What is Sleep Paralysis? - knudge Factory

Sleep Paralysis is a condition in which we are conscious but temporarily unable to move or speak. It usually occurs when we suddenly wake up from the REM sleep. Normally, there are 4 stages of sleep. Stage 1 2 3 are Non- REM sleep and stage 4 is REM sleep. One of them is Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. In this stage, we will dream. Researchers suggested that when we dream, the two chemicals called GABA and Glycine are released which switch off the activity of cells in the brain that allows our muscles to move. These paralyzed muscles preventing enacting of dreams into reality and getting hurt.  When we suddenly wake up during REM sleep, the glycine and GABA are still active and we are temporarily unable to move even though we are conscious. This is called Sleep Paralysis.

Sleep cycle

Winners of Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition - 2018 (Part 1)

Ocean art underwater competition:

Ocean Art Underwater Competition is one of the most prestigious nature photo contests in the world which was held annually and it is the winning photographs of 7th annual Ocean Art Underwater Competition. Photographers around 70 countries are participated and over $80000 in sponsor prizes have been awarded. 

JUDGES:

Tony Wu

Martin Edge

Marty Snyderman

Scott Gietler

Best Photo of the year 2k18

Marine Life Behaviour by Duccan Murrel

Here are the winners under different categories:

Wide Angle Category:

1.Gentle Giants

Location - Reunion island

Taken by - Francois Balen

2. Paddle boarders Sunset:

Location - Happai, Tonga

Taken by: Grant Thomas

3. Two Inquisitive Friends:

Australian sea lion pups

Location: Western Australia

Taken by: Celia Kujala

Macro:

1. Ancistrocheirus:

Location- Philippines

2. Look:

3. Speedy cuttlefish:

Location: Udine, Italy

Potrait:

1. Chimaera

2. Croc in the Mist:

Location: Coral springs, Florida, USA

3.  Open eyes:

Location : Germany

To be continued....

How do ears help with balancing?

Connection between body balance and ears:

Normally, our ears consists of three parts, Outer ear, Middle ear and Inner ear. Our inner ear was syncing with our eyes and muscles, helping us to maintain balance while we are doing various activities. The inner ear consists of three semicircular canals namely,

• Superior semicircular canal
• Posterior semicircular canal
• Lateral semicircular canal

Inner ear

Semicircular Canal

These three semicircular canals are raised in three different positions.  Each of these canals have a fluid called endolymph and a hair cells called cilia at the base. When we move our head, the fluid moves resulting the movement of cilia as well. When the cilia moves, it sends the signal to the brain on which direction our head is moving. Each canals have the different functions as per the movement of our head.

• When we move our head up and down, the superior semicircular canal helps our brain to understand YES motion.
• When we shake our head towards our shoulder, the posterior semicircular canal helps our brain to understand the tilting motion.
• When we move our head side to side, the lateral semicircular canal helps our brain to understand NO motion.

When we get into Merry go round and then suddenly jumps from it, we cannot be able to maintain balance and fell down. This is because when we sat in the Merry go round and started rotating, the fluid in the semicircular canal also started to move. After a while, it was moving at the same rate in which we are moving. However, when the ride stopped and we got down from the ride, the fluid was still in the motion due to inertia. Hence, even though when we are not moving, the moving fluid gave our brain false information, telling our brain that we are still in the motion and thus we are not able to maintain the balance.

Glowing bioluminisant beach in Maldives

Beach and the sea in the Maldives island glowes resembling the blue stars in the sky.

The actually man behind the scene is a bioluminisant organism. The glowing occurs when sea water gets disturbed or agitated.(Noctiluca scintillans ).

Bioluminisance  is a living organism emits light to defend themself , like in fireflies as defensive mechanism. In Maldives the sea water glowes as defence , when this organism gets contact with oxygen by the air blows . Thus the waves fall as glowing.

Can you drink Distilled water? Is it safe? - Knudge Factory

Distilled water is obtained by distillation. In Distillation, the impure water is heated, thus converting water into vapor. And then, these vapor are condensed by cooling, thus converting vapor again into water. By this process, the impurities remain behind, giving us pure distilled water. Now, even though the distilled water is pure, some doctors say that we cannot drink this water for a prolonged period of time. Because the minerals required for the proper growth of our body are left behind the impurities during distillation. Hence the remaining pure water having lack of those minerals required for the proper growth of our metabolism. Hence, it is not recommended.

Why Did Pirates Wear Eye Patches?

When the light comes from the object reaches our eyes, it passes through a hole called pupil. When it is bright, the pupil size decreases, allowing less light to pass into our eyes. When it is dark, the size of the pupil increases, allowing more light to pass into our eyes. Thus, it helps us to see better in dark. However, if we are suddenly dropped from a bright room into a dark room, our eyes take some time to adapt to the darkness. Hence, the pirate wear the eye patch on a single eye to adapt darkness. Now, while fighting, the pirate have to go under the deck where it is quite dark. He will just remove the patch from the covered eye which is already adapted to darkness helping the pirate to immediately see in the dark.

Is sleeping in Contact Lenses bad?

Contact lenses act like a sponge and absorbs the moisture present in our eyes. So, wearing them for a too long period, failing them to clean periodically and sleeping in them cause excessive dryness and even eye infection. Unlike the other parts of our body, the cornea in our receives oxygen from the surrounding air and not from the blood vessels. Now, when we wear contact lenses during the day, it reduces oxygen supply to the cornea but when we wear them while sleeping also reduces the oxygen supply to the cornea. Hence to satisfy the oxygen need, tiny blood vessels grow in the cornea and it makes blurred vision

How do straws work? | Knudge factory

Straws work because of the air pressure. Air pressure is the weight of air pressing down on earth and all other objects present on it. Now, when the straw is in the liquid, the air pressure present on the liquid and straw is similar, causing the levels of liquid to be equal. However, when we drink the liquid through straw, we first inhale causing the air from the straw to flow into our lungs. Now, due to the absence of air, the air pressure in the straw decreases. Hence, the air pressure present on the liquid of the glass pushes the liquid into the straw(diffusion), causes it to move upwards and thus helping us drink.

How do we know that our stomach is full?

Usually our brain and stomach are constantly communicating each other with the help of hormones and nerves. So when our stomach is empty and the glucose level in our blood is low, our stomach produces a hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin generally travels through blood to brain and informs that we need to eat and thus we feel hungry. Now when we eat food to satisfy our hunger, the food enters our stomach causing it's walls to stretch and expand. When this happens, the nerves on the stomach walls detect the expansion until our stomach is full and hunger is satisfied. However, our stomach also expands when we drink lot of water. In this case, our hunger is not satisfied. This is because of the hormone colecystokinin. When we eat, the nutrients in the food stimulate colecystokinin. These colecystokinin informs the brain that we are eating food and not just drinking water. Now, as we eat more food, more colecystokinin is released, informing our brain that the stomach is getting full with food and thus the brain stops our desire to eat. There is a research saying that the potatoes are the most hunger satisfying foods. So, next time when you feel hunger, just try that and find out the truth.