Quote of the week from The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe:
"You know that chemistry has an impact on your daily life, but the  extent of that impact can be mind-boggling. Consider just the beginning  of a typical day from a chemical point of view. Molecules align in the  liquid crystal display of your clock, electrons flow through its  circuitry to create a rousing sound, and you throw off a thermal  insulator of manufactured polymer. You jump in the shower, to emulsify  fatty substances on your skin and hair with chemically treated water and  formulated detergents. You adorn yourself in an array of processed  chemicals - pleasant-smelling pigmented materials suspended in cosmetic  gels, dyed polymeric fibers, synthetic footware, and metal-alloyed  jewelry. Today, breakfast is a bowl of nutrient-enriched,  spoilage-retarded cereal and milk, a piece of fertilizer-grown,  pesticide-treated fruit, and a cup of a hot, aqueous solution of  neurally stimulating alkaloid. Ready to leave, you collect some books -  processed cellulose and plastic, electrically printed with  light-and-oxygen-resistant inks - hop in your hydrocarbon-fuelled  metal-vinyl-ceramic vehicle, electrically ignite a synchronized series  of controlled, gaseous explosions, and you're off to class!"
Martin S. Silberberg
I notice that there is one significant detail missing from that description of a 'typical day'.
Maybe he had a pee while he was in the shower.
N.B. It is never a good idea to 'jump' into a shower, or a bath.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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