've heard today against intelligent design.
Although the body fat content probably is a factor, I think this is more interesting in respect to researching pain management in general. Some people (regardless of fat) can not handle pain very well at all. Others can live with a great deal of pain with no medication.. For instance, many years ago I had a motorcycle accident which destroyed my knee, and had to have surgery to rebuild it.. I have been in pain ever since, but I have learned to ignore it, and don't think about it.., it is just the way it is.., and I don't take any medication for it.. I have met other people who stub a toe, and run to the emergency room for vicodin... Perhaps these proteins work harder in some people than others.. The people like this who can't handle the most minor of pains, end up as pill junkies if they are not careful. If it is possible that these people could be relieved,or at least be made to better tolerate pain without narcotics they would be a whole lot better off.
waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
"injected their mice with a painful compound, put them on a cold plate and measured the amount of time the mice spent flinching their hind legs in response to the pain. "
You know, if mice ever undergo a genetic mutation causing them to become a dominant species over us, we are sooooooooo fucked.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
For what it's worth, many folks are bragging that they think you can spend some time at 8C (~45F) in the air, but if you were "bathed" in that temperature (e.g., tossed into cold water at that temperature), the expected survival time would only be a couple of hours or less.
Few people know that before Dr Evil developed sharks with frikking laser beams, he engineered a cost-effective prototype using gerbils. However, this had two flaws. First, people collapsed laughing on the floor. Second, the ASPCA and Greenpeace organized a protest around his island. The blockade raised the cost of gerbils to an astronomical One Million Dollars per rodent, so the pragmatic doctor searched for an eco-friendly and less-expensive substitute. One day it came to him as he was feeding enemy agents into the sea: fish, and duct tape. One roll of tape later, he had his solution, and the world was changed forever.