PATRICK 'MOSQUITO' MANSON...

Hair Loss, Cold, & Genes

Jan 20, 2025

BOC#003

3 MINUTE MUNCH

IT HAS BEEN ESTIMATED THAT HALF OF ALL HUMANS…

…who have ever died have done so thanks to mosquitoes (primarily by way of Malaria)1. Only females bite humans, males primarily feed on plant nectar. They carry over 100 fatal diseases including yellow fever, dengue fever, and West Nile virus. Today there are 2,500 known species of mosquito, but it wasn’t until 1877 that British doctor Patrick ‘Mosquito’ Manson proved that elephantiasis was transmitted by way of mosquito bites. Twelve years later he encouraged his India based student, Ronald Ross, to investigate his hypothesis that Malaria was also transmitted by mosquitoes. Ross proved the hypothesis to be true, and went on to win the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1902.

Researchers at Sydney’s Macquarie University are today developing a new pest control method they call the Toxic Male Technique (TMT). A process that involves genetically altering male mosquitoes such that they transfer a venom to the female in order to significantly reduce her lifespan and disease transmission capability.

STUDIES SUGGEST THAT WE THINK MORE CLEARLY IN COLD WEATHER…

…than in hot weather. Our bodies consume more glucose when cooling down than they do when warming up. This might explain why we feel brain-fog in hot weather - teachers take note! A 2017 Stamford study found that people thought more decisively, calmly, and rationally in colder temperatures than in hot temperatures. A 2018 study from Luxembourg University also found that the repeated application of cold to the necks of participants activated the parasympathetic nervous system, calming and slowing the heart rate. This has to do with the stimulation of the vagus nerve, and explains why a cold shower is thought to help calm us down.

WE LOSE…

…an average of 50 to 100 head hairs a day, some of which never grow back. One in five men are bald by the age of thirty, while sixty percent of men are bald by the time they’re fifty. The hormone dihydrotestosterone appears to go haywire as we age, causing head hair follicles to shut down, with nose and ear follicles springing into action. The hairs that do remain will eventually grey thanks to a steep decline in melanin production as we age.

POLISH ASTRONOMER NICOLAUS COPERNICUS…

…is often attributed with the placement of the sun at the centre of the solar system (and not the earth as was previously thought), although this wasn’t observed until Galileo in 1595. Copernicus wasn’t the first to point this out, however, with ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos having previously placed the Sun at the center of the solar system, preempting Copernicus by 1700 years. Sorry Copernicus!

BOOK PASSAGE: MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING BY VIKTOR FRANKL

“Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”

WHEN DEALING WITH PEOPLE…

…let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. - Dale Carneige