Something Scientific

Ever wonder how something works, biologically or chemically? Leave a comment with your question about biology, chemistry.

For now, enjoy a quick lesson on hormones: the fundamentals.

1) Your hormones are part of the Endocrine System.
2) Hormomes come from glands, which are part of the Endocrine System.
3) Hormones are tiny molecules, sort of like aspirin or vitamins, that travel through your body to interact with other glands or organs.
4) Each gland has a specific purpose, they produce a few hormones that control parts of the body.
     NOTE: follow this link, Endocrine System, for a great,
     brief description of each gland, organ and hormone, with
     pictures. 
5) Hormones control  or participate in almost every aspect of life.  They make us feel hungry, sad, euphoric, dehydrated, everything.  (They don't make us feel pain, that is controlled by the Nervous System, a system that parallels the Endocrine System in function by providing the electricity to stimulate the production, release and use of the molecules in the body.) 

Some details-
Endocrinologists learn about Endocrinology from diagrams like that to the left.  There are infinitely many more details about the Endocrine System than those represented in this diagram.  This is a simplified look at a woman's monthly reproductive cycle, all of which is controlled by hormones.

Problems with your hormones can lead to many diseases, from diabetes to reproductive problems, as described here, here and here.

Key:
-LH=Leutenizing Hormone
-FHS=Folicle Stimulating Hormone
-GnRH=Gonatropin Releasing Hormone  

Remarkable Read

I am reading John Irving's The World According to Garp.  It is a 20th anniversary edition, and yet it is old, yellowed and has that bubble writing popular in the 70's.  There are pages of rapturous praise, all lauding John Irving and the brilliance of Garp.  I have made it to page 272, a little less than half way through and I'm not sure this is a book I want to finish.  What am I missing?  I have a lot of time to read lately and will probably find out how this thing ends.  But, I hope something good happens.  And by good, I mean sorrowful or soaring, let it be insightful.  This is the kind of book that will soon be made into an Oscar nominated drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  No wait, he's too old...Shia Labeouf  It is mellowdramatic yet somehow dull.  It is slightly tragic, and perhaps liberating, but in a way that makes you feel oily.  Why are so many books about louts who only think about sex?  I'm not all that interested in what T.S. Garp has to say, but I suppose I will stick around to find out. 

While perusing Wikipedia, I find that Robin Williams starred in a film adaptation in the 80's, which means it is definetely due for a remake.  But then I find, that the reason I am not loving the book is exactly why people like it.  "The story is decidedly rich with (in the words of the fictional Garp's teacher) "lunacy and sorrow", and the sometimes ridiculous chains of events the characters experience still resonate with painful truth."  I couldn't have said it better, and in fact I didn't say it better.  It's the "ridiculous chains of events" that I am not buying.  If it is supposed to be ridiculous, then it isn't quite ridiculous enough.  "Lunacy and sorrow".  The reviews might be better than the book.