What's the difference between Baking powder and yeast?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Right here on Science is So Sexy, Sexy readers have the power of choosing what they want to read about! That's right, You, my Sexy, You choose!! No point writing about Science is no one is interested in it, right? So, this post is based on a request from a friend of mine who's very much into cooking and baking and, in particular, into Jamie Olivier... ;) 


If you are interested in similar articles, feel free to come over to Olive Oil, better than butter?, What are Omega-3 and -6?, Hazelnut spread, recipe for disaster?, How does Caffeine affect your body?, Why do we cry when we chop onions?, How to make a home-made mayonnaise?, Do you need a cure for your indigestion?

What exactly are baking powder and yeast?

Baking powder

Baking powder and soda, what's the difference?

Most commercially-available Baking powder are composed of a base, an acid and an inert starch (cornstach or potato starch for example).

The acid can be lemon juice, yogurt, buttermilk, cocoa or vinegar or honey.

The base is typically Sodium Bicarbonate, also known as bicarbonate of soda, baking soda, bread soda, cooking soda or simply bicarb!!

The base and the acid are going to react together in a very simple acid-base reaction that is going to release carbon dioxide.

This gas will be released into a batter or dough causing bubbles thus expanding the mixture.

The starch added to the baking soda is there to keep the powder dry to avoid reaction between the acid and the base even before you add it to your batter.

You can replace the baking soda by the bicarbonate of soda alone provided sufficient acid reagent is also added to the recipe!

Yeast

This Sexy logo means you can try it yourself

Mixing some active dried yeast with warm water

A yeast is a live, single-cell fungus. Also called Baker's yeast, this strain of yeast is of the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the same species as the one used in alcoholic fermentation.

Yeast converts the fermentables sugars present in the flour/dough into the gas carbon dioxide (and ethanol that evaporates during baking). This released gas make the dough expanding or rising as gas forms pockets or bubbles. When the dough is baked, the yeast dies and the air pockets set, giving the baked product a soft and spongy texture. That is why the baker will let the dough rise several times so it can develop more completely before baking it.

So can we substitute one for the other?

As we can see, baking soda and yeast are both used to gas-fill the pastry making it soft and fluffy. The reason why we use one or the other is primarily for the distinctive flavor and aroma from the yeast; but also because the acid base reaction from baking soda is much quicker than the yeast action. 

Also, the yeast can die before acting if the water added to the flour is too hot.

To substitute yeast by baking powder, it is needed to use a double acting baking powder. A double acting baking powder contains two different acids, one that is going to work in a wet mixture at room temperature, and one that is not going react until the mixture is heated in an oven.

On this note, I would like to wish you all Happy Baking and a

FANTASTIC HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Chemicals in our Make up - Part 2: Eye shadow

Hi Everyone, 

Today we are going to resume our mini series on Chemicals in our Make up with Part 2 focusing on Eye shadow.
The request was originally from Bibil, and inspired by one of the earlier posts about Eczema and cosmetics products: What are the Chemicals in our Make up?
You can catch up the first instalment here Part 1: Foundation.

 Eye Shadow

In the ancient times, Egyptian women applied dark green color to the lower lid and blackening the upper lid with Kohl. They also used powdered charcoal. Semi-precious stones such as malachite and lapis lazuli were also grounded and used as eye shadow. 

A bit of Promotion

Hi everyone,

Just a little post to say thank you all for your support!!!

Since starting this project, I really didn't know what I was letting myself into but lots of support and clicks there and there, and I've grown a audience! Who would have thought!!!!

I have now a Facebook page at the address www.facebook.com/sciencesosexy

A Google + page https://plus.google.com/113506228412134136205

And business cards in the making!!

There are not a lot of posts but I am trying to keep the principle of quality over quantity on!!

As loads of work and reading go behind every post, I wouldn't be able to write any faster :)

Enough from me at this time! Tomorrow, I will have the 2nd part of Chemicals in your Make up!!

See you tomorrow!!!

Chemicals in our Make up - Part 1: Foundation

This post was a request from Bibil, and inspired by one of my earlier posts about Eczema and cosmetics products:

What are the chemicals in our make up?

Well, although I found many articles saying that there is no regulation, actually there is a fairly well controlled organisation that bases its research on many reviews published in scientific journals.

