Quick Answer?

No, a dog’s mouth is not technically clean, and is not actually any cleaner than a human mouth

Tell me more!

Comparing a dog’s mouth with a human’s mouth is sort of like comparing apples and oranges—really filthy apples and really filthy oranges. Both species’ mouths are hot, damp places teeming with roughly equal populations of bacteria. Neither would be described as clean, and any question of comparative cleanliness is irrelevant because so much of that bacteria is species-specific. Most of the germs in your dog’s mouth aren’t going to be a problem during a big, wet doggie kiss. You’re more likely to run into trouble kissing another human than you are a dog, because bacteria from a person’s mouth will feel equally at home in yours.

Of course, not all bacteria are species-specific. Dogs and humans can and do transmit some germs to each other via the mouth, so if your dog is the type that likes to lick faces (is there any other type?), there are a few precautions you can take. One, try to keep your dogs from picking up any external bacteria by keeping them out of the trashcan (and away from rancid food), and away from wild animals (lest they contract rabies). Two, keep them healthy: up-to-date vaccines, good external and internal parasite control, regular teeth brushing, etc.

And then, pucker up!

While we’re at it, let’s tackle two more things we’re often told about canines: 1) Dogs lick their wounds and they heal very fast, and 2) Dogs don’t get as many cavities as humans. There are simple explanations for both. Licking the wounds gets rid of dead cells and dirt, just like when we wash our wounds. The immune system takes it from there.

As for cavities, they’re largely caused by the bacteria Streptococcus mutans. These bacteria feed on sugar, which is far more common in a human’s diet than a dog’s. Hence S. mutans prefers to live in our mouths, not Fido’s.

#reference mental floss

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Your Brain Deceives You

If studies consistently fail to show that women talk more and that often, in fact, men talk more, then why do people think that women are chattier? Perhaps our thinking is warped by language ideologies more than we realize.

In a perception study, participants listened to a recorded dialogue between a man and a woman. Despite both dialogue participants uttering the same number of words, the study participants judged the women to talk more than their male partners.

Women were judged to have been talking 5% more than they actually did. This may not seem like a lot, but when listeners heard a conversation between two men, both were accurately perceived as having equal speaking time and equal rates of speech.

Studies have long suggested that the average woman speaks about 20,000 words a day. The average man, on the other hand, hovers closer to 7000. That means in one year, a Chatty Cathy could wind up speaking 4.7 million more words than a member of the quieter sex, or the rough equivalent of narrating War and Peace in its entirety … eight times. The reason for this has long been unclear to scientists, and it’s why a team of researchers at the University of Maryland sought to find a biological underpinning for why women tend to have a natural gift for gab. Their question: What makes women more talkative than men?

How it was tested

A team of neuroscientists and psychologists, led by Margaret McCarthy, studied rats to identify a protein called Foxp2, which was found to be associated with vocalization. Male rats, for example, tended to have more of this protein in their brains than females, and when scientists reduced the protein’s rate of production, the baby males were far less squeaky (and were given less attention from their mothers). The next step was to see if the same was true for humans. Researchers tested 10 children between the ages of three and five to see what their Foxp2 protein levels were.

The result

Compared to young boys, the girls had 30 percent more of the Foxp2 protein in a “brain area key to language in humans,” says The Telegraph. A correlation seems clear. Among rats, males are more talkative and have more of this protein. Among humans, girls are more talkative and have more of this protein in key language areas of the brain.

What the experts say

“Based on our observations, we postulate higher levels of Foxp2 in girls and higher levels of Foxp2 in male rats is an indication that Foxp2 protein levels are associated with the more communicative sex,” said McCarthy. Of course, that doesn’t mean women are always more talkative than men. “We can’t say that this is the end-all-be-all reasoning,” researcher Mike Bowers told Today, “but it is one of the first avenues with which we can start to explore why women tend to be more verbal than men.”

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You are not as weird as you thought you are if you can’t do but thinks once in a while WHY DO I HAVE FINGERPRINTS!?

Not just in a biologically sense now, even scientists still aren’t quite sure what our fingerprints are for. But atleast we know what they can do. LOL.

