Arbitrary Thoughts On A Daily Basis

Yesterday I went about my usual Thursday activities with many random thoughts on my mind. I made a mental note about just two of those myriad thoughts. One was to do some online research about the mechanics of a sneeze, also known as a sternutation. A sternutation is defined as a semi-autonomous, convulsive expulsion of air from the lungs. In my quest for information, I came across an article from WebMD's Sexual Health Center that discussed the occurrence of sneezes in a few people worldwide that happened as a result of sexual thoughts they had. Seriously, there are people who sneeze when they think dirty thoughts. If you're interested in reading further, look here.

I didn't realize how complex the whole process of sneezing really was until this point. Besides thinking dirty thoughts, I read about many other stimuli that may trigger sneezes such as foreign particles passing the nasal hairs and reaching the nasal mucosa, sudden exposure to light (the result of which is formally known as the photic sneeze reflux), and the fullness of the stomach following a large meal.

Another interesting bit that I thought I should share is the fact that it is physically impossible for an individual to sneeze while sleeping. This is simply because the body is in a state wherein motor neurons are not stimulated and reflex signals are not relayed to the brain due to REM atonia. Task one accomplished!

The other task was to research the aromatic compounds that are present in soil and give it that pleasant aroma. Being a vague topic, I was not able to find any information about it upon initial research, but just as I began writing about it, I looked one last time and came across an article that explains it in quite a detailed fashion.

According to an article, written by Whitney Eng, that appeared in The Brown Herald Tribune on Oct. 2, 2007, Professor of Chemistry David Cane, Jiaoyang Jiang GS, and Xiaofei He PhD'07 have discovered the enzyme that creates the chemical compound responsible for the sweet aroma of soil and the earthy taste in drinking water. 

That organic compound is commonly known as geosmin. Geosmin is a Greek word that literally translates to "earth smell". It is also responsible for the earthy taste in beets and the strong earthy aroma that occurs in the air when rain falls in an area after a dry spell of weather. Geosmin is produced by bacteria in soil and by blue-green algae in water. Task two, accomplished! So there you have it, two very unrelated topics that represent a portion of the thoughts streaming through my head on a daily basis.

Also, while I'm on the topic of interesting organic compounds in nature, I came across this very interesting NPR article the other day by Robert Krulwich that discusses the processes that ants have developed to let their counterparts know when an ant has died and what chemical is responsible for alerting the other ants in a colony. He also discusses one scientists ingenious and somewhat comical methodology for determining the chemical signal that declares an ant has deceased. You can find the article here.