Page 34 - How It Works - Book of Amazing Answers To Curious Questions, 12

AMAZIG ANSWERS TO CURIOUS QUESTIONS -------------------

Whic are the
What mal<es chillies hot? hottest chillie<
The secret behind the fiery fruit 1. Dorset Naga
Heat rating: 923,000 SHU
Facts: Related to the Scotch bonnet, this
here's a kind of machismo attached to eating measured in Scoville heat units !SHU), after Wilbur devilishly hot chilli is grown in poly tunnels
by a couple in Dorset.
the spiciest food known to man, and there's a Scoville who developed a hotness test for chillies in
T reason so many people enjoy the powerful 1912. His scale measured the concentration of capsaicin 2. Red Savina habanero
Heat rating: 577,000 SHU
flavours associated with chilli peppers. found in a chilli by taking chilli extract and diluting it
Facts: According to the Guinness Book Of
The tingling sensation on the tongue when you try a in water until a human taste test panel could no longer World Records, this was the world's hottest
chilli is caused by a substance called capsaicin, which detect any heat from the solution. chilli until 2006.
tricks the brain into thinking you're burning. The body The problem with Scoville's scale was thatit relied 3. Scotch bonnet
then secretes natural painkilling chemicals called on subjectivity, so today hotness is calculated using Heat rating: 100,000-325,000 SHU
endorphins, which send out a rush of pleasure. The liquid chromatography to identify the concentration of Facts: Used mainly in Caribbean cuisine,
the Scotch bonnet is a small chilli similar to
heat of a chilli, also referred to as its piquancy, is heat-producing chemicals in chillies. the habanera.
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What's Why do we sweat?

inside a hand As your doctor may tell you, it's glandular ...

e O Once the sweat is on th��i��
Sanl. ti• ser? s ; e: l�:t��: ��:� g��nds, r���s released directly into surface, its absorbed moisture
the dermis via the secretary
and IS a mechamsm USed
evaporates, transferring the
duct, which then filters through
primarily by the body to reduce the skin's pores to the surface. heat into the atmosphere.
its internal temperature. There
How do these cleansers keep are two types of sweat gland in
your hands germ free without the human body, the eccrine
gland and the apocrine gland.
soap and water? The former regulates body
(Q temperature, and is the
nlike hand washing with soap and water, hand � primary source of excreted
sanitisers are designed to cleanse hands of � sweat, with the latter only
U potentially damaging bacteria, rather than mainly OJ secretingunderemotional
dirt and detritus. Hand sanitiser dispensers deliver gel, stresses, rather than those
foam or liquid solutions in which the active ingredients involved with body dehydration.
include isopropanol, ethanol, n-propanol and povidone­ Eccrine sweat glands are
iodine. These alcohol bases are then added to a host of controlled by the sympathetic
non-active ingredients such as plant oils, thickening nervous system and, when the
agents and scent enhancers. internal temperature of the body
The alcohol base is the key for keeping your hands clean, rises, secrete a salty, water-based
killing 99 · 9 per cent of bacteria, fungi and some viruses substance to the skin's surface.
within 30 seconds of This liquid then cools the skin
application. As such, the andthe bodythrough
dispensers are considered evaporation, storing and then
antiseptic devices that can transferring excess heat into
be used to avoid the the atmosphere.
transmission of pathogens, Both the eccrine and
and are installed in apocrine sweat glands only Secretary Secretary part Nerve fibres
hospitals to reduce the appear in mammals and, if duct This is where the Deliver messages to
Secreted sweat majority of the glands to produce
chance of spreading active over the majority of the travels up to the skin gland's secretary cells sweat when the
infectious diseases like animal's body, act as the via this duct. are located. body's temp rises.
tuberculosis. Less common, primary thermoregulatory
non-alcohol-based hand device. Certain mammals such This liquid cools the skin and
sanitisers use other active have eccrine glands in specific the body through evaporation,
as dogs, cats and sheep only
agents, such as the biocide
benzalkonium chloride and areas - such as paws and lips ­ storing and then transferring
the organic compound warranting the need to pantto heat into the atmosphere
triclosan, to kill germs. control their temperature.

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