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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."
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!
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
I imagine that's skin / nerve temperature, not air temp. At 50F air temp, your skin is a lot warmer than that.
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.