Scared?

Once in a while, Sam, our dog, will come running to the back door. What makes these particular runs to our door odd is that his hackles are up. His tail is slightly bushed and is hanging down. I always wonder what makes his hackles go up, but today I wanted to learn just a little bit more.

When a dog, or other animal, has their hair standing on end it's called piloerection. From the Latin, "pilus" meaning "hair." Piloerection is an involuntary reflex of the sympathetic nervous system - the system responsible for the "fight or flight" response - when one is afraid or cold.

When the hair on an animal is up as a result of this response, it does not mean they are angry, as is commonly the assumption, but rather afraid.

What causes this involunary reaction? Adrenaline pumps through the body causing the arrectorus pilorum, the tiny muscles at the base of each hair, to contract. This in turn causes the hair to "stand on end."

Although this reaction is largly biological, it also gives the animal an advantage: when the hairs are up, the animal appears larger to whatever it is afraid of. If another animal or human was the source of that fear, well, you see how it could be intimidating and useful for survival.

Piloerection not only happens in dogs and in cats. All bird types get "ruffled feathers." If a bird's feathers were plucked and they were in this response, you would see "goose bumps." It also happen with porcupines, all mammals, and of course humans.

Not only is this a biological response, but it also can be a rare symptom of some diseases: epilepsy, some brain tumors, and autonomic hyperreflexia (also known as autonomic dysreflexia, or AD. It is a "condition characterized by a massive sympathetic discharge that can occur in association with a spinal injury or disease, i.e. multiple sclerosis").

So next time you see a giant dog with his hair standing on end, look away and back away slowly - even they are afraid, it doesn't mean they won't attack! If it's your own pet, just calm them down - unless it's a cat, just back away slowly; )

Fluorescent Lighting Allergies?

I work in a lab that has lots of lovely windows, and so on most days we keep the lights off and just work by natural light. This week however it has been very cloudy and gray, so the lights have been on much more often. I won't say this is the only reason I have been feeling less than my usual cheery self lately... but the possibility is interesting. I've heard about fluorescent lighting allergies and sensitivities in the past, in fact, my younger brother seems to be very sensitive to them. I've never much liked being under them either. They are just annoying, and bother me. So I decided to google some info on possible allergies, and irritation to these lights.
There are several little forums where people were discussing how they feel sick under fluorescent lights, and some even get rash when they are near them in lamps and such. I've never reacted that strongly to the lights thankfully. One very interesting site I found is this one

http://www.cloanto.com/users/mcb/19960719lcd.html

The author started noticing the problem when the LCD screens first came out, and he couldn't work with one for too long. Upon doing research he found that the light behind the screen was fluorescent. So he started doing studies. He suggests that part of the problem may be in the constant pulsing of the fluorescent lights. He says that the sun doesn't pulse on and off, and so our bodies don't react well to that, even if we are not consciously aware of the pulses. "The negative effects of 100% fluorescent room lighting have been known and studied for some time, and thinking about it from this perspective I would find it logical that directly staring at a source of fluorescent light can be just as bad, if not worse. I know that many people have problems with the energy-efficient fluorescent room illumination in general, and prefer the traditional light bulb, which I believe has a wider frequency spectrum."
Pretty interesting, I would recommend reading the full article, since me summarizing it would get tedious.
All I can say is.. I really hope they don't actually ban incandescent bulbs for "energy" reasons. If they do... I'll switch to sun glow bulbs in my house... or maybe just go back to the day... candles and lamps are quite pretty. ;o)