The human body is an amazing thing. For each one of us, it’s the most intimate object we know. And yet most of us don’t know enough about it: its features, functions, quirks, and mysteries. That’s why we’re launching a new series called The Body, which will explore human anatomy, part by part. Think of it as a mini digital encyclopedia with a dose of wow.
 

Your mouth is a battleground—a wet one. Trillions of microorganisms wage war against each other within. On one side are at least 700 species of bacteria. Most are harmless, and some even beneficial—but a few major species repay your hospitality with tooth decay or gum disease, such as Streptococcus mutans, first described by 18th-century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek as “living animalcules” because they wriggled around so much under a microscope lens. These spiral-shaped microbes build colonies on smooth tooth surfaces and turn the sugars and starches of food stuck in your teeth into acid that dissolves enamel and causes cavities. But Streptococcus isn’t the only danger. Below the gum line live Porphyromonas gingivalis and the recently discovered Prevotella histicola, both of which cause gum disease.

On the other side are the white-caped superheroes of your mouth: enzymes encased in a watery, frothy substance known as saliva or spit. Your mouth makes two to four pints of spit every day. It’s produced by the salivary glands inside your cheeks and the bottom of your mouth. While saliva is 99 percent water, its constant circulation keeps bacteria from settling on your teeth, and swallowing flushes them into your stomach. (Saliva also performs the important function of keeping your mouth’s pH slightly basic, preventing the acid produced by microbes like the S. mutans from making your teeth fall out.)

While saliva polices the neighborhood, there is also co-existence going on. Between meals, when there’s little for bacteria to feast on, some species dig into the protein in saliva and in the fluid secreted by gums. Having a certain level of microbes in your mouth is important: They boost your immune system and keep respiratory infection at bay.

Which microbes occupy your mouth matters. While 200 odd species are common around the world, many others depend on your environment, race, or food preferences—and they can tell a lot about your overall health.

That’s why last summer’s headlines suggesting you toss the floss made many dentists frown.

 
“Some patients need to floss, others do not,“ explains Dan Malamud, professor of infectious disease at the NYU School of Medicine.

Not only does your particular micro-fauna dictate the importance of your daily routines, Malamud tells mental_floss that saliva holds a lot of information, and at times can be a more useful diagnostic tool than your blood.

Just a drop of your spit can tell doctors if you are prone to heart disease; if your pregnancy may be complicated; if you’re stressed; or, if you’re a woman, whether you have a healthy relationship with your father. It may soon also reveal whether you have cancer. Spit is easier to access than blood, too.

While this dark, moist cave is bacteria’s fantasy real estate—an easy place to grow and reproduce—your health depends on keeping them in check. Moreover, the right balance of microbes is important: bacteria on your teeth are being kept in check by bacteria in your gums that produce bad breath. And while the species P. histicola may cause gum disease, it was discovered recently that it also helps control rheumatoid arthritis. And the chemical compound opiorphin, found in saliva, helps activate opiate receptors, which block pain signals from the brain—giving new credence to the idea that you can kiss a booboo to make it feel better.

But there is still a lot that is not understood about our spit. Only half the microbes in our mouth have been sequenced and identified, Xuesong He, a microbiologist at UCLA school of dentistry, tells mental_floss. The Human Microbiome Genome Project, an initiative by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is currently funding a massive effort to identify all of the millions of microbes that inhabit our bodies.

He and his group recently identified [PDF] bacteria in the mouth called TM7x that live parasitically, meaning they occupy the host and rely on it for nutrition. This is the first time a parasitic bacterium has been discovered in the human body. Its host, XH001, is a “relatively good bug,” He says, but when saddled with the parasite, it may cause gums to become prone to disease.

There may be many other such connections lurking under our tongues. NYU’s Malamud, for example, is currently working to develop a diagnostic saliva test for the Zika virus. A blood test exists, but blood begins to develop antibodies to Zika after 7 to ten days, and then the virus becomes undetectable. In one recent CDC report, researchers were able to detect Zika in saliva up to 20 days after infection. As the virus progresses in stages, its long detection cycle in spit allows doctors to tell when the person was infected. Moreover, the ressearchers were able to spot Zika in saliva 81 percent of the time—a rate second only to urine (92 percent), and a third higher than serum (51 percent).

Malamud sees the sequencing of human saliva as one of many steps toward personalized medicine. He says, “When it’s all put together in five to 10 years, it will change the way we practice medicine.”

Artist Tim Kowalczyk’s mugs look like they’re fashioned from tattered cardboard scraps, but when you touch them, you realize they are carefully hand-hewn from clay. According to Bored Panda, Kowalczyk is a ceramics instructor at Illinois Central College. When the teacher isn’t molding young minds, he creates unique, corrugated dinnerware in his home studio.

“Pathetic, absurd, antiquated, banal or even garbage are words that best describe the objects I am drawn to,” Kowalczyk explains in an artist’s statement published on his website. “These types of objects hold my attention because of the stories they can tell and what they can mean. Many times I find objects at thrift stores, yard sales or the side of the road … I want people to see the beauty and narrative that is held within simple overlooked objects.”