Because the subject is endless and for the sake of easy reading, I will concentrate on the essentials such as: Foundation - Eye shadow - Mascara - Lipstick which I will separate into different posts, making it a mini series. Today's post will be:

Foundation

Liquid foundation makeup

Foundation is composed of different phases that are mixed together:

The Powder Phase products includes skin covering and opaque materials such as titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide, and fillers such as talc or mica that creates a matte finish on the skin. Also, metallic stearates are added to provide opacity and water repellency.

Titanium dioxide TiO2 is a natural mineral used, amongst many other applications, as a pigment because of it brightness and also its efficient opacifier! It is also used in every sunscreen product for its ability to protect the skin, however titanium dioxide dust, when inhaled, has been classified as a cancer-causing agent. This follows a study on rats developing lung cancer and mice getting mutations in their DNA. 

Talc, also called magnesium silicate, is considered safe at a low concentrations, but many studies have shown a link between talc and lung/ovarian/skin cancer. In general, inhalation of the particles are what's harmful.

Mica is a general name for silicates, they are used in combination with TiO2 to produce shimmering effects. They are also used in paint for cars and plastic containers. 

Metallic stearates such as Magnesium stearate doesn't seem to yield any risk.

The Aqueous Phase includes mostly water followed by wetting or dispersing agents that assist in pigment blending (lecithin, sulfosuccinates, ethoxylated sorbitan esters). Also gums and clays that operates as co-emulsifiers, thickeners and pigment-suspending agents (Magnesium aluminium silicate, bentonite, methylcellulose).

Lecithin is a natural product that we can find in egg yolk, and has even been proven to help lowering cholesterol.  

Sulfosuccinate is commomly used in pharmaceuticals products, rare side effects have been linked to its comsumption. Sulfosuccinate does not cause cancer, but has been shown to be a skin and eyes irritant.  

Ethoxylated Sorbitan ester is a solubilizer, an emulsifier, an antistat and fiber lubricant used in textile industry, a wetting agent, a viscosity modifier, a suspending agent used in food, cosmetics, drugs, textile and metal working industries, a solubilizer for perfumes and flavours, insecticide, herbicides, paints and inks, and pharmaceuticals. It is found naturally in various berries and fruits or it is prepared synthetically by high-pressure preparation of sugar. Studies found it to be safe and non carcinogenic. See this Study for more info   

Bentonite can be used in cement, adhesives, ceramic and cat litter. Studies have not found it to be toxic at the low doses used in cosmetics. An interesting fact from Wikipedia that we can somehow relate to foundation: The same effluvial deposition of bentonite clay onto beaches accounts for the variety of plasticity of sand from place to place for building sand castles. Beach sand consisting of only silica and shell grains does not mold well compared to grains coated with bentonite clay. This is why some beaches are much better for building sand castles than others. 

The Polyol Phase consists of materials that improve makeup spreadability, decrease drying rate, increase product smoothness and creaminess (glycerin, PEG).

Glycerin is the same as Glycerol.It is a colorless, odorless, viscuous liquid that is widely used in pharmaceuticals formulations.It is found in allergen immunotherapies, cough syrups, elixirs and expectorants, toothpaste, mouthwashes, skin care products, shaving cream, hair care products,soaps.Topical pure or nearly pure glycerol is an effective treatment for psoriasis, burns, bites, cuts, rashes, bedsores, and calluses. 

PEGs: These compounds are used in a great variety of cosmetic applications because of their solubility and viscosity properties, and because of their low toxicity. They produce little or no ocular or dermal irritation and have extremely low acute and chronic toxicities. They do not readily penetrate intact skin, and in view of the wide use of preparations containing PEG and PEG derivatives, only few case reports on sensitisation reactions have been published, mainly involving patients with exposure to PEGs in medicines or following exposure to injured or chronically inflamed skin. On healthy skin, the sensitising potential of these compounds appears to be negligible.

The Oil Phase is composed of both liquid and solid materials that assist with product emulsification, spreadibility, pigment dispersion and viscosity control. They include fatty acids (stearic acid, oleic acid), waxes (carnauba, ozokerite, ceresin) and paste like butters. Emulsifying and thickening agents (propylen glycol, sorbitan), along with antioxidants (tocopherols, BHT), preservatives (parabens, urea), and fragrances added within the oil phase, may improve application properties and product quality and purity.

Stearic/oleic acid:  The term "oleic" is related to oil or olive. Oleic acid is a fatty acid found in various animal and vegetable fats. Positive health effects of the substance have been documented. Adverse effects also have been documented, however, because both oleic and monounsaturated fatty acid levels in the membranes of red blood cells have been associated with increased risk of breast cancer. Stearic acid occurs in many animal and vergetable fats and oils. And some studies suggest that it may be healthier than other saturated fatty acids. 

