The Rhyothemis princeps Brain Externalization Project

[2020-06-30] Interesting finding reported by Prostiv et al. earlier this year [1] - human body temperature has decreased in the US since the Industrial Revolution. The authors suggest the change is due to a reduction in chronic inflammation: "Although there are many factors that influence resting metabolic rate, change in the population-level of inflammation seems the most plausible explanation for the observed decrease in temperature over time. Economic development, improved standards of living and sanitation, decreased chronic infections from war injuries, improved dental hygiene, the waning of tuberculosis and malaria infections, and the dawn of the antibiotic age together are likely to have decreased chronic inflammation since the 19 th century. ... Reduction in inflammation may also explain the continued drop in temperature observed between the two more modern cohorts: NHANES and STRIDE. Although many chronic infections had been conquered before the NHANES study, s...

There's this book I want to get, Hochachka and Somero's Biochemical Adaptation (or the latest edition, which is  by Somero et al.); of course since it is a science book it is ridiculously expensive and there's no ILL in a pandemic. The book has some interesting passages (p. 402) on Na/K ATPase that are visible on Google Books preview. I took a snip since there's no cut and paste: Main points: - futile cycling of ions may play a vital role in thermogenesis - Na/K ATPase may account for 5-10% of BMR - there are differences in Na/K ATPase activity between ectotherms and endotherms - 7x higher activity in mammals - "Correlated with this difference in estimated costs of sodium pump activity were differences in in the rates if passive efflux of K+ and passive influx of Na+ in liver cells. The costs of maintaining transmembrane gradients in concentrations of Na+ and K+ are reflected in differences in sodium pump-dependent oxygen consumption." - the degree of differen...