BURNING QUESTIONS

• WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES?
  While only females have mammary glands, we all start out in a similar way in the embryo, the authors explain. The embryo follows a female template until about six weeks, when the male sex chromosome kicks in. Men, however, have already developed nipples.

• WHY DO OUR TEETH CHATTER WHEN WE ARE COLD?
  Chattering teeth is one way the body tries to generate heat. When the body gets too cold, the area of the brain called the hypothalamus alerts the rest of the body to begin warming up. Shivering, the rapid muscle movement that generates heat, then begins. Teeth chattering represents localized shivering.
• CAN YOU CONTACT DISEASE FROM A TOILET SEAT?
  During the course of their research, Goldberg and Leyner found reports of gonorrhea, pinworm and roundworm found on toilet seats, but catching something from it isn’t common.The authors discovered that an office setting might be worse for your health than toilet seats. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, found the typical office desk harbors some 400 times more disease-causing bacteria than the average toilet seat.

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

New York physician Billy Goldberg, pestered by unusual questions at cocktail parties and other social gatherings over the years, puts the public’s mind at ease in his book “Why Do Men Have Nipples?” which hits the book stores on Tuesday.