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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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THE HUMAN BODY With all the recent actions taken by the Trump administration, such as the bombing and killing a general in Iran. Pulling out troops in Syria when in fact he just moved them to another place in the Middle East, all these actions has caused unrest in an region which is bumpy anyway. Trumps actions have caused Iran to break from the agreement of non-nuclear development. The Syria incident threw our allies under the bus and caused thousands of unwarranted deaths of our allies. Allowed Russian dominance in the area, and made the United States untrustworthy throughout the world. Trump is heading us into a horrible war, and Trump is threatening to bomb cultural sites in Iran which is against world law and is considered a war crime. There were protests against the Iranian government recently, which caused the government to clamp down on the forward thinking peoples and they shut down the internet etc. but now with Trumps killing of their general the young people are now supporting their government along with the older folks. Something we have not seen in four decades. Trump has stimulated hatred for the US. Caused unrest, and will cause the deaths of American soldiers. If Trump did this for a reason he needs to show the data that said we were going to be attacked. Or what was the reason Trump did what he did. So I decided to write a positive Take this week. I wanted to share some of the newly discovered things about the human body. Our bodies have been doing some pretty amazing stuff all along and we have just now discovered these astonishing functions. With the everyday ignorant decisions and comments made by the Trump administration many people are stressed out. So let’s put the unrest and possible impending war in the Middle East out of our minds for a short rest. Let’s take a few minutes and rejoice in what mankind can discover and do for the betterment of all people no matter what color their skin is or what their religious beliefs are or are not. We need to spend our time on the betterment of all civilizations not fighting over religions, or greed or dominance. Let’s leave other people alone and focus on moving forward. This past year, new discoveries revealed an invisible network of immune cells, a "Jell-O" violin in our ears and how the oldest people in this world survived to such extreme ages. Humans might hear so well because of a tiny "Jell-O" violin that sits inside the ears. The thin, blob of tissue, otherwise known as the tectorial membrane, is made up of 97% water. This tissue helps to bring sound waves from the ear to nerve receptors, which then translate that vibration into an electrical signal the brain can read. New research conducted on mice has found that this ear Jell-O helps the cochlea — a cavity in the inner ear that contains these nerve receptors — separate high frequencies from low frequencies. It does so by changing its stiffness, based on water flow that runs through its tiny pores, similar to what happens when you tune a violin or guitar. Our bones might be full of a previously unknown network of microscopic tunnels. These pathways might be vital for transporting immune cells — made in bones — out to the blood for circulation. A group of researchers discovered hundreds of these tiny blood vessels, or capillaries, in the leg bones of mice. But finding something in mice doesn't necessarily translate to humans, so one of the researchers decided to stick his own leg into an MRI machine. The scans of the researcher's leg showed that there were holes in the bone tissue that could indicate that these capillaries also exist in humans. The brain makes sure that we don't drink too much or too little water, using a prediction mechanism in the gut, according to new research. The group figured this out by implanting optical fibers and lenses in mice near the hypothalamus — a brain region that regulates blood pressure and other bodily processes and is home to "thirst cells." A few seconds after drinking something, the mouth and throat begin firing signals to the brain. These signals tell the brain that you feel less thirsty — so you stop drinking. That way, you don't keep drinking for the 10 minutes to an hour it takes for that liquid to actually enter the bloodstream and circulate to cells in the body. But your mouth and throat would tell your brain to quench your thirst, irrespective of the type of liquid you're drinking, if it weren't for another mysterious signal. This one comes from the gut, and it makes sure the brain knows that the water reaching it is salty — which can dehydrate the body — or nonsalty, ensuring that the brain quenches thirst only when the mice drank fresh water. This year, scientists discovered a previously unknown organ that sits right under the skin, and it may help you feel the pain of a pinprick. It was previously thought that needle pricks were sensed by nerve endings that sit below the outer layer of the skin. But a new study conducted on mice (but which is also thought to apply to humans) found that nerves tangled up in special cells are what help us feel this sensation. This mesh of branched cells called "Schwann cells" and nerves together makes up a new "sensory organ" because it responds to external pressure signals (pricks or jabs) and relays that information to the brain. Human embryos grow extra, lizard like muscles in their hands and feet that disappear before birth, scientists found. By looking at 3D images from an embryonic image database, a group found that at about week seven of gestation, human fetuses had hands and feet that contained about 30 muscles each. Six weeks later, they contained only 20. Before the baby is born, those extra muscles either meld into other muscles or shrink away, but it's unclear why or how. These temporary muscles might be leftovers from our ancestors and may have vanished from adult humans over 250 million years ago, when mammals first began evolving from mammal-like reptiles, the researchers suggest. But because the study was small, it needs to be replicated with a much larger group before researchers can say for certain that these appearing and disappearing muscles exist in all fetuses. There might be a reason why some people are really good at trivia and seem to "know everything": very efficiently wired brains. A group of researchers in Germany analyzed the brains of 324 people who had varying degrees of general knowledge or semantic memory (the type of information that would come up in a game of trivia), based on questions given to them concerning various fields such as art, architecture and science. Brain scans of the participants showed that those people who had retained and could recall more general knowledge had more efficient brain connections — stronger and shorter connections between brain cells. This makes sense, because imagine answering the question, "What year did the moon landing happen?" We might have the word "moon" stored in one area of the brain, but the "moon landing" in another, and knowledge of the year it happened in yet another. People with an efficient brain can better connect those various items together to quickly answer the question. The cells in your tongues have the ability to smell. Researchers discovered this after growing human taste cells in the lab. They found that those cells contained a couple of molecules found in olfactory cells, the cells found in the nose that are responsible for, well, smelling. When they exposed taste cells to odor molecules, the cells responded just like the olfactory cells do. But this isn't uncommon — olfactory cells have also previously been found in the gut, in sperm cells and even in hair. Though we knew that taste and smell were greatly intertwined (which becomes apparent when a blocked-up nose makes food taste more bland), this study suggests human taste cells might be much more complicated than previously thought. I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the newly discovered information about our bodies. Human bodies are so remarkable and these discoveries will lead to more understanding of how we tick. Tammy
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