Hive profile

Oliver Vij

@ovij

Cambridge Medical Student providing succinct and easy to follow summaries of current scientific events

587 followers 164 following 236 posts Reputation 57.7

Oliver Vij
@ovij Dec 23, 2017, 7:49 PM UTC

Why do we get allergies?

Many of us will get allergic reactions in our lifetimes. They can range from a minor irritancy, such as hayfever, to potentially life-threatening conditions, such as anaphylaxis brought on from a nut…

73 upvotes 10 replies $11.68
Oliver Vij
@ovij Dec 18, 2017, 9:40 PM UTC

Rhesus disease – When a mother’s immune system attacks her child

Surely a mother’s immune system cannot attack her own, unborn child. A child is part of its mother, it shares her nutrients, her blood supply, her oxygen. How could it be possible? figure 1. Pregnanc…

115 upvotes 11 replies $12.62
Oliver Vij
@ovij Dec 15, 2017, 7:04 PM UTC

What are autoimmune diseases? Why do we get them?

# What is autoimmunity? The immune system is designed to identify and attack foreign organisms within the body that cause disease (pathogens). However, sometimes the recognition process becomes confu…

95 upvotes 10 replies $15.02
Oliver Vij
@ovij Oct 1, 2017, 4:10 PM UTC

Creating instant ice – What is supercooled water?

Supercooling is the process of chilling a liquid below its freezing point, without it becoming solid. figure 1. Ice cubes In the experiment I conducted (shown below), I placed the water in a freezer…

92 upvotes 20 replies $13.12
Oliver Vij
@ovij Sep 26, 2017, 5:16 PM UTC

How would you measure the volume of all the blood in your body?

How would you go about trying to measure the total volume of blood in the human body? There is one simple solution to this question. Slash open someone at a major blood vessel and drain the blood int…

100 upvotes 9 replies $10.98
Oliver Vij
@ovij Sep 23, 2017, 4:26 PM UTC

How do enzymes catalyse biological reactions?

Many of the reactions that occur in the body would happen at remarkably low rates under physiological conditions. In chemistry, a catalyst is used to increase the rate of a given reaction. This is ex…

111 upvotes 10 replies $8.34
Oliver Vij
@ovij Sep 20, 2017, 5:08 PM UTC

The fat that makes you thin – What is brown fat?

When most people think of fat, they will probably picture a tyre of flab lingering around the midriff (or something of the sort), much like the image below. This is known as white adipose tissue, the…

143 upvotes 39 replies $12.20
Oliver Vij
@ovij Sep 19, 2017, 3:28 PM UTC

How do cells generate energy?

Everyone knows that oxygen is required to live. But, why is that the case? What is it about oxygen that is essential for life? To be able to harness the of energy from nutrients is essential for all…

104 upvotes 16 replies $16.96
Oliver Vij
@ovij Sep 14, 2017, 6:09 PM UTC

Why can’t you hold your breath until you die?

Hold your breath for as long as you can. Breath holding kid How long did you last? No more than a few minutes, I would guess. If you try and hold your breath, eventually it becomes impossible. No amo…

89 upvotes 18 replies $7.76
Oliver Vij
@ovij Sep 12, 2017, 3:21 PM UTC

Malignant hyperthermia – An introduction to the pathophysiology

Many of you will have heard of hypothermia, a life-threatening decrease in body temperature. While hyperthermia is the opposite, a dangerous increase in body temperature. However, there are various o…

55 upvotes 5 replies $7.31