Carnauba is used to thicken the formulation of foundation. Is also used in candy making or pharmaceutical tablet. 

Ozokerite is a naturally occurring odoriferous mineral wax or paraffin and is used in candle making. I found one scientific article entitled the carcinogenic activity of medicinal ozokerite, but it is in Russian so I don't know if the result is positive or not! 

Ceresin is a wax derived from ozokerite by a purifying process. 

Tocopherols =Vitamin E activity is an antioxidant added to prevent oxidation of sensitive ingredients as well as protect the skin from free-radical damage. It is found in our diet or in supplements; therefore it is safe to assume that it is safe in cosmetics. 

BHT is an antioxidant, some studies haven shown that it reduces the risk of cancer, others studies to increase it. It is also found in supplements. A Scientific review was conducted in '99 ans concluded that BHA (is used as a "safer" replacement for BHT) and BHT pose no cancer hazard and, to the contrary, may be carcinogenic at current levels of food additive use

Parabens are used as preservatives for their antibacterial and antifungal actions, so we can keep our creams without them becoming infected. So far, no other component has been as efficient to replace it. Much contraversy has been raised  after extremely low concentrations have been found in breast cancer tumours however more research need to be conducted to confidently link paraben to cancer. Paraben is found naturally in some plants such as blueberries and most parabens used in products have the exact same formula. However it has been shown with confidence that some people can become allergic to it and should avoid it or else could develop dermatitis!  - Full review is now available 

Urea is a skin irritant for people who suffers from dermatitis and have an allergy to Formaldehyde.

For more info, check this list of scientific reviews HERE

This concludes our first part of Chemicals in our Make up. I hope you found it interesting. 

Stay tuned for:

• Part Two: Eye Shadow
• Part Three: Mascara
• Part Four: Lipstick

Vitamin D and the Winter Blues

This was a request from Bibil: Why do we feel depressed during winter?

Winter blues, called SAD for Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a seasonal depression and mood variation known to be related to how much sunlight you receive. Your mood is influenced by a complexed relationship between sunlight, melatonin (sleep hormone) and serotonin (awake AND good mood hormone).

Winter Blues 

As the dark hours increase during winter, our body increases levels of melatonin, leaving less hours for the body to increase its serotonin levels. Whereas during summer, serotonin levels increase when you are exposed to bright light making you feel in a better mood!

Indeed it is well known that bright light therapy can bring quick benefits to people with depression or SAD because light affects the balance between melatonin and serotonin

What is Eczema?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

Today, we are looking at a condition that affects millions of us. In fact, about 1 in every 9 people is suffering from Eczema!

---- Eczema Awareness Week 13-21 Sept 2014 ----

For this post, I am lucky to announce this is a double post with the amazing participation of Sugarpuffish who you can find at this address http://sugarpuffish.blogspot.com/. It is a fabulous and interesting blog about beauty products for people affected by Eczema and/or allergies.

When I stumbled upon her blog, I immediately asked her about guest posting on Science is So Sexy. She replied promptly, not like the weeks it took me to write it up... ;) Thank you Sugarpuffish!!

Sugarpuffish input is written in italics

So, What is Eczema?

Eczema is an inflammation of the outer layer of the skin, and is also called dermatitis, although, depending on the translation in different countries, some doctors would say eczema refers to a chronic condition (as in you always have it) whereas dermatitis refers to an acute condition (as in you get it once, or occasionnaly).

Eczema is an inflammation of the outer layer of the skin 

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It is a term broadly applied to a range of skin conditions including dryness, rashes with redness, swelling, itching, crusting, cracking, bleeding among others.

Types of Eczema and associated symptoms

There are different ways to classify all the different types of eczema depending on the cause, the location or the appearance. 

There are different types of Eczema, as a child I suffered from the most common form Atopic Eczema now as an adult I probably also fall into the category of Contact Eczema.  It is often said that you will grow out of Atopic eczema but I don’t feel I ever have.  However you class my eczema I have suffered from it since infancy.

Atopic Eczema is one of the most common type, and is an allergic disease with possible genetic factor that might occur more often in families who suffer from asthma

Eczema can flare up and calm down.  It can be in small patches common in body joints (backs of knees or inside elbows) or over the whole body.  Even when not suffering eczema flare up your skin is dry, itchy and sensitive.  I am fortunate that my eczema is not always visible.  Eczema is not pleasant to look at and I have read on forums that sufferers do encounter negativity from people who do not recognise their skin condition.

