&
WHAT CONNECTS...
PHOTOS: GETTY X3, ALAMY, CONDITION ONE ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL BRIGHT...Caviar and beer
1.
Caviar is
the eggs
of a fish
called a
sturgeon. The best caviar comes from
the beluga sturgeon, Huso huso. The fish
can live for over 100 years, but caviar
harvesting normally kills the female.2.
Like most bony fish,
the beluga sturgeon has an
organ called the swim bladder.
This is a gas-filled float that can
be squeezed by the surrounding
muscles to adjust its total volume
and control the fish’s buoyancy.3.
The lining of the
swim bladder is made
from almost pure collagen
protein. This is dried to make
isinglass. The name comes from
the Old Dutch word huizenblass –
‘sturgeon bladder’.4.
Isinglass is
traditionally
added to cask-
conditioned beers to
remove the sediment.
The collagen causes
suspended particles
of the brewing yeast to
clump together and settle
at the bottom of the barrel,
resulting in a clearer beer.Your saliva is mostly recycled,
rather than produced, because
you are constantly swallowing
and reabsorbing it. But the flow
rate is around 30ml of saliva an
hour – a bit more when you’re
eating, a bit less when you’re
sleeping. That’s a wine bottle
full every day, or 20,000 litres
in your lifetime. In other words,
53 bathtubs full to the brim with
saliva! LV
How much saliva
do we produce in
a lifetime?
Could our brains
be fooled by
virtual reality?
It’s actually very easy to fool the brain – just
browse some basic optical illusions online to
get an idea. So yes, VR can trick the brain in
all sorts of ways. In fact, one of the obstacles
to the next wave of gaming VR has been the
way the technology confuses the brain with
a mismatch of sensory signals. The visuals
say you’re flying in plane, for instance, but
your vestibular system (in your inner ear)
says you’re stationary. The result for many
players is motion sickness. Could we ever truly
mistake the virtual world for the real world?
For that we’d probably need whole-body
immersion, not just a VR headset. CJ