Page 147 - Science Facts

It's OK to stuff your mouth with candy!

Dentists have said that it's ok for parents to let their kids eat up as much candy as they want at one time. They say that it's actually better to eat a lot of candy at one than eat it spread out over a period of time.

There are a few reasons for this: if you eat 5 candy bars at one time, your mouth will salivate more than if you eat one each hour for 5 hours. All that saliva will neutralize the harmful acids that corrode teeth. If you eat one each hour, there is more acid than saliva, which harms them.

The other reason is that people who eat a lot of candy will most likely brush their teeth after eating, whereas just one candy bar might not tip the scales. How much candy did you eat this Halloween?

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Space smells!

This seems contradictory, because space is just an empty vacuum. Also, humans can't survive without being completely airtight in space. So how is it possible that we know? An ISS Science Officer explains that whenever he would operate the airlock for his crew mates in the international space station, he noticed a distinct smell.

He thought it was air ducts at first, but then he noticed it was stronger on their suits, tools etc. He describes it as "metallic; a rather pleasant sweet metallic sensation. It reminded me of my college summers where I labored for many hours with an arc welding torch repairing heavy equipment for a small logging outfit." 

A small jolt of electricity in the brain can improve math skills for 6 months!

Researchers have discovered that a small jolt of electricity, one that is so small, most patients don't even realize it, can improve a person's math skill. The key is to direct the electricity to pass through the brain's parietal lobe, which is involved in number processing. 

What researchers did was teach the participant a new series of symbols (not our common Arabic numerals) that represented numbers. While their brains were being shocked, they tested their ability to organize the numbers. People who had received the electricity were better than people who weren't.

While there's no safe, practical use for these findings at the moment, scientists are excited at the prospect of being able to improve people's abilities in the future. And while people will still need to put an effort behind these skills, they can still help people. In the meantime, please don't lick batteries before your math tests.

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American kids think they outperform other countries in tests. In reality? they're almost dead last!

There are many things wrong in the American public school system (we covered cafeteria meals here), and the film Waiting for Superman brought light to a lot of the issues facing schools. 

One of the most shocking ones is that, on international math and science tests, American schoolchildren rank 25th in Math and 21st in Science among the 30 most developed countries. However, they also ranked 1st in thinking they outperformed everyone else. Some experts think that this is a combination of a high focus on self-esteem and low expectations. If true, this might put the US in an educational disadvantage in the future. 

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1% of Germans are immune to HIV!

A man had been diagnosed with HIV and was later diagnosed with leukemia. Fearing that he might die because his defenses were so low, his doctor tried something unconventional.

 He remembered that some people have a genetic mutation that basically closes the path of HIV into the immune system! The doctor did an extensive search until he found someone with this genetic mutation, and did a bone marrow transplant.  This mutation is more common in Germany, where it is estimated that 1% of people have it. The man eventually got cured of HIV 4 years after he stopped taking medicine for it (See his story here )

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