GINGER-HAIRED
PEOPLE ARE
GOING EXTINCT
Although this myth might serve a noble purpose, there is no ‘urine
indicator’ that could be put into pools. In principle it may be possible
to create a chemical that is colourless in the absence of urine, but
colourful in its presence. But the difficulty in ensuring that it doesn’t
result in false positives probably wouldn’t be worth the investment.
Along with the difficulties in developing such a dye, you could
probably also guarantee that any pool that used it would have a
constant purple tinge.THERE’S A CHEMICAL THAT TURNS PURPLE
WHEN SOMEONE WEES IN A SWIMMING POOL
Shaved hair that hasn’t yet
been exposed to the bleaching
effects of sunlight may appear
darker. And compared to the
tapered end of an unshaved
strand of hair, the sheared ends
usually feel coarser. While these
two effects might make recently
shaved hair seem thicker, there
is no evidence that shaving
influences the growth rate or
thickness of hair.Red hair is caused by a recessive
variant of a gene, which means
you need two copies of it to be a
redhead. Currently, redhead
alleles are found at a much higher
concentration in some
populations in northern and
western Europe. It’s possible that
as those genes spread out the
probability of two people with a
redhead allele having a child will
diminish, which might make
redheads less common, but as
long as the genes are there, we
will still have redheads.LEFT-BRAINED PEOPLE
ARE LOGICAL, RIGHT-
BRAINED PEOPLE ARE
CREATIVE
SHAVING CAUSES HAIR
TO GROW BACK
FASTER AND THICKER
YOU LOSE A LOT
OF BODY HEAT
THROUGH YOUR HEAD
As described by the University
of Utah’s Jared Nielsen in a
study of brain scans from over
1,000 individuals, there is no
evidence of left- or right-brain
dominance. The idea that there
are left-brained people who are
logical and right-brained people
who are creative may be a useful
metaphor, but it has no more
basis in actual science than
astrology does. Though a
left-brained Gemini like myself
would say that.If you leave any one body part
exposed to the elements, that
body part will play a major part
in your heat loss. The 7 per cent
of your body’s surface area that
covers your head isn’t in any way
special, however. The myth often
claims a figure of around 50 per
cent heat loss through the head.
The implication of this
percentage is that you’d be as
warm if you went out wearing
nothing but a balaclava as you
would be if you went out fully
clothed but without a hat. Feel
free to try this at home.SCIENCE