The number of fat cells a person has doesn’t change from adolescence to adulthood!

With more mass it would be tempting to believe that a more obese person has more fat cells. What people don’t realize is that the quantity of fat cells doesn’t change. What is different in the obese versus leaner people’s fat cells is just the size.

While scientists have more or less known since the 1970s that the amount of fat cells doesn’t change from what it was set at during adolescence, a research study by Kirsty Spalding of Sweden used several different experiments to elaborate this point. Spalding’s studies included counting cells, examining the effects of surgery, and using Cold War radioactive victims to figure out to what degree cells are replaced. From counting cells Spalding was able to confirm that in both heavy and lighter people the number of fat cells remains constant after time. The number of fat cells only changes during childhood.

By counting the number of cells a person who used surgery to remove weight had, Spalding found out that even with the surgery the number of cells remained the same. The significance of these findings could mean different treatment for obesity. More importantly, this evidence proves how important it is to keep children at a healthy weight while they are setting their number of fat cells.

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Oranges are green, not orange when grown in a tropical climate!

An orange is not a naturally occurring fruit , but rather a crossbreed of the tangerine and the pomelo, which is a fruit also known as the Chinese grapefruit. The first oranges were created in southeast Asia, where they would have been green, rather than orange.

The reason why oranges are green in a tropical climate is because the weather rarely gets cold. Because of the lack of cool weather, the chlorophyll remains in the skin of the orange, keeping it green. When an orange is exposed to cool weather while still on the branch it turns to orange. And orange that is left on the tree can change between green and orange several times depending on the weather.

This change of colors also means it’s impossible to tell if an orange is ripe. Fortunately for us, you don’t have to pay attention to if an orange is ripe. It remains ripe for a long time, even if left on the branch until the next season. The reason all of our oranges are orange in the store is because oranges are generally grown in subtropical areas, which means that they are exposed to cold weather. Oranges were able to give their name to the color because, most oranges are actually orange and not green.

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The voice of Winnie the Pooh calls children in hospitals in character!

Jim Cummings is the voice of the well-known character Winnie the Pooh! Cummings had been a fan of Pooh after seeing a featurette at the age of 10. He would later go on to be the voice of Pooh, and then also the voice of Tigger after Winchell resigned the job.

Cummings has spent so much time being the voices of Pooh and Tigger, but for him it’s not just about fame and fortune. He gives back by working with the Make-a-Wish Foundation. He calls sick children in the hospitals, making their and their parent’s day. One kid Cummings called was dying of cancer. Cummings managed a miracle that made the mother cry: her sick child smiled!

Another boy with autism also got a call, and got to talk to Pooh and Tigger. The boy also asked Cummings to imitate other voices from Pooh, even voices Cummings had never done! Cummings gave it his best and made the kid very happy. His mother let Cummings know, through tears that the boy had never spoken before. He had been talking with Cummings for over an hour! It was so incredible that the boy's mother had taped it to show to the doctors.

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The pope’s astronomer would baptize an alien!

Guy Consolmagno is an astronomer and planetary scientist. He works at the Vatican observatory as a curator of the pope’s meteor collection. In an interview before his lecture at the British Science Festival in Birmingham, he stated that he would be excited if intelligent life was found somewhere in the universe. 

He would even be willing to baptize an alien! Though, he, of course, cautioned that he didn’t think it would ever happen. For Consolmagno, there are two prerequisites for being baptized. The first is that the creature would have a soul, that is to say it would “have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions.” It wouldn’t matter how the creature looked, whether it had tentacles or horns or looked utterly foreign, only that it had a soul. 

His second prerequisite is that the alien must ask for the baptism. This does make the likelihood of an alien baptism even less likely. It means that the alien must also be able to communicate with humans in some way. 

The likelihood of the alien being intelligent and able to ask for a baptism is next to nothing, and especially since we haven’t actually found any aliens. Do you think there could be intelligent life elsewhere?

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The Mars family got rid of a candy bar because they hated peanut butter!

The PB Max bar was an invention of the Mars family. On the bottom of the candy bar was a whole wheat cookie. On top of the cookie Mars put oats and a big dollop of peanut butter! It was made in the United States. 

As far as nutrition facts go, it was exactly what you would expect: tons of sugar and plenty of calories! It’s label read “240 calories, 5 g protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 16 g fat, and 150 mg sodium.” It’s serving size was just 1 piece. The reason the Mars family decided not to continue production is a little funny. 

The bar was very successful with earnings of $50 million in sales. However, the Mars clan wasn’t a big fan of peanut butter! Executive and family member Alfred Poe only gave the reason of a “distaste” for peanut butter as the reason the PB Max bar was pulled from production. 

With Reese’s as popular as it is, it’s not a stretch to believe that the PB Max bar would have continued to be just as popular and highly successful. The Mars family may have lost a big seller! Would you buy a PB Max Bar? 

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