Escape The Science Lab

When I was a child, we had the usual family myths. These included don't drink milk after eating an orange, it will curdle, don’t sit on the cold step or you’ll get king cough (I never found out what that is), and boiled onions in milk stop you from catching a cold (it may just keep people away from you, so you don't catch anything). There was also an obsession with getting enough fibre, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's extreme when you get interrogated about it when visiting your nana. Are any of these ideas true? How can we find out? Part of the science you study in school is how your body works. A vital organ system is your digestive system, not that the rest are unimportant. We don't usually think about what happens after we swallow our tea unless something goes wrong, but an awful lot is happening that we can't see (believe me, that’s a good thing). Most of the chemicals in your food are useless until your digestive system changes them. The prop...

There's nothing quite as stomach-churning as a pile of maggots. I used to work with someone that was into fishing. He would buy a box of them and put it in the lab fridge. Once or twice the lid came off, and we were met with a squirming mess when we opened the door. That's not counting the time he forgot they were in there, and they turned into flies.  We are naturally disgusted by some things because they spread diseases. Flies, vomit, puss, the list goes on. Would you be surprised if you went into a hospital and a doctor prescribed maggots to help heal a wound? That's right, maggots!  People with badly infected wounds can be prescribed maggots to help clean them. These particular maggots have been raised in sterile conditions, so please don't go rooting in the dustbin at home.  How does this work? Warning you shouldn't read this before your tea! Maggots like to eat dead or rotting material. That’s precisely what is in some nasty wounds. These wounds can be infecte...