Why don't Women have Beards?

Q: Why don't women have beards?

Men are hairy and women (well, most women) are not. What's up with that?

Hair growth is controlled by hormones and most women do not have beard because their female glands and hormones prevent it. The female hormone (estrogen) stimulates the growth of hair on a woman's head, but stunts the growth of beards and mustaches, yet sometimes the unwanted hair does show up.

The male sexual hormone, testosterone, is the hairy hormone. Men have more of this hormone than women, therefore they grow beards and women do not. But what about those ladies that do sport a little peach fuzz?

Younger women are full of estrogen which prevents beard growth, but as women pass through menopause, their estrogen level decreases. This could be the reason that some older women have unwanted facial hair as they age that they never had before.

Generally though, men are just hairier than women in most cases. But, if a man had more estrogen in his body than testosterone he would lose his beard so it just depends on the hormone levels of a person, which can be different in everyone.

It is interesting that this would not be a question or discussion, if women from day one had beards. The real question should be, why don't men have babies?

Hawking's Comeback

I really enjoyed this article on Stephen Hawking's comeback. It seems as if he has faced almost everything in his life and has conquered it. It is interesting that after all the work he has done in his life, he is not as iconic anymore as he used to be. The author of the article said, "the master of black holes is himself steadily becoming less visible." It may be a sign of the generation and the times. From my personal experience, I feel like my generation is more intersted in Kanye West's latest scandal and Britney Spears' newest fling instead of more important and intersting people like Hawking.

Now for the grading...

Lede: 19/20. I loved the lede. The author put me right into the same room with Hawking as he made his entrance. Very well done and definitely did draw me in.

Content: 18/20. I do think the author answered all the questions. Not knowing much about Hawking before this article, I learned a lot and was not left wondering anything after I finished the article.

Organization: 19/20. I thought the article was easy to read, follow, and understand. The author broke up the text into small paragraphs, which makes a long story easier to read and the transitions were effective in doing that also.

Quality of Writing: 20/20. I loved the writing style. The tone was not too scientific and stuffy, it was somewhat casual and very easy to understand and read.

Clarity of Exposition: 17/20. When the author was explaining the black holes theory I was a little confused, but he did try to use smaller words and phrases to explain it for the less scientific people out there like me. I'm guessing that people that are involved with this area clearly understand the article.

Brrrr!

Q: Do polar bears get cold?

A: The fury giants live in Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway some of the coldest areas in the world where winter temperatures can drop to -45 Celsius. Brrr!

Polar bears are protected by with two layers of fur and a layer of blubber that can measure 4.5 inches thick. With such good insulation they experience almost no heat loss. But do they ever get cold?

According to the San Diego zoo, polar bears are more likely to suffer from over-heating than hypothermia. Polar bears can swim in frozen ocean water with no worry and survive even the harshest, coldest winter storm. Their two-layer fur sticks together when wet, so it serves as waterproof barrier for the bear keeping them dry and warm.

Their 4-inch blubber insulates the bear from the bone-chilling air and also acts as a nutritional reserve when its hard to find food. The blubber also helps the bear float when they're swimming in the icy ocean.

Although polar bears do not hibernate, they do make a den and sleep during times of low temperatures which will help keep them warm. Their bodies slow down and preserve their energy.

There is a catch- the bear must be healthy to withstand the Arctic cold. A young bear, sick bear, or nursing female bear may have a harder time dealing with the cold because they aren't able to reserve their fat.

Any healthy polar bear has all it needs to stay warm in the freezing cold... more power to them.

Best Lede from Discover Magazine

"Sleep deprivation. Stress positions. Waterboarding. These interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration in the war on terror were explained, at the time, as harsh but necessary tactics that forced captives to give up names, plots, and other information. But a new look at the neurobiological effects of prolonged stress on the brain suggests that torture damages the memory, and therefore often produces bad intelligence."

I loved this lede from an article at Discover Magazine. The lede begins with a list of interrogation techniques that most of us are well aware of after the Bush administration, so it draws the reader in wanting to read more and understand more about the topic. The last sentence is interesting and makes me want to continue reading the article. If the torture interrogation techniques can possibly cause memory loss then somebody should tell Dick Cheney.

