kitchen myths

This possible belongs somewhere else but its all about food and I figured people might find it interesting

Kitchen Myths

An interesting set of facts about cookery I guess given recent discussions an interesting one is this

Lobsters scream with pain when boiled

It's commendable that people do not want to inflict pain on animals, but this one is false on two accounts. First of all, pain doesn't just happen automatically - it is the result of specific receptors, nerve pathways, and brain regions all cooperating to convert certain physical stimuli into the perception of pain. This has all been thoroughly worked out in humans and other vertebrates. But guess what - lobsters and other crustaceans are not vertebrates and simply do not have these nerve pathways and brain regions (they don't have a real brain at all, for that matter). In other words, no brain, no pain (sorry, I couldn't resist that one!).

What about the "scream" that lobsters sometime emit when dropped in the boiling water? There's the problem that lobsters have no throat, no vocal cords, no lungs, so how could they scream at all? The fact is that the noise is caused by air trapped in the shell. When heated it expands and forces itself out through small gaps, causing the sound.

thos

I've often wondered how the pain-response to heat evolved. In the wild state, how likely is an animal to come across a source of heat that could burn? I can only imagine a forest fire, but then a fear of smoke would be more survival-enhancing than pain from a burn.

sean

I think it's a response to cell damage, rather than heat specifically, if you see what I mean.

selfsufficientish

although most animals including lobsters do have nerochemicals and receptors such as dopamine that will inform them of pleasure and pain. - so they might not scream but they do feel pain.

Northern_Lad

There's also magma which is fairly hot but doesn't produce much smoke.

There's more than one kind of feeling:

Contact touch - am it touching something or not?
Pain - will this do me any imediate damage?
Itching - do I have an infection or reaction to anything?
Location - where the hell did I leave that limb..?

I think there may be another one, but I can't remember.

They can also block each other out for short periods. When my excema was really bad on my hands and itching like buggery I used to rinse my hands under the hot tap (not to be advised) For about 10 seconds there was even a positive feeling in my hands. Then the heat came through...

bagpuss

selfsufficientish wrote:

although most animals including lobsters do have nerochemicals and receptors such as dopamine that will inform them of pleasure and pain. - so they might not scream but they do feel pain.

They will beable to interpret signals and stimuli as being good or bad for their continued existence but without any higher neural functions calling it pain and pleasure both of which are somewhat human constructs is perhaps taking it a little far

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