I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Human body temperature is a measure of the body’s ability to keep, generate, or get rid of heat as the need arises. The body is very adept at maintaining temperature within a narrow and safe range, despite occasional huge variations in the room temperature.
But some bodies are more efficient than others. Even bodies of the same height and weight may differ dramatically in the ability to maintain body temperature.
Humans also differ in their preferred room temperature. Some like it warmer, some cooler. This is called thermal comfort.
When you are hot, the blood vessels in your skin expand (dilate) to carry the excess heat to your skin’s surface where it is released. You sweat and as the sweat evaporates, it cools the body.
When you are cold, your blood vessels in your skin narrow (contract) so that blood flow to your skin is reduced to conserve body heat. You may start shivering, which is involuntary, experience rapid contraction of the muscles. This extra muscle activity helps generate more heat. Both processes help keep your body temperature with the required narrow and safe range.
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I know the feeling…my husband and children never feel the cold, and I’m always freezing! That’s partly because I’m skinny (no body fat= no insulation), and because I have a really high metabolism (I use all my energy from food really quickly….and I shed heat!). Different body types and metabolisms use energy differently. Some are more efficient than others. As my husband likes to tell me….come the next Ice Age, the skinny ones are in trouble!
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Metabolism! Metabolism is like a wood-burning stove that heats a home (your body). Food is like the firewood that are thrown on the fire. Metabolism is the process where our bodies generate energy to feed cells but it also generates a lot of heat too.
Suppose that it’s really cold outside in Armidale and you run out to take your bin out in a T-shirt. While you’re out there, a neighbour stops to chat. Your body wants to maintain its body temperature around 37°C. Your skin senses the cold conditions outside, and nerve impulses are sent from receptors in your skin to your brain that say, “Hey! It’s cold out here!!”
In an attempt to stay around 37°C, your body makes adjustments automatically. Goose bumps form, which actually are the hair follicles on your body tightening to make your body hair stand up higher to help insulate your body. If that doesn’t help to maintain the normal temperature, you start to shiver. Shivering is an attempt by your body to create heat through movement.
If your neighbour is still rambling on, and shivering doesn’t help keep you warm, your body’s “thermostat” will begin to drop (if it goes too far, hypothermia begins), and your “furnace” will kick on to create heat internally so that your body warms up.
Some people, regardless of their size, weight or insulation just have higher metabolisms – like you. Your stove is burning hotter to begin with and so you can last longer outside without having to make internal adjustments to the furnace or put on any more clothes.
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Like the ladies have said, it depends on a mixture of metabolism and amount insulation from fat and hair on a person. Different people have higher metabolism than others, and some have more fat to insulate them… Having said that, genetics has a great influence on both the metabolism, as well as just general physiology of people. Someone that’s from Greenland (where it’s always icy) would not think 15 degrees is cold and can wear a t-shirt, whereas someone from a tropical setting (close to the equator) where it’s really warm would think it was freezing at 15 degrees!!!
I totally get where you’re coming from though rpullar! I feel somewhat strange standing next to someone with barely anything on while I’m wearing 3-4 layers!
Just goes to show how diverse we really are…
Hope that helps 😀
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