Recent comments in /f/askscience

Nimelennar t1_jd9b5lv wrote

Reply to comment by imissapostrophes in (Biology) How far down your spine can you break before respiratory impairment? by Anomaly-Friend

Your brain needs sugar to function.

An overdose of insulin drops your blood sugar enough that you lose consciousness.

That's why first aiders are taught to never give a diabetic insulin, but rather to give them sugar: low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can kill you quickly, but the negative effects of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) only take effect over the long term.

So if their sugar is high and you guess wrong and give them more sugar, it's bad but probably not significantly so. But if their sugar is already low and you give them insulin, it's very likely you'll kill them.

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maybeCheri t1_jd97pkt wrote

Reply to comment by Alfred_The_Sartan in (Biology) How far down your spine can you break before respiratory impairment? by Anomaly-Friend

We should take a survey or do a medical study on this question. Probably should do a full study on all forms of capital punishment.

  1. How long were you conscious before everything went dark?
  2. Did you see me? I was in the second row in the blue shirt.
  3. Did you have any lasting effects, PTSD, pain, etc. from said procedure?
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lizardweenie t1_jd92qsl wrote

Reply to comment by Dr-Luemmler in Can a single atom be determined to be in any particular phase of matter? by Zalack

As other posters have mentioned, temperature is a property of a distribution. It tells us the probability of populating an excitation of a given energy. This isn't up for debate, it's just a matter of definitions. If you want to come up with some new concept that is well defined for a single particle, that's cool, but temperature doesn't work for single particles.

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PowerStacheOfTheYear t1_jd90uqn wrote

Reply to comment by johnsadventure in (Biology) How far down your spine can you break before respiratory impairment? by Anomaly-Friend

The heart is actually not reliant on the brain, as it has its own internal pacemaker. Signals from the nervous system can speed it up or slow it down in response to various factors, but without any signal it will just continue to beat on its own at a very steady rhythm and rate. Around 60 bpm if I remember correctly.

As far as surviving after the drop, I have to wonder what that yank of the rope does to your brainstem. If the pull on the spinal cord causes significant tearing and damage in the brainstem, your entire brain would essentially just "turn off". The brainstem is responsible for regulating your brain activity as a whole. Without the activating signals it sends out, the rest of your brain basically shuts down.

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