Why Chilli Peppers are So Hot


	Why Chilli Peppers are So Hot

wildcat

6-4-2007 7:25 AM

791 views

tags:

science, evolution, mammals, birds, chillies, seed dispersal

1 Comment |

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6-4-2007 10:16 AM

ouyangwulong

Apparently, I have evolved from birds.

Good clip!

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/7d7ac69c-14bb-4169-a1f5-b6565d043a19/F8C0A03B-B29E-42EC-94E3-75A24E5F418C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304858" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304858" style="font-size: 11px;">www.bbc.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304858"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.bbc.co.uk/img/D25544BD-BD6B-492F-8CCD-CF89FD90F956" alt="A bird and some chillies." /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304858"><P>Science seems to be good at answering how things came to be, but not so good at the <I>whys</I>. What is the underlying purpose behind the <A href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A784046"  class="pos">malarial </A>parasite or some of the nasty genetic diseases (such as <I>cystic fibrosis</I>) that still afflict mankind? Or even, on a mundane level, why does a fruit - the chilli pepper - seem to make itself as unpalatable as possible to all except gastronomic masochists? The facile response is to shrug one's shoulders and reply 'because that's the way the world is'. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304858"><P>At least, this is how it seems if you're a <I>mammal</I>. If human beings had evolved from birds, however, we wouldn't have been perplexed by this question at all, simply because we wouldn't have noticed that chillies were hot. Birds are completely insensate to chilli peppers: they can eat as many as they want with no ill-effects whatsoever<A href="#footnote2" name="back2" title="Nobody really knows whether this is because birds lack the receptors for this kind of pain, or whether their receptors fail to bind the capsaicin." class="pos"><FONT size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="" class="pos"><SUP>2</SUP></FONT></A>. What's more, it might even have a beneficial effect for them, <A href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/dna/h2g2/A1304858/ext/_auto/-/http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991171"  class="pos">killing off harmful bacteria </A>in their gut.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F8C0A03B-B29E-42EC-94E3-75A24E5F418C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>