98.6 Isn't Normal Any More (This Week's Oddity)

Big medical news, folks - 98.6 isn't normal.  Well, it hasn't been MY normal for a long, LONG time!  My personal normal hovers around 97.1, so when I go to the doctor and they say my temperature is "normal," I tell them I have a 1.5-degree fever.  I usually get odd looks. 

Yes, I know.  It's not just my temperature that makes people look at me strangely.

Anyway, a new study of body temperature records reveals the temperature of the average American man has dropped 0.6 degrees centigrade (a little less than 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1860.  Earlier studies had already recognized the "new normal," blaming the difference on faulty thermometers.  But more recent research concludes the original number, established in 1850, was correct, and American body temperature has gradually dropped over a span of 150 years.

The reason for the drop?  Maybe it comes from lower "overall levels of inflammation" (that oh so trendy bugbear of health), or because of antibiotics, vaccines, improved food and water quality, and central heating and air conditioning.  Here's the article I saw, published last month.

Fascinating! 

Ants on Stilts (This Week's Oddity)

Putting ants on stilts may prove they count their steps to find the way home.  

I just read a blurb about this in the past week, but when I did an internet search, I found the original study was performed in 2006 - fourteen long years ago!  This particular experiment was designed to determine whether ants count their steps.  Apparently, they do.

The researchers "made modifications" to desert ants to test the idea.  They set up an ant nest, let 25 ants take a 10-meter walk from home, then gathered them up.  In one group, the researchers glued tiny stilts to the ants' legs (awkward!).  In another group, they CLIPPED the ants' legs to make them shorter (poor ants!!!).  The control group's legs were left alone (whew!).

They gave each ant a tiny bit of food and set it free.  The ants headed for "home."  The hypothesis was if the ants do indeed count their steps, the "modified" ants wouldn't be able to find home.  The stilted ants would overshoot the mark, and the "stumpy" (their descriptor) ants would fall short.

The hypothesis was proved!  Neither group of "modified" ants made it home.  The ants on stilts went about 5 meters too far, and the "stumpy" ants stopped about 5 meters short.  The control ants had no problem finding their way back.

They then let the "modified" ants take another walk, and they had no problem returning home.  

Interesting, but oh, the poor ants - especially the "stumpies!"

Anyway, you can read more about it here.