As they test different hypotheses, they’re getting closer to the answer—and learning some pretty cool stuff in the process.

Is it to improve our sense of touch?

Back in twenty 09, some researchers in Paris made a study which lead to building two bio-mimetic tactic sensors, which imitate the human ability to touch and perceive substances. one had flat like smooth skin; while the other was grooves that mimicked fingerprints. When these artificial fingers moved across roughly-textured surfaces, the fingerprinted sensors produced vibrations up to a thousand times stronger than its colleagues that is using a smooth ones. These vibrations, the scientist found, were dominated by a frequency in the optimal range of sensitivity of pacinian corpuscles, receptors in our skin that detect pressure changes and vibrations. These researchers thick that our fingerprints job might be to amplify certain tactile information so that it’s more easily processed by the nervous system. They also suggest that swirling patterns of fingerprints ensure that some of the ridges are always brushing sideways across surface, no matter which way the finger is moving, to better generate vibrations.

Is it to improve our grip?

Humans are not the only ones with fingerprints, apes, monkeys and koalas all have fingerprints. Some New World monkeys even have ridged pads on their tree-gripping tails. Fingerprints’ design, and their presence in all these animals, has led people to think that they’re an adaptation for improved grip while climbing trees and manipulating objects, but there isn’t much experimental evidence for that. At the University of Manchester, Research by biomechanicist , who tested the idea in 2009, suggests that a good grip isn’t fingerprints’ forte. Dr. Roland Ennos and his student Peter Warman tested the grip of Warman’s fingers at different angles on strips of acrylic glass sheets similar to Plexiglas. While many solid objects obey Amonton’s law and friction between them is proportional to the force between them, the friction between finger and glass increased less than Ennos expected when more pressure was applied. The pair inked Warman’s fingers to measure the contact area between them and the sheets and found that friction did increase when the contact area increased, but also noted that the grooves between fingerprint ridges reduce the fingers’ contact surface with the glass by about one third, compared with smooth skin, and actually reduced friction and ability to grip.

Fingerprints and Bacteria

Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder have shown that bacteria found on the skin can be used as personal identifiers. This is possible because bacteria that live on your skin and reside on your hands are unique, even among identical twins. These bacteria are left behind on the items we touch. By genetically sequencing bacterial DNA, specific bacteria found on surfaces can be matched to the hands of the person from which they came. These bacteria can be used as a type of fingerprint because of their uniqueness and their ability to remain unchanged for several weeks. Bacterial analysis could be a useful tool in forensic identification when human DNA or clear fingerprints can not be obtained.

What are some other possibilities?

Ennos and Warman throw out a few other plausible explanations for fingerprints at the end of their paper: that they allow our skin more to more easily comply with and deform to objects we’re touching or holding, reducing shear stress and preventing blister formation; that they increase friction on rough surfaces compared with flat skin because the ridges project into the depressions on these surfaces and provide a higher contact area; that they facilitate runoff of water like tire treads. Ennos says his lab is testing all of these hypotheses, but hasn’t published any results yet.

Key Takeaways: Why Do We Have Fingerprints?

• Fingerprints are ridged patterns that form on our fingertips. Several theories have arisen as to why we have fingerprints but no one knows for sure.
• Some scientists believe that fingerprints may provide protection for our fingers or increase our sensitivity to touch.Studies have shown that fingerprints actually inhibit our ability to grasp objects.
• Fingerprints consist of arch, loop, and whorl patterns that form in the seventh month of fetal development. No two people have identical fingerprints, not even twins.
• Those with the rare genetic condition known as adermatoglyphia are born without fingerprints.
• The unique bacteria that live on our hands can be used as a type of fingerprint.

Sources

• Britt, Robert. “Lasting Impression: How Fingerprints Are Created.” LiveScience, Purch, http://www.livescience.com/30-lasting-impression-fingerprints-created.html.
• Big Question- ;why do we have fingerprints’. www.mentalfloss.com
• “New Hand Bacteria Study Holds Promise for Forensics Identification.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 16 Mar. 2010, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100315161718.htm.
• Nousbeck, Janna, et al. “A Mutation in a Skin-Specific Isoform of SMARCAD1 Causes Autosomal-Dominant Adermatoglyphia.” The American Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 89, no. 2, 2011, pp. 302307., doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.07.004.
• “Urban Myth Disproved: Fingerprints Do Not Improve Grip Friction.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 15 June 2009, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090612092729.htm.

