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Why 6ft Under?

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Ever wondered why burying people 6ft underground s considered the norm? Many states don’t have laws that enforce burying a body 6ft under; it’s usually left up to the funeral homes to decide how deep they want the grave. In the UK, it’s up to the owner. As long as animals can’t dig the grave site up and expose the body or coffin and the depth doesn’t lead to any safety concerns, the body can be buried at whatever depth they prefer. Also, some areas may receive more rainfall than others, resulting in them burying bodies differently. An example of this is New Orleans most likely wouldn’t want to bury their bodies 6ft under because it would only cause waterlogging and the coffin surfacing (this is still a problem, coffins are floating to the surface during floods). One of the earliest documented instances where burying a body 6ft underground was mentioned was published in a leaflet in 1665 during the London plague(the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague in England and lasted 18 mont

Iron in Human Blood

  A male of average height contains around 4 grams of iron, a female has about 3-5 grams, and children contain less than or equal to 3 grams. Most of this iron is stored in hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues, and also takes carbon dioxide from the organs and tissues to the lungs. Humans lose about 1 to 1.5 milligrams of iron daily. This is carried out by urine, vaginal fluids, sweat, feces, and tears. Iron is formed by stars with a large enough mass via fusion.  Sources: How Much Iron Is In The Body | Iron Disorders Institute , Hemoglobin test - Mayo Clinic , Interesting and Useful Facts about Iron (thoughtco.com)

Dancing Bees

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One of the dances performed by forager bees is the waggle dance. Through the dance, bees can relay information about food sources, information like the distance, direction, and even the abundance of the source. The dance was first discovered by ethologist (someone studying animal behavioral patterns) Karl von Frisch and even he was surprised by it. The waggle dance is one of the most complex communicative rituals among insects, mostly due to the complexity and accuracy of the information relayed.  When someone hears of bees performing dances, they most likely think of the bees understanding the dance by watching it right? Turns out, the dance seems to be a multisensory experience for the bees; also, the inside of the hive is quite dark so seeing the dance would be difficult. The bees inside of the hive will usually touch their antennae with the dancing bee and feel the vibrations of the dance. A bee’s antennae allow the bee to FEEL SMELLS and vibrations. Smell might also play a part

Wind Turbines

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Wind turbines use the wind to push the blades of the turbine, spinning a generator and creating electricity. The terms “wind power” and “wind energy” have the same meaning, describing the process where wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity. The mechanical power can be used for small, specific tasks like grinding grain or pumping water, or can be converted into electricity using a generator. The first wind turbine that generated electricity was built in 1887 in Scotland and was used to power a small cottage. Now there are over 341,000 wind turbines worldwide.  According to Windustry , “Wind turbines under 100 kilowatts cost roughly $3,000 to $8,000 per kilowatt of capacity. A 10 kilowatt machine (the size needed to power a large home) might have an installed cost of $50,000-$80,000 (or more). The costs for a utility scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed. Most of the commercial-scale turbines installed t

What determines a person's handedness?

  Most of the human population today is right-handed , something can be seen as far back in the archeological record researchers are able to see, but we still haven’t figured out what truly makes a person right or left-handed . However, here’s what we do know: genetics and environment play a role in determining a person’s handedness.  While there is no gene that determines left or right handedness, research conducted by William Brandler and his colleagues suggested that the same genes affecting the left-handed symmetry of the organs in our bodies can also affect the way a person’s brain is wired, in turn affecting whether someone’s left or right hand is dominant.  The environment the person is in can also affect whether they turn out to be left or right-handed . There have been times in the past when right-handedness was forced upon people, for example, teachers would force students to use their right hand and punish those who used their left hand, and some people believed being left-h

Are They Sleeping or Unconscious?

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  The biggest difference between a person who is sleeping and a person who is unconscious is that a person sleeping will respond to stimuli, for example, loud noises and being shaken. A sleeping person might move if they feel uncomfortable, but an unconscious person won’t. When used as adjectives, sleeping is asleep while unconscious is having no awareness.  A person is considered to be in a coma if they are unconscious for an extended period of time. They can’t be woken up, even when hurt or shaken. The person’s eyes are closed, and they don’t respond to things like sound in their environment. During a coma, the brain doesn’t go through the normal sleeping stages.  Sources: Sleeping vs Unconscious - What's the difference? | WikiDiff , Coma: Types, Causes, Recovery (verywellhealth.com)

Stages of Human Decomposition

  Human decomposition refers to the processes which cause a human body’s internal organs, tissues, and bones to decay and turn into organic material over time. Every dead person will go through the 5 main stages of decomposition: the fresh stage, the bloat stage, active decay, advanced decay, and the skeletal stage.  The fresh stage begins at the moment of death with the body still warm and in relatively good condition. While the body may not seem like it’s decomposing, some post-mortem indicators may start to take place, like the body becoming pale ( pallor mortis ), cold ( algor mortis ), and stiff ( rigor mortis ). Pallor mortis occurs within 15 to 20 minutes after death. As the blood stops moving through the body’s smallest blood vessels, the body becomes paler. This is not visible as quickly on people with darker skin compared to lighter skin. The rate at which the body temperature cools down to sync with the environmental temperature depends on a lot of factors, such as, the clo