the Runaway Lab Book

An experiment carried out this year showed that rats actually “dream” when faced with the prospect of future rewards! Researchers placed rats in a location where they could see food, but not reach it, then let them rest in a separate room, and finally allowed them to walk to the food and enjoy it at…

In an experiment done by the TV show “Trust Me I’m A Doctor”, it was found that eating cold pasta reduced the rise in blood sugar after a meal, and eating reheated pasta gave an even lower rise in blood sugar! The theory is that this effect is because the process of cooling and reheating…

Despite the fact that their digestive system digests plants poorly, Pandas are still quite happy living off shoots and leaves, thanks partially to their lazy life style. Pandas evolved from bears that eat both plants and meat, and started on their bamboo-only diet about 2 million years ago. Although pandas have lost their taste for…

Our cells are very specialized and work hard at their jobs! In order to accommodate maximum space for taking up oxygen with haemoglobin, human red blood cells lose their nuclei (which contains DNA) and organelles, such as mitochondria, Golgi apparatus and endoplastmic reticulum. On the other hand, the hard-working white blood cells could end up…

It’s pretty fascinating that we’re still discovering previously unknown human anatomical features, even in our eyes! Though there is some controversy over whether or not it is a true corneal layer, “Dua’s layer” seems to be a strong region of tissue in the eye. Our eyes aren’t the only place we’re still finding things though,…

Have you ever noticed that burning feeling you get from eating spicy food? Capsaicin, the stuff that makes chillies hot, binds to our nociceptiors; nociceptors are also responsible for detecting heat. Also, you might have figured out that drinking water doesn’t really help. That’s because capsaicin does not dissolve well in water, but it does dissolve…