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There are absolutely many reason why our body could be yearning for chocolate, This could be because you are hungry,For a caffeine boost, it could also be out of habit, culture, or stress; And it could be Because your body needs magnesium.

If you’re like most people, you simply can’t pass up the opportunity to partake in a piece of chocolate (or five). Some have even said that chocolate melting on the tongue is better than a kiss. But why do we love chocolate so much?

Our cravings can be traced to two places: Our guts—studies have shown that chocolate lovers have different bacteria in their intestines than non-chocolate lovers—and our brains. We crave chocolate because eating it results in the production of opioids, which dull pain and increase levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain’s reward system that helps us experience pleasure. (Drugs like cocaine and amphetamines work directly on the dopamine system.)

Chocolate can have many health benefits in moderation, but often, people can’t stop popping truffles—and scientists might know why. In a recent study, researchers working with rats injected a drug directly into the neostriatum, a region of the brain primarily associated with movement. When the rats began to eat chocolate candy, a naturally occurring chemical produced in that region of the brain, called enkephalin, surged, increasing the rats’ desire to eat the candies. The animals ate twice the number of chocolate they would have eaten normally.

Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, a researcher at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor who ran the study, says this same area is active when obese people see food, or when drug users take in a drug scene. “This means that the brain has more extensive systems to make individuals want to overconsume rewards than previously thought, she said. “It seems likely that our enkephalin findings in rats mean that this neurotransmitter may drive some forms of overconsumption and addiction in people.”

Takeaway

Chocolate cravings are very common, but there are healthy ways to deal with them. Dark chocolate with high percentages of cacao have a number of health benefits, which means you should feel free to enjoy them (in limited quantities of course). Keep in mind that anything with sugar and fat can contribute to weight gain, so practice smart portion control.

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Birthday cakes have been a tradition since the Ancient Romans were around, and celebrating someone’s birth with a delicious pastry seems pretty logical. But have you ever wondered who the first pyromaniac was to light a cake on fire?

There are a few theories about the origins of birthday candles

Some believe that the Many ancient cultures also believed that smoke carried their prayers to the heavens. Today’s tradition of making wishes before blowing out your birthday candles may have started with that belief.

tradition of birthday candles began in Ancient Greece, when people brought cakes adorned with lit candles to the temple of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. The candles were lit to make them glow like the moon, a popular symbol associated with Artemis.

Others believe that the tradition of birthday candles started with the Germans. In 1746, Count Ludwig Von Zinzindorf celebrated his birthday with an extravagant festival. And, of course, a cake and candles: “there was a Cake as large as any Oven could be found to bake it, and Holes made in the Cake according to the Years of the Person’s Age, every one having a Candle stuck into it, and one in the Middle.”

The Germans also celebrated with birthday candles during Kinderfest, a birthday celebration for children in the 1700s. A single birthday candle was lit and placed on the cake to symbolize the “light of life.”

Source: Mental floss

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Quick Answer?

Beans make us fart because they contain sugars and fibre that our bodies have a hard time digesting. When these sugars meet up with the bacteria in our large intestines, it produces gas and so we fart.

Break it down a little more?

Beans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot. But don’t blame your flatulence on the poor legumes directly. The blame lies instead with the loads of little critters teeming in your gut.

Once you mash a bowl of barbecue baked beans into a fine mush in your mouth and stomach, it moves along to the small intestine. This organ is basically a molecular chop shop, where digestive enzymes strip your meal down for whatever bits and pieces your body can use and break them into smaller components that are more easily absorbed. Proteins get broken down into peptides and amino acids, fats into fatty acids and glycerol, and some carbohydrates into simple sugars. These are then absorbed through the intestinal wall to become fuel for your body.