When asked what eczema feels like the main characteristic which drives you insane is the itch.  As a child I scratched my skin even when asleep.  9 times out of 10 you scratch so hard you break the skin and draw blood which often leads to infections.  My skin always feels too tight for my body so when you flex an arm you feel like your skin is tearing.  Eczema appears red, flaky and extremely dry.

Other types of eczemas include Discoid Eczema that comes and goes, Venous usually affecting people with blood circulation problems, Xerotic where your skin is so dry it turns into eczema or Contact dermatitis which can be either allergic or irritant from direct contact with something.

In the case of Atopic Eczema, technically, if you avoid the products that make you allergic or irritant, you should be able to cure your eczema. Now of course, with some many allergens in our beauty products, it's very hard to do so, and it's for that precise reason that Sugarpuffish started her blog.

Treatments

All treatment available aim to control the symptoms by reducing inflammation and relieving itching. These can be Steroid creams, unfortunately side effects including the skin becoming thin and fragile but also by their immunosuppressing action, can lead to fungal or bacterial skin infection. These can not be used continually and need to be alternated with other treatments such as moisturizers (emollients). Sugarpuffish give us other possible treatments:

Traditional treatments for eczema are emollients and steroid creams, immunosuppressant, wet wraps and ultraviolet light treatment.  As a child I was smoothed in thick heavy creams morning and evening.  I could not use conventional soaps and shampoos so had prescribed alternatives.  I wore cotton gloves to bed to try and stop me scratching in my sleep.  When I got infections I would be bandaged up like an Egyptian Mummy.

Cause(s) of Eczema

At 10 years old my eczema was dramatically affecting my daily life.  I was in a great deal of pain, because my skin was broken and infected, I developed asthmatic symptoms and was no longer participating in sports at school.  My GP referred me for a Skin Prick Test  which I passed my test with flying colours I was officially allergic to pretty much the entire world – Cats, Dogs, Feathers, Dust Mites, Pollen, Fungus, Milk, Eggs, Citrus Fruits, Yeast, Perfumes and many more.  We left the hospital with a long list and dietary information.  By cutting out what I was allergic to I was virtually free from eczema. 

The cause of Eczema is unfortunately unknown but some research suggest that the answer could be in your genetic profile and/or your environment. Indeed, studies on populations have found that Asthma sufferers, as well as Eczema and other allergic diseases, grew up in a very clean environment such that, combined with a failing immune system, had an increased risk of developing their condition compared to other non sufferers.

Beauty products

About five years ago my eczema broke out severally and I couldn’t understand what had triggered it.  I did research via the internet and started to find articles about chemicals used in beauty products that were possible skin irritants.  It started to make sense all my life I had to avoid certain brands of washing powder, fabric conditioner, soap and shampoo.  I overhauled my beauty cabinet and changed to products made without ingredients that are believed to be skin irritants e.g. SLS, parabens, artificial fragrance, petrochemicals, PEG’s, silicones, DEA, lanolin.  Almost immediately I noticed a change in my eczema and dry skin.  I will never go back to regular beauty products and I urge people with sensitive skin to try natural products and see the difference for themselves.

* SLS = Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, is known in all research labs as SDS.A complete review on SLS and its variants has now been written on Science is So Sexy and is available HERE

* Parabens are used as preservatives for their antibacterial and antifungal actions, so we can keep our creams without them becoming infected. So far, no other component has been as efficient to replace it. Much contraversy has been raised  after extremely low concentrations have been found in breast cancer tumours however more research need to be conducted to confidently link paraben to cancer. Paraben is found naturally in some plants such as blueberries and most parabens used in products have the exact same formula. A complete review has now been written on Science is So Sexy and is now available HERE

While searching for this post, I came across this article with more information about allergies and dermatitis, it also lists terms you might wanna look for when choosing a product, but also about misleading terms listed on products. Of course, checking out Sugarpuffish blog will definitely be an immense and regular source of information for beauty products targeted at people who have a sensitive skin prone to allergies.

I hope you found this post interesting, no doubt we all learnt something, me by preparing it, you by reading it!! Thank you again Sugarpuffish for opening up to us :)

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

In SSS hood

Dear Normal People,

It seems so long ago I started this new venture and left it abandonned!!!

I am so sorry, I've been so busy with my scientist life, reading complicated stuff for work, sweating over unworkable experiments, frustrated over weird unreal looking results...

