Don't know about Apes, Tony, only studied Human Biology post-school level.

Doesn't the assertion that pubic hair signals sexual maturity imply that at a base level, and minus our rules of modern society, that visual signals of such sort would have mattered in early human society?

Mating with a sexually immature person would most likely not result in a pregnancy.

Until relatively recently in the history of this island, a girl was considered nubile (in its original meaning as "marriageable" ) at about 13-14. Puberty = pubic hair = pregnancy = a long reproductive life - so that there would be plenty of offspring to replace all those who would die in infancy.

You know I'm only being mischievous, don't you ?

(You could say I am apeing around)

Where are the best examples of "slickensides" in Britain?

I understand that the difference between walking and running is that walkers always have at least on foot in contact with the ground, while runners become airborne with each stride.

For how much of the time (expressed as a percentage) is a runner airborne?  If,as I guess, there are completely different answers for a 5000m. runner and a 100m. runner, please give the 100m. answer. 

Guestimates are acceptable. 

I'm not airborne much - my feet seem to be on the ground most of the time, except when I fall over - infact to run with a 'lift' always feels alien to me - although I'm sure somebody will put me right.

Is that an African or European airborne runner?

I think you will find the African is non-migratory.

O.K., "airborne" was a slightly unfortunate description of what I want to find out.  I am trying to get estimates of the percentage of time in each pace when there is and when there is not contact between at least one foot and the ground.

Any suggestions - either the answer or how the answer might be worked out?

Earlier in this thread I asked about genetic engineering being used to make silk etc. I found a partial answer.

Here is an article on the gene sequencing of the silk of the dragline of the black widow spider. Knowing this you should be able to make it in sizeable quantities. Its phenomenally strong and you could use it for anything from base layers to body armour.

/forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif[/img]oi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000998]Here is a paper on the structure of spider silk.

Cannot get that last link to work properly! Its

http://www.plosone.org/article/info : doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0000998

But without the spaces around the :

Note to tech people. Do not interpret text that is part of a URL as a smilie! 

they tend to say 10mins but i think that's rather overkill. by the time it's reached boiling point it should have killed everything in it.

when you roast something in the oven you don't need to sustain the temperature to kill the bugs.

Yup, I'd go with that on the nasties front. Cook the little blighters.

How come I haven't seen this thread before?! I'm sure there are a lot of kit questions which people don't know the answers to and no one can answer. Also, if you're not aware of them, some of the papers from Survival Outdoor are on the net to be read. They're often pretty interesting, from a scientific perspective of course...

Hi Mr Fuller,

that's why I started the post... in the hope of having a geek's version of the Bennachie thread... or not!

In many cases not toward the end I would suspect.

There is a phenomenon known as paradoxical disrobement where people with hypothermia start to feel euphoric and warm / happy and strip their clothes off contrary to the conditions. I have seen evidence of this and it is documented.

Somebody I know went deeply hypothermic (back in the 1970s) in winter on the hill in Scotland. She can recall the euphoric state and said it was very pleasant. The next thing she recalled was coming around in a 'body bag'! Her colleagues had dug her out of her snow hole and assuming she was dead carried her off the in a body bag, the very gentle warming process of the bag was just right for her to be revived.

The advice has changed on boiling water. It used to be recommended to boil for, say, 10 minutes, but the last I heard it was enough to bring the water to a rolling boil and save your fuel for better uses!

And here's my authoritative source, Frum

http://www.high-altitude-medicine.com/water.html

On the hypothermia front, I think FB has covered most of the answer. Once the body core cools below about 32C, the shivering response stops and much of the sensation of being cold is no longer perceptible. The actual death from hypothermia would, I imagine, be painless as the victim would be unconscious... but the cooling down to this temperature could be very unpleasant.

The only truly painless way to go that I know of is hypoxia from rebreathing air that has had the CO2 removed. The human suffocation response is derived from increased CO2 levels in the blood (which affects the acidity)... if you simultaneously continue to remove the CO2 (through a scrubber for example) and cut off the oxygen supply then you'll drift into an oblivious coma and die within a few minutes. Obviously, don't try this at home kids.

And before you think I have some morbid curiousity, this little experiment was part of a self-inflicted practical in my physiology class... 

John