Cool science info for the day…

Question for the day: Why do you breathe harder when you exercise?

If you’re like me, you probably think it’s because your body needs more oxygen. And that’s no doubt part of the truth, but there’s another piece of the puzzle that I didn’t know until today: you breathe more rapidly in order to keep your blood from becoming too acidic.

Here’s how it works (in Cheryl’s condensed and oversimplified science version):

When your muscles work, they metabolize energy-storage compounds to release energy and—in the process—they release acidic products like lactic acid.

Lactic acid moves into the blood stream where, if nobody does anything about it, it will make the blood acidic. Too acidic = bad.

Luckily, your blood contains a buffering system made up of carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) and the hydrogen carbonate ion (HCO₃^-)

In your bloodstream, there’s a constant back and forth reaction between these two guys. H₂CO₃ loses a proton (H⁺) to form HCO₃^-; HCO₃^- picks it back up again to form H₂CO₃.

When lactic acid comes on the scene, it adds more protons to the mix, which get picked up by HCO₃^-; the tricky part is that these compounds are a sort of teeter-totter. If there are too many on one side of the teeter-totter (equation), then they’ll slide back over to the other side. Interpretation: add more protons and it forms H₂CO₃, but if too much H₂CO₃ builds up, it will break apart again.

The solution is that the body has to get rid of the H₂CO₃. Which it does by means of another reaction that converts H₂CO₃ to water and carbon dioxide (CO₂.) This reaction is on a teeter-totter, too, though. They body has to get rid of that extra CO₂ or the whole process backs up like a tube slide full of kids.

How do you get rid of CO₂? You breathe.

So when you breathe harder when exercising, just think: you’re not just gaining oxygen. You’re lowering your blood pH!

(And when you think that, you may count yourself a true science geek :).)

Cheryl

The week’s (several weeks?) Tweets on how to bypass roadblocks and WRITE THE STORY!

WTS=Write the Story! Why? Because it's fun--rewarding--excruciating--fulfilling--and ultimately cheaper than therapy :) Happy writing!

WTS 52: Show up at the page no matter what. Writing is like running: sometimes the hardest part is getting out the door!

When all else fails, write for love. I love my current rewriting. It's a good sign when the climax of your book makes you cry, right?

WTS 53: Disown part of yourself--lose touch with all of yourself, including creativity (from O’Doherty’s GETTING UNSTUCK ...)

Must-read interview with @thewritermama on time management for writers by @inkyelbows: http://bit.ly/8ceoG0

On the topic of time management, check out this inspiring interview with Lindsey Eland (SCONES AND SENSIBILITY): http://bit.ly/6lUTCi

WTS 54: Explore the psychology of creativity with CREATIVITY FOR LIFE by creativity coach Eric Maisel (http://bit.ly/7pWjK0)

WTS 55: Slowing down can inspire http://bit.ly/92rxaf

WTS 56: If you write YA, there's no substitute for eavesdropping with pen in hand. Or better yet, raise a teen of your own and take notes!

Today's quote from oldest son: "Division of labor. I come up with plans and you laugh at them." Ah, I'd never come up w/these lines myself!

WTS 57: Apply critique group to story premise, plot, structure, beginning, and characters.

WTS 58: Stuck on a scene? Who says you have to write them in order? Skip around for inspiration

...or check out Rosenfeld's MAKE A SCENE for info on scene functions, core elements, and types of scenes. http://bit.ly/bSfxMd *GREAT BOOK*

WTS 59: Ask: What do I care about? What am I confused about? What do I love and hate? The best fiction moves past plot to philosophy.

Upcoming Contest

Want to try your hand at a little science writing for kids? With something like 80% of the magazine market devoted to nonfiction (and yes, I completely made up that number—but it is actually in that ballpark, if I wasn’t too lazy to search out a source) it’s worth your time to experiment with your inner naturalist. Or chemist, biologist, or physicist.

Children’s Writer, the newsletter of the Institute of Children’s Literature, is sponsoring a writing contest for science writing, deadline February 27, 2010. (Actually, they’re sponsoring another contest, too, this one for historical fiction if that’s your cup-o-tea).

Entry  is free if you subscribe to Children’s Writer and $13 if not—and since the price of subscribing to the newsletter is $19 a year, you might want to sign up for those two trial issues to see if it’s something you find helpful. I do!

And I don’t even get a commission for saying that. :)

Cheryl

Quote for the day…

As an avid learner, I really like this one:

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

Eric Hoffer

Crash Blossoms (and other language tidbits)

CONFUSION CAUSED BY CRASH BLOSSOMS

So reads the headline that reportedly birthed a new phrase for those moments when brevity interferes with meaning: crash blossoms. Here’s another example, drawn from Mark Peters’ article on the topic: McDonald's fries the holy grail for potato farmers (Laurence Horn (via Steve Anderson) on the American Dialect Society listserv).

I think that the Internet has sped up language development. For instance, ever hear of a snowclone? According to the Urban Dictionary, a snowclone is “A type of formula-based cliché that uses an old idiom in a new context. A common example: "X is the new Y", a generic form of the original expression "pink is the new black". In order to apply the snowclone, X and Y should be substituted with new words or phrases.”

So when I say “Scripts? We don’t need no stinking scripts!” I’m using a snowclone (although I might not know it at the time.) (Here’s a terrif article about snowclones, if you desire further distraction.)

Ah, words. Don’t you love ’em?

:) Cheryl