Re: [CH] Consumer Opinion
David Wright (dtwright@texas.net)
Mon, 25 May 1998 10:15:00 -0500 (CDT)
At 04:18 PM 5/21/98 -0400, Judith Stone wrote:
>By the way, Dave and I were bottling our Mother'n Law's Revenge hotsauce
>this morning and when he tested it for taste, the hair on his arms stood
>straight up! Can any of you "scientists" out there tell us what caused
>that reaction. It was quite funny, at the time.
>Thanks again, Judith
Here's my educated guess: Each hair has a small, smooth muscle, called an
"erector pili" attached to the root. It's a vestigial structure in us since
we have so little hair left on our bodies. For other mammals, though, they
are quite useful in stressful situations -- think of cats, whose hair
stands up when they are angry, scared or cold. My guess is that Dave was
stressed (in a good sense) by the new batch of hotsauce, got an adrenalin
rush, and his hair muscles did the appropriate thing.
Whether my answer is correct or not, I certainly think it ought to be!
David