Facts of Life

Why do lobsters turn bright red when boiled?

Wouldn’t you get flushed if you were dumped into a vat of boiling water? But seriously, before the lobster gets boiled, it has a dark purplish-bluish colour. But hidden in the exoskeleton of the lobsters (and shrimp) is a pigment called astaxanthin, in a class of compounds called carotenoids.

We spoke to Robert Rofen, of the Aquatic Research Institute, and Ray Bauer, of the Biology Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, who explained that astaxanthin is connected to a protein. When you boil lobsters, though, the pigment separates from the protein and returns to its ‘true colour’, which is the bright red associated with white wine and hefty credit-card bills.


Why do we sometimes cry when we laugh?
Weeping with laughter, sobbing in sorrow: Our bodies react similarly when emotions run high. A few scientists have explored the phys¬ical pathways of emotional tears, but none have categorically stated why these tears exist. Tom Lutz, author of Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears, notes Darwin published snapshots of laughing and crying people to demonstrate that the same expression accompanies both behaviours. ''Some tears are squeezed out of the ducts simply because the face is scrunched up,'' explains Lutz. ''But tears also accompany the body's return to homeostasis after extreme excitation. So after a big laughing jag, tears are a sign that the body is returning to normal.''
What tears are made of, however, may offer further clues about why we cry. Unlike tears that well up when you chop onions, emotional tears are unusually rich in protein-based hormones that spike when you're stressed. This fact led one US biochemist to theorise that releasing tears – and thus the hormones in them – may be the body's attempt to reduce stress. Regardless of its cause – be it pleas¬ure or pain – people do tend to feel better after a good cry.

How did "chicken pox" get its name?
There's no shortage of theories on how chicken pox got its name, but two are more credible than others. One is that the term derives from cicer, the Latin word for chickpea, which a chicken pox pustule resembles. The other suggests it comes from the Old English word for itch, gican. Be they itchy pox or chickpea pox, one thing is certain: chicken pox doesn't come from chickens.
Pox, or pocks, is an ancient word for any disease characterised by pustules on the skin's surface. Aside from chicken pox and smallpox, there is also the lesser-known cowpox - carried by rodents but often transmitted to humans via contaminated cows during milking - and a rare form of smallpox seen in Africa called monkey pox.
What occurs in our brain to create the tipsy feeling we get when enjoying alcohol?
When alcohol is ingested, it swiftly travels through the bloodstream to the brain, where it makes contact with several receptors. These receptors release molecules that excite the cells of the brain, otherwise known as neurons. What results are symptoms of muscular incoordination, euphoria and mild cognitive impairment. This certainly makes a nice glass of wine a very interesting experience!