Diseases that Discriminate

18th March 2023

Your immune system depends upon one key thing – the ability to differentiate between self and non-self material (which involves the detection of antigens – proteins on the surface of non-self cells), and when this ability fails, autoimmune disorders can occur; healthy body cells are attacked and damaged, leading to a range of symptoms and conditions from rheumatoid arthritis (which affects the joints) to psoriasis (which affects the skin). However, these disorders don’t occur indiscriminately – in fact, women are far more likely to have an autoimmune condition, and they make up around 80% of all patients diagnosed (with some variations depending on the condition).

Diseases that Discriminate

The Weight of a Human Soul

18th March 2023

Twenty-one grams was the answer given by the English scientist Duncan MacDougall in a scientific study he published in 1907. The 19th century was filled with classic Gothic novels, so, like many people of his era, MacDougall was fascinated by death and what happens after it. He surmised that if we have a soul then it ought to have a weight, thus the weight of the diseased must decrease when the consciousness has left the body. To prove the theory, MacDougall set out to find people near the point of death – and additionally, people that were incapable of moving so that the beam of the scales could be kept balanced.

The Weight of a Human Soul