Why Do People Eat And Enjoy Spicy Food?

As it turns out, there are a lot of theories as of to why people in different cultures eat spicy food and enjoy it... Or don't. One theory is that the spiciness deters mammals from eating them, but encourages birds to eat these spicy foods, such as hot peppers. This is because birds are better at distributing seeds than mammals, so the plants evolved to appeal to birds. So, this explains why many people don't like spicy foods, because they aren't supposed to. But why do people go against this evolutionary result and eat them anyway?

It's usually people who live in cultures that have hotter climates that enjoy spicy foods. A theory that suggests why this is, is because it encourages sweating, which is what the body does in order to cool down. This is likely why cultures in hot climates enjoy foods that are as hot as the temperature.

But why do some people actually enjoy the taste of hot foods? Not looking at evolutionary purpose, or advantages, some people genuinely like spicy food, while others don't. The most probable theory is genetics. Some people are born as "super tasters," which simply means that they perceive tastes much stronger than others, and they're less likely to enjoy spicy food. There are other contributing factors, including cultural influence (people grow up eating it, and grow to enjoy it) and thrill-seeking personalities (they like the increased heart rate and the fight or flight response to hot foods). All of it influences a person's preference for spicy foods, or lack thereof.

All of that being said, I'm not a huge fan of spicy food. Sorry.

JT Surge

Bibliography:

http://www.mindthesciencegap.org/2013/03/20/some-like-it-hot-part-1-why-do-some-people-have-a-preference-for-spicy-foods/

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/15sbtb/why_do_people_like_spicy_food/

Why Do Solar Systems Rotate On A Single Plane?

For a while, I wondered why pictures of galaxies in space formed rotating disks. Using the Milky Way as an example, we can see everything laid out on a flat, 2D surface, more or less. And for a long time, I wondered why this was the case. Why weren't different solar systems scattered around the galaxy in the shape of a sphere, for example? Well, as it turns out, the answer is simple.

Everything in space is spinning. REALLY fast. The Earth spins at about 1675 kilometers/hour. The Earth rotates around the sun at 30 kilometers/second. The Sun circles the center of the galaxy at 250 kilometers/second, and our galaxy is moving through the universe at about 600 kilometers/second. So, things are always spinning away from each other, but they're anchored by gravity in the middle.

But why does it form a 2D disk? Well, imagine you're holding two buckets of water, one in each arm. If you start spinning (in an open area, safety first!), your arms will raise themselves and start spinning in a circle, and as long as you continue to spin, the buckets will stay elevated, following the path of this flat circle. In this example, your body would be the Sun, the buckets of water would be planets, and your arms would be the gravity keeping them all together.

So, gravity holds everything together, but the spinning is pushing everything away from each other. The natural result, just as with spinning the buckets of water, is that disk shape as shown in the link to the Milky Way Galaxy earlier.

JT Surge

Bibliography:
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/971028e.html
http://www.universetoday.com/26623/how-fast-does-the-earth-rotate/

What I Wonder

Hello,

Every day, I have a ton of random thoughts, most of which are just curiosity. With this blog, I want to explore questions that I have while thinking every day, and share what I find, explaining it in the simplest terms.

Some of the questions I've wondered include:

1. Why are pictures of solar systems on a 2D plane instead of scattered around on a more 3D shape?
2. Cats have pupils that shift from slits to open circles, where as humans have pupils that simply shrink or expand. Do these serve the same purpose? Or does the slit have a different function for cats?

I'll explore these first, and I'll share answers to other questions I have as they arise throughout my day.

I realize this isn't the greatest intro, and I expect future posts to be more simple and what I wanted this blog to be for.

Thanks,

JT Surge