You can still have a fairly normal life
without one of your lungs, a kidney,
your spleen, appendix, gall bladder,
adenoids, tonsils, plus some of
your lymph nodes, the fibula bones
from each leg and six of your ribs.
Losing your uterus, ovaries and
breasts, or your testicles and
prostate, is also quite survivable,
although you might need hormone
therapy to avoid other long-term
problems, such as brittle bones.
If you allow yourself artificial
replacements and medication,
we can go further and remove
your stomach, colon, pancreas,
salivary glands, thyroid, bladder
and your other kidney. Still not
enough for you? Theoretically,
surgeons could amputate all ofyour limbs, and remove your
eyes, nose, ears, larynx, tongue,
lower spine and rectum.
Supported by machines in an
intensive care unit, they could
also take away your skull, hear t
and your remaining lung, at least
for a short while.
This adds up to a theoretically
survivable loss of around 45 per
cent of your total body mass. But
any trauma that destroyed all
these organs all at once would
almost certainly kill you from
shock and blood loss. And
surgically removing them one at a
time over many months would
likely also be fatal, due to
infections in your immune-
compromised state. LVHow many organs
could you lose and
still live?
Talking in our heads is referred to by psychologists as ‘inner
speech’. It involves some similar processes to ‘overt’ speech – it
recruits brain regions involved in language, such as the Broca’s
and Wernicke’s areas, and is even accompanied by minute
muscle movements in the larynx. However, there are notable
differences too, with brain areas useful in inhibiting overt speech
playing a greater role in inner speech. The exact brain
mechanisms involved may come down to why we are talking in
our heads in the first place. For example, when we read a book,
brain regions involved in attention may be more active than
when we are mentally preparing for a race. AGrHow do we talk in our heads?
Even after passing through water treatment plants, small
quantities of chemical compounds from cleaning products
can find their way into rivers, ponds and lakes and have
adverse effects on aquatic life. Phosphates in laundry and
dishwasher detergent have a fertilising effect, triggering the
widespread growth of algae that saps away the water’s
oxygen, reducing biodiversity. By reducing water tension,
surfactants allow other pollutants in water bodies to be
absorbed more easily by plants and animals. Many other
compounds can be toxic to wildlife, or affect growth and
reproduction, for instance by mimicking the effects of
hormones in mammals and fish. AFCHow do household cleaning products
affect the environment?Sorry, but we’re
about to get very
creepy in the name
of science...QA
&