But in my Science is So Sexy hood, I have a request for the story of Vitamin D and the Winter blues, an exciting double "guest" post about a real Life experience, and a press release about Music, plus an update on one of my previous post!!

Exciting exciting!!!

 (: Stay tuned :)

Are you a secretor?

My Dear Sexy Readers,

As you know, here at Science is So Sexy, I asked my Sexy Readers what they want to read about! It's all very well to write about Science but if no one reads your articles, it's just internet clogging isn't it? So as part of Science is So Sexy Request Time, I'm focusing on a question that fellow blogger, Chelle, has been asking herself:

"What does it mean when you are a secretor in your blood?"

Blood Type

Our blood is composed of, among other things, of White cells and Red cells

Composition of our blood

Cells can have elements stuck on their surface, it can be proteins, sugars or any variation of these.

In the case of red blood cells, the elements that determine your blood type are called antigens and are formed by linking 4 types of sugar:

The ABO blood type system - Specific sugars on red blood cells

The most common blood type systems are the ABO and the Rhesus (+- for Antigen D) systems and are the most important when it comes to blood transfusion.

ABO System

A person with Blood group A has the antigen A on their red blood cell surface, and antibodies against B antigen in their serum so can only receive blood from people with blood type A or O and can donate to A and AB.

Each person possesses a type of red blood cell with antigens, and antibodies in plasma

For example:

A person with Blood group O doesn't have antigens A or B and has both  antibodies against them in their serum so can only receive from O but donate to all types (A, B, AB, O).

For these reasons, we can say:

Universal Donor is O-

Universal Recipient is AB +

What more?

There are actually 30 blood-group systems recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion, meaning there are many more other antigens stuck on the surface of your red blood cells than A, B and D.

This is something you inherit from both your parents.

Secretor Status

A secretor is defined as a person who secretes their blood type antigens into body fluids and secretions like saliva in your mouth, the mucus in your digestive track and respiratory cavities, etc.

A person can be either a Secretor or Non-secretor, and has nothing to do with your blood type A, B, AB or O. In the US, about 80% of the population are Secretors.

Another blood group system is the Lewis Blood group (a or b) and relates to salivary Secretor status.

By testing his saliva, a Secretor person usually is Lea- Leb+, a non Secretor being Lea+ Leb-.

It can happen that a person be a partial or weak secretor meaning it has reduced quantity of its Antigens in his saliva.

A few studies have shown that being a Secretor might be beneficial, protecting at least partially to certain malignancies or allowing to have less aggressive disease

Blood type Diet

This diet is a nutritional diet advocated by Peter D'Adamo, a naturopathic physician. He claims that ABO blood type is the most important factor determining a healthy diet. However, the consensus among dieteticians, physicians and scientist is that the theory is unsupported by scientific evidence.

For example, one if his book Lectin: The diet connection, says that lectins which interact with the different ABO antigens are described as incompatible and harmful therefore different foods for A, B, AB and O are chosen to minimize those interactions with lectins.

But not only a search on Pubmed (a website where ALL scientific articles are published once they have been approved by experts in the respective field) doesn't yield any article but actually lectins are not ABO specific.

 If you are interested in more information about this blood type diet, click HERE

See you Soon for more Sexy Science,

Effect of Cannabis on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This is my review on an article published in a journal distributed freely on the London Metro. See HERE

The original scientific paper is HERE 

Background

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop (sometimes after months) after exposure to any event, physical and/or psychological, that results in psychological trauma, overwhelming the individual's ability to cope.

Traumatic events that may cause PTSD include violent assault, kidnapping, sexual assault, torture, being hostage, prisoner of war, experiencing a disaster, violent automobile accident, being diagnosed with life-threatening illness, bullying, mobbing, etc...

Blood Pressure medicine May help Skin Cancer patients

I found this article and thought I would share it with my followers as I think it is quite exciting!

Beta-blocker drugs are commonly used to treat high blood pressure. The way they work is by blocking the action of two hormones, called Adrenaline and Noradrenaline, when these normally bind to their receptors.

Note: Most of what happens in your body cells are a result of a specific key (= hormone, or other protein called ligand) linking to a specific key hole (=receptor), resulting in a door being opened to a new path (= a signal being created, leading to secondary messenger)

Key-keyhole system

It was discovered that certain cancer cells had receptors on their surface specific for adrenaline and noradrenaline. When those two hormones were binding to these receptors, the signal created was to produce more compounds that are known to stimulate blood flow to them, enhancing their growth and therefore spreading cancer to other parts of the body.