This process isn’t so smooth with beans.

Their natural sweetness comes from a group of sugars called oligosaccharides (some of the more common ones in beans are raffinose and stachyose, which sound like rejected Musketeers). These sugars are hulking, awkward molecules. They’re far too big to slip though the intestinal wall on their own, and our guts’ enzymatic tool kit doesn’t have the right stuff to break the big things apart into more manageable pieces. So the sugars get a free ride though the small intestine. No one messes with them, and they move on into the large intestine intact.

Here their journey comes to a halt when they’re greeted by some of your closest friends, the 700+ species of bacteria that call your lower gut home. Fully capable of handling the big meal and never ashamed to have at your leftovers, the bacteria dig into the sugars. As they eat, their metabolic activity produces gases, hydrogen and methane among them. All that gas accumulates and eventually escapes your body as a fart, which may or may not be blamed on the dog.

Not all organisms have this problem with oligosaccharides, and some fungus species possess the right enzymes to break them down. These enzymes are easy enough to extract, and are often turned into gas-relieving supplements. Beano, the most well-known example, is made with the enzyme alpha galactosidase, derived from the fungus Aspergillusniger. Pop a tablet in your mouth before dinner, and the enzyme will snap those big sugars apart into handy little sugars like sucrose, glucose and fructose, giving you things your body can use and keeping you from giving a performance attributable to the musical fruit.

To demystify this age-old question, we consulted Amy Shapiro, MS, RD, CDN, who says, “Beans make some people fart because they contain sugar molecules called oligosaccharides.” Some people don’t have enough alpha-galactosidase enzymes to break them down, which can cause gas and bloat. During digestion, the beans go from the small intestine into the large intestine, where gut bacteria attempts to break down these problematic sugar molecules. “This creates carbon dioxide in the process which results in gas,” Shapiro tells us.

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It is not only annoying but also disgusting seeing your dog eat poop, what are the reasons behind this?. Read this article to the end to find out!.

For a species that tends to be portrayed as noble, intelligent, and discriminating, some dogs sure do love to eat poop. Their fecal snacking extends to foreign excrement, litter boxes, and even their own waste. Some have been known to contort their bodies and devour a number two as it exits, refusing to let the waste go to waste.

Why do some dogs become fecal vacuums while other turn their nose at it? There’s no one definitive answer, but there are a few pretty reasonable suggestions.

Benjamin Hunt, Ph.D., a veterinary behaviorist and professor at the University of California, Davis, published a study in 2012 that surveyed 3000 pet owners. His research discovered that 16 percent of the sampled dogs had practiced coprophagia—eating poop—at least five times. Of those, nearly all had devoured another dog’s deposits. Interestingly, over half of the guilty parties were identified as “greedy eaters” who would snatch food from tables. Hunt also learned multi-dog households were more likely to encounter the behavior, possibly because their backyard doubles as a fecal buffet.

These poop munchers likely all have one thing in common: mommy issues. “Puppies don’t have the reflexes at birth to initiate urination or defecation on their own, and they require their mother to stimulate them,” says Nick Dodman, a professor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Mom licks their behinds, eats whatever they produce, and also cleans the “nest” of larger deposits the only way she can. “Puppies are greeted by their mum eating feces. To them, that’s what the world does.”

While some outgrow the behavior, other dogs keep eating, typically preferring fresh stool over stale offerings. (In Hunt’s study, most turd tasting was done less than 24 hours after elimination.) Dodman theorizes diets that are low in residue tend to produce softer, tastier movements, and that switching to a high-fiber menu may prompt an aversion to poop. “The texture is completely different. Instead of a tasty toothpaste, it’s something more like cardboard.” 

Of course, that won’t stop your pet from gobbling someone else’s leftovers. “It’s sort of like trying to give up cigarettes,” Dodman says.

If a dietary change doesn’t work, it’s best to pick up waste often so they’re not tempted—or get a poodle. Of all the animals in Hunt’s sample, the breed had no documented habit of scatological snacking.

Additional Sources:

“Canine Conspecific Coprophagia; Who, When and Why Dogs Eat Stools

mental floss

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