During World War I a metallurgist called Harry Brearley tried mixing chromium with steel to make a stranger gun barrel. It didn’t work. The barrel shattered. But the metal pieces he threw away outside stayed bright and didn’t rust. Quite by accident, the secret of making stainless steel had been discovered.

Another name for the larynx is the voice box, and it’s in the throat. The larynx is what gives you your voice, whether you’re talking, laughing, whispering, singing, or screaming! You can find your larynx by touching the front of your throat and humming. When the larynx grows larger during puberty, it sticks out at the front of the throat. …

All mammals have some hair, and man is also mammal. In some mammals, hair covers the whole body, but in man, it grows only in certain parts. Your hair has two main purposes: to provide warmth, and to protect your skin and body openings. While the hair on adult’s body is not as thick as on an animal’s body, it …

The most contagious disease in the world is the common cold. Colds are actually infections of the mucous membranes of your nose and throat, but sometimes they spread to your air passages and lungs. The germs or viruses, that cause these infections and make you cough or sneeze, travel through the outside air inside tiny droplets of moisture. Doctors believe …

Joints produce a cracking sound when nitrogen bubbles burst in a thick and clear fluid surrounding the joints to lubricate them, called ‘synovial fluid’. When we stretch or twist our fingers, the pressure in the fluid decreases, which leads to dissolving of gases present there, forming bubbles, through a process called “cavitation”. When the joint is stretched far enough, the …

Patient zero is the first patient who indicates the outbreak of a disease, and may help indicate its source and possible spread. The term was used by Dr William Darrow to refer to the spread of HIV in North America, which showed how ‘patient zero’ had infected multiple partners with HIV, and how the virus had spread across the world. …

An ecotarian is a person who eats a diet of food grown or produced in an eco-friendly manner. In a wide sense, it is organic, locally produced food, minimally processed and with little packaging. It should have a minimal impact on the planet. An ecotarian is not necessarily a vegetarian, but a meat-eater who sticks to poultry and pork.

A vegivore is a person who craves or has a special fondness for vegetables. This need not be because the person has an aversion to eating meat but solely due to an intense craving for vegetables. To a vegivore, meat products may only seem like an accompaniment to add flavour to the dish. He/ she will find the vegetable dish …

A fanatic vegetarian out to convert non-vegetarians. The word vegangelical comes from vegan and evangelical. A vegangelical is someone who thinks that any other lifestyle choice besides veganism is wrong. The word usually used in the West, first made its appearance in print in 2003.

The art of plastination deals with preservation of organs, tissues and whole beings. Plastination, unlike preservation through formalin, involves a series of processes that replace the fluids in the tissues and organs by reactive plastics such as silicon rubber, epoxy resin and polyester resin, in a special vacuum process. This achieves the same objective as formalin, which is to prevent …