Other mailbags can be found here. Keep in mind a lot of this is email conversations, comment replies, or some random interesting things I’ve found. By their nature they are not as thorough or complete as a post on one topic.
Here’s what’s covered in this installment:
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Which footballers could beat Usain Bolt in the 100m?
None…would even be close to him.
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Crumb-free bread will mean ISS astronauts can now bake in space
Shows how specialized certain industries are. All they’re working on is making bread!
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Humans are made to be…slow
“Chimpanzee “super strength” has been widely reported since the 1920s although a critical review of the available data suggests that the chimpanzee–human muscular performance differential is only ∼1.5 times. Some hypothesize that this differential reflects underlying differences in muscle mechanics. Here, we present direct measurements of chimpanzee skeletal muscle properties in comparison with those of humans and other terrestrial mammals. Our results show that chimpanzee muscle exceeds human muscle in maximum dynamic force and power output by ∼1.35 times. This is primarily due to the chimpanzee’s higher fast-twitch fiber content, rather than exceptional maximum isometric force or maximum shortening velocities. We suggest that muscular performance capabilities declined during hominin evolution in response to selection for repetitive, low-cost contractile behavior.”
–Chimpanzee super strength and human skeletal muscle evolution
Written more about in-
–Which modern day athletes look the most like our ancestors? (On how we’re “supposed to move”)
Electricity production source
At this rate solar will be impacting climate change on the fifth of it’s hot in hurr.
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The Founder
Good business movie:
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Lumosity continues to falter
–Study: Lumosity boosts brain function as much as normal video games—by 0%
I wrote about this some years ago now:
–Worried about dementia? Stop thinking and start moving
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Genetics again gets harder
“Pritchard’s team re-analyzed the GIANT data and calculated that there are probably more than 100,000 variants that affect our height, and most of these shift it by just a seventh of a millimeter. They’re so minuscule in their effects that it’s hard to tell them apart from statistical noise, which is why geneticists typically ignore them. And yet, Pritchard’s team noted that many of these weak signals cropped up consistently across different studies, which suggests that they are real results. And since these variants are spread evenly across the entire genome, they implicate a “substantial fraction of all genes,” Pritchard says.
How do we perform a treatment then? Are we even able to statistically detect what we should be treating? Is success one of the possible outcomes with this?
I’ve written how one can view the genome as a coiled up rope, acting like a taut one. Where touch any part of a taut rope and it will reverberate, having an impact at every other section of that rope.
–Exercise and cancer- why it helps and how much is enough?
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Solar Panels still have a CO2 cost
Because they take up what could be tree space, and necessitate fossil fuels to make the materials which make the panel.
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Lack of blood flow as an issue?
From an email reply-
“I’ve been asked versions of the blood flow question before and so far my answer is an unfortunate “I’m not sure.”
My hunch is if blood flow to a *muscular* area were being impeded, a person would feel this e.g. numbness. This doesn’t really happen chronically. During certain positions or movements perhaps, but otherwise no (provided the person doesn’t have something way out there going on).
Now whether there is an optimal degree of blood flow, and whether that’s getting disturbed, is a different story. A person with heart issues might not be pumping optimally, but they’re getting enough blood flow to not have a heart attack, but that’s not an ideal situation for the heart (which is a muscle).
But I’ve had some ask me about lactic acid buildup, chronically. “I think such and such area is acting up because of lactic acid.” If that were the case the area would likely be perpetually burning, like how the legs feel during a tough workout.
The increasing blood flow is a common thought process behind increasing recovery from workouts too e.g. do a tough workout, the next day do a recovery workout to get blood flowing and increase recovery. There is no evidence for this though, and it’s been looked at thoroughly. Same goes for massage therapy.
In other words, the body seems to be rather good at getting enough blood flow, and when it doesn’t something *serious* is going on to where a person will almost assuredly feel it. Talk to heart failure patients and they’ll often tell you in the weeks leading up to the “event” they had been feeling off. When a body part is falling asleep people often get up / shake the area rather vigorously to get flowing again. “
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Posted on July 17, 2017