Where are they Coming from???

It was still dark out when I woke up (thank you to my 3-month old son) and my stomach made that annoying gurgling sound. After 30 minutes of feeding a baby who wanted to play instead I groggily walked to the kitchen to get the last Red delicious apple. I opened up the breadbox where I always keep them and I jumped back as a swarm of fruit flies clouded my face.

I was confused. The apple was tied tightly in a plastic bag then placed in my "air-tight" breadbox. Where'd they come from? Why did they choose my last apple? I had to find out.

According to an article on discovery.com fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster ) come from the outdoors unlike popular belief that they just appear with "spontaneous generation."

The article says that up until about 100 years ago, people thought that if you left a piece of meat out flies would somehow emerge from it. Therefore, an Italian doctor decided to cover up the meat: No more flies.

Wrong. They're still here and they're still eating everyone's fruit.

Fruit flies eat a diet of yeast, which can be found in ripe fruit. They stay away from your unripe bananas and oranges. Why aren't there any fruit flies swarming the fruit section at Price Chopper? Usually because those fruits aren't ripe yet. Smart on their part.

Now to warn you about the gross factor. The flies lay eggs that turn into larvae (MAGGOTS!!!!) that will spend days eating the yeast products then hatch into fruit flies and then continue the cycle. There could be eggs on my delicious apple the instant I see a fruit fly and then only 30 hours later the disgusting squirmy maggots can appear and lots of them.

Okay so I throw the fruit away in the dumpster because I am deathly afraid of maggots. But there's still a few stragglers flying around my kitchen. Why are they still here? Marvelously, fruit flies can live on a range of other things beside your fruits. They can get nutrients from a scummy mop, the slime of a sink drain, or get this... they can live on a diet of alcohol fumes. Their tiny gross little bodies deploy a special chemical that can convert the alcohol to nutrients before it can poison them. Too bad for me.

Next bad news, their lifespan is only 8 days, but they breed at a rapid rate. Discovery.com gave an example that is absolutely mind-boggling. "one pair of flies, in one year, can produce a dynasty that, packed in a ball, would fill the void between the Earth and the Sun."

Looks like we'll never be rid of these little critters. An easy way to trap them is to use a wine bottle with just a little bit of wine left in the bottom, they'll smell the fruit and dive to their deaths. Guess I'll be finishing a bottle of wine tonight.

Lede of the Week

There are some things it is better just not to think about. Like the 10,000 bacteria you inhale with each breath in the average office building. Or the 10 million bacteria in each glass of tap water. Microbiologists have now added something else to the list of things too gross to contemplate: the deluge of bacteria that hit your face and flow deep into your lungs in the morning shower.

This lede came from a New York Times article by Nicholas Wade about a bacteria in water that can cause health problems. This lede is very catchy but still full of facts. It's interesting and it drew me in because of the gross statistic that there is 10 million bacteria in each glass of tap water. The lede left me wanting to read more.

What a Hoot!

I had no intentions of looking for a bird on my hike through a small trail in Ausable Forks, NY but I definitely found one. I heard a "hoo-hoo-hoot" coming from high up in the trees that made me stop in my tracks. Somehow in my 23 years of life I had never seen an owl in nature. I finally spotted the creature perched on the highest branch of the giant tree.

First I noticed his dark brown eyes glaring out at me. He was covered in white-gray feathers with brown stripes down his neck and chest. The feathers looked so puffy and warm. He continued to "hoot" for a few minutes longer then silence... but he never left his tree.

After my encounter with the owl, I searched online to find out what type of owl he was. I believe it was a barred owl (strix varia)- the brown horizontal stripes are a giveaway. The barred owl lives all throughout New York state in dense foliage high off the ground- just like the area I spotted him.

The barred owl is known to hunt for small animals like mice at night, but sometimes they hunt before dark on overcast days.

The loud "hoot" I heard is common for this type of owl because they are known to be very vocal and converse with others especially during mating seasons between February and March. The owls find one single partner for life and only breed once a year. Although they are a monogamous bird, they are separated from their partner most of the time until breeding season begins.