Tidbits

Randomness:

Exposure to cold is a really good way to increase thyroid activity and metabolism for up to 48 hours.

There are 2 types of fat cells in all mammals: White and Brown. White is typical energy storage and makes up the vast majority of human fat. Brown fat is reserved purely for heat-production and is what hibernating mammals live off. Humans can be induced to make and use more of it by exposure to cold, but it seems to be limited to about 500 calories or so, which translates to much less than a pound of body fat. The molecular mechanism for the difference is REALLY REALLY cool, but I'll save it for another time.

Growth hormone release is triggered by: sleep, starvation, low blood-sugar, and stress, among other things. Apparently your body gets prepped to use and store whatever nutrition/energy/mass it can get its hands on when your caloric intake isn't high enough to maintain your body weight and complains to you whenever that's the case.

We just noticed that as well as Grace speaks, she can't/won't say the "th" sound. We started practicing during her bedtime stories at night. She thinks it's funny. It's apparently also normal to pick it up between 4-7 years old. She loves her preschool lesson book that Em and her work on together and keeps asking Emily when she gets to go to school. She's also very conscious of when other kids are sad and tries to be their friend.

Leif is starting to army-crawl around the floor. He also knows what balls are for. A few days ago at a toy store, he kept reaching for a bin of bouncy balls. I handed him one totally expecting it to go straight to his mouth since EVERYTHING else does, but instead he throws it and laughs his head off when it bounces. Over and over again he does this. He also moves his hands (not his arms, just his hands) like crazy whenever he's excited, like an orchestra conductor. His hair still has an orange tint to it, and we love noting the similarities and differences between him and what Grace was like at that age. He definitely loves food much more.

The "humoral defense" or antibody response of our immune systems is absolutely crazily fantastic. The cell-mediated and innate-immune defense is pretty cool too, but the whole idea of antibodies is way-out-there awesomeness.

Speaking of antibodies, one reason why a vaccine against bacteria that cause dental cavities (streptococcus mutans) isn't used is because antibodies against the strep bacteria attach to heart muscle proteins and cause problems there. Weird.

I found this interview of Darren Aronofsky talking about the interplay of science and spirituality he portrays in one of my favorite movies, "The Fountain". Anyone familiar with the story of the Garden of Eden might pick out the reference in the first picture (from the movie) of the "cherubim and a flaming sword" guarding the way of the tree of life. I really enjoyed the interview and thought it is the glimpse into his thoughts and aspects of the movie which make the movie really great, which every other review or synopsis of the movie totally misses.

As residents of the Presidio we got invited to be among the first previewers to the brand new "Walt Disney Family Museum" over at the Main Post here in the Presidio (for Free!). It's a museum of Walt Disney's life. It was incredible, and we didn't even get to read half of the stuff throughout the museum due to having Grace and Leif with us. We spent over two hours in the gallery, mostly just looking at the pictures and watching video clips. Really amazing. The end of the gallery concludes with descriptions of his final days and death and collected tributes to the man. Made both of us want to cry. The museum opens to the public October 1st and will have a small cafe, store, and movie theater (which will show classic Disney films). Grace is begging us to go to Disneyland now.

I have poison oak on my hand. Probably from my shoe from picking blackberries. There's a nice stripe of bumpy itchy rash (also known as contact dermatitis, or type-iv/delayed hypersensitivity reaction, for those of you so inclined. No antibodies involved in this one).

I started playing Farmville on Facebook at the request of a classmate and somehow got hooked. Now I spend at least 10-15 minutes each evening managing this dumb farm.

Em and I went to the California Dental Association convention downtown with the kids last week and walked around the exhibit floors. The name tag they gave me had my name and the title of "Dentist" on it, not "Student". Some classmates there were excited thinking that they'd get treated with more respect. It was funny getting addressed with "How are you doing today, Doctor?", "Doctor, would you like to participate in our special offer today?" "Where is your practice located, Doctor?" Weird. It was REALLY nice being able to tell them I was a student and not interested in buying anything right now, but just there to get ideas. Instantly made the pushy sales-people back off while the really nice ones weren't phased and still pleasant to talk to and eager to demonstrate their products without a commitment to sell. I told Emily, next time we go, we'll switch badges so she can be the dentist and I can be the "guest" and see what happens. We also surprisingly ran into a really good family friend and neighbor of my parents who was working at the Oral-B/Crest exhibit, Kevin Malan. It was fun seeing him.