Thus, by treating a patient with Beta-blockers, you can lower the amount of those compounds that induce the cancer progression.

The Beta-blockers won't kill the the cancer cells but they may slow the disease progression, and in addition to normal chemotherapy, could contribute to increased survival time.

The Research group from Ohio who analysed results based on Skin Cancer patients from Denmark (They have a large database with complete information on their patients) and found this link are hoping to start a clinical trial very soon to confirm those findings.

Other groups working with Ovarian Cancer patients found similar results.

Work has also been done and more under way for Breast Cancer patients.

The advantage and exciting part of this research and discovery is that beta-blockers are inexpensive and won't add - hopefully, we'll have to wait for clinical trials results - any more side effects than chemotherapy already does such as hair loss and sickness.

But please remember self medication is never a good idea, if you are interested in the contents of this post and are affected by cancer, please talk to your doctor.

Source

Original Scientific article

Article discussing advances on Beta-Blockers help to Breast Cancer Patients

Why do we cry when chopping onions?

This was a question submitted to me by a dear friend.

Who never cried when chopping onions? Unless you're 20 and never cooked/helped your mum and you've only been eating them (find out why it's good for your health), everyone has had a good cry over damn onions!!

Well I'm happy to report it's all about chemicals and chemical reactions.

1. The onion point of view

You see, the poor onion only wants to protect itself from bacterial or other attacks when rooted in the soil. In order to do this, its cells (=building blocks, from latin meaning "small room") contain amino acid sulfoxides that we'll call Sulfur Boxes.

When you're cutting an onion, you're breaking those cells = small rooms, releasing Warriors (enzymes) whose roles is to break those Sulfur Boxes to transform the amino acid sulfoxides into sulphenic acids.

Another Warrior then comes into action helping this sulphenic acid to reach more easily its victim by making it volatile. Sulphenic acid becomes then a gas, with a very uncool complicated name.

When this gas, that we call lachrymatoric factor LF (litterally something that makes you cry), reaches the water from your eyes, it transforms itself again into sulfuric acid, a more known irritant, burning your eyes.

(I think you'll never look at an onion the same way now you know it evolved so well to produce such a combat army!)

2. On our side:

When this sensation is felt by your sensory cells in your eyes (whose role is to sense things in your environment and send messages to your brain), they are telling your brain that it needs to evacuate this irritant.

The brain then in turns sends signals to your lacrimal glands (behind your eyes) to start making up tears, = producing more water, therefore diluting away the amount of sulfuric acid in your eyes and eventually evacuate it outside your body.

It's by following this logic, that the best way to come over rapidly from this situation is - after stepping well away from the onion - keep your eyes wide opened to make yourself cry more. The worse is to close them or rub them with your hands full of this gas that landed on them!

I found that if you put your onions in the frigde, I don't cry so much. Must be because all those reactions will be slowed down at lower temperature - the warriors are not very efficient when cold!!

Or by cutting your onions under water, the gas can't swim, it drowns - although I agree it's not practical!!

Also those sulphur boxes are mostly contained in the root so technically if you cut the root first or last, you shouldn't cry so much!

What about you? What's your trick for not crying?

Press article: Effect of Cannabis on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This morning, I opened the Metro (free journal distributed in the tube) and found my first subject for this new blog (for which I am so excited!!!)

Title reads:

"Cannabis may be the cure to traumatic stress, say scientists"

If you'd like to read the full article, click HERE (it's a short text)

So I looked for the real article published in the scientific journal:

"Cannabinoids prevent the development of Behavioral and Endocrine Alterations in a rat model of Intense Stress", by Eti Ganon-Elazar and Irit Akirav from the department of Psychology, University of Haifa in Israel, published in the journal called Neuropsychopharmacology.

As you can see the title from the metro paper and the real article are somewhat different.

This happens oftens and could lead to serious public misinformation!!

So my aim is to translate the sciencey bits from the real one and give you the real information behind it... Stay tuned...

NB: This review has now been written,  you can find it HERE

Introduction

Hello everyone, and Welcome on my new venture Science is So Sexy, an informative blog made for you!

What I'm suggesting here is trying to explain Unsexy Uncool Boring Specialized Science to Normal Cool Interesting people like YOU!!

All you have to do is tell me what you wanna know in the chat box on the right hand side of this page, or in the comment box here below!

Don't be afraid to ask ANY subject.

They can be as serious as explaining WHAT IS CANCER to shameful knowledge hole such as WHY THE HELL DO WE PUT SALT ON ICY ROADS?