Along with his cardboard-inspired mugs, Kowalczyk also makes ceramic plates, bowls, and ashtrays that mimic styrofoam, paper, and pegboard; tumblers that look like old tin cans; and trash-themed sculptures. View some of his mugs and cups below, or visit the artist’s Instagram or website to check out more works.

[h/t Bored Panda]

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

London’s Kew Gardens are a gem. Contained within the city, the gardens first opened in 1840. They house thousands of plant specimens along with research labs.

In 1942, cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth captured Kew in Technicolor, marking one of his earliest works—he went on to photograph 2001: A Space Odyssey, Superman, Cabaret, Zardoz, and dozens more. Keep in mind that the Blitz only ended in May, 1941, so Kew was within a war-torn country when this film was made.

Take ten minutes to relax and enjoy this vintage look at Kew’s beautiful grounds and research facilities.

World Garden (1942) from British Council Film on Vimeo.

If you’re familiar with Japanese culture, you’ve likely come across the prolific Daruma doll. The symbolic toys have a rich history in Japan: They’re based on Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. While the dolls can come in an array of different colors and styles depending on the region, the most popular models come from the city of Takasaki. In the video above, you can see Daruma dolls being created in that regional style. 

Each doll has a mustache made of turtles and cranes for eyebrows. (These animals both represent longevity.) Once the figures are sculpted, artists dip them in red paint, then hand-paint designs on their faces. As you might have noticed, the dolls have blank eyes, which look out of place when surrounded by the intricate animal patterns.

That’s because it’s up to the owner to paint them in: After purchasing a doll, the customer fills in the left eye, while thinking about a specific goal or wish. Once that objective has been completed, they can fill in the right eye. In this way, the doll serves as a physical reminder to the owner to keep working on his or her goal. 

Primary image courtesy of YouTube.

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

When women first began to enter the police force around the turn of the 20th century, they came in through the back door as social workers tasked with upholding laws protecting women and children. Lola Greene Baldwin, sworn in “to perform police service” for the Portland, Oregon, police department on April 1, 1908, did the same thing as a “Female Detective” (that was her actual job title) as she had done for her previous employer, the Travelers Aid Society: keep young women safe from predators seeking to lure them into prostitution and a life of crime. Two years later Alice Stebbins Wells was hired by the Los Angeles Police Department to enforce laws protecting girls from hotbeds of white slavery like dance halls, skating rinks, and penny arcades.

Because of their non-standard appointments and powers, determining who was the country’s first policewoman is challenging. Both Baldwin and Wells have vied for the title, but in fact they were beaten to the punch by almost 20 years. Marie Connolly Owens joined the Chicago Police Department in 1891 with the title of Detective Sergeant, full arrest powers, and a badge. She was on the department payroll and received a police pension when she retired in 1923 after 32 years on the force.

Marie Connolly was born the daughter of Irish famine immigrants in Bytown (later renamed Ottawa), on December 21, 1853. She married gas fitter Thomas Owens in 1879, and they moved to Chicago soon thereafter. Together they had five children before Thomas died of typhoid fever in 1888. Marie was widowed with five mouths to feed; her youngest was just a couple of years old. As she told the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1904, up until this point she had never “earned a penny” in her life.

She entered the workforce with a bang the next year. In 1889, the city of Chicago passed an ordinance prohibiting the employment of children under 14 years old unless they had extraordinary circumstances requiring them to work. To enforce the ordinance, the city hired five women as sanitary inspectors to monitor conditions in stores, factories, and tenements. Women, all of them married or widowed mothers, got the jobs because dealing with children was deemed to be in their natural purview. Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Byford Leonard, Mrs. J.R. Doolittle, Mrs. Ada Sullivan, and Mrs. Glennon formed the first board of sanitary inspectors in the country to be given official authority by the city. They reported to the Commissioner of Health and were paid salaries of $50 a month.

Sanitary inspector Marie Owens dove into her work with a passion, removing illegally employed children from their workplaces, helping them find other means of support and even paying out of her own pocket to help their destitute families. She soon earned a reputation for zeal and effectiveness tempered by a diplomatic approach to parents, children, and business owners that made her as popular as someone in her role could be.

In 1891, the newly appointed Chief of Police, Major Robert Wilson McClaughrey—a tireless reformer with a particular interest in the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders—took notice of Mrs. Owens’ efforts in tracking down wife deserters—men we now call deadbeat dads. Owens saw first-hand how many children were forced to seek employment to keep the family from starving after the father abandoned them. She was relentless in ferreting these men out and turning them into the police, so much so that McClaughrey decided to employ Owens in the detective bureau.

Marie Owens was now Sergeant No. 97, with the rank, salary, badge, and arrest powers of any detective (although she made infrequent use of the latter two). She was detailed to the Board of Education where her brief was enforcing child labor, truancy, and compulsory education laws. In an op-ed she wrote for the July 28, 1901, issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune, Owens described her early days on the job:

The sights to be seen in the slums today can in no way compare with those of ten years ago and the suffering due to the inability of the older members of the family to work is, indeed, pitiable. Children were found working in factories all over the city, the frail little things in many cases being under 7. The pittance of 75 cents or $1 a week, however, helped to buy food for a sick mother, though it was at the cost of health and education.

When the work was first begun a woman wearing a police sergeant’s star was a novelty. Manufacturers in some cases were not inclined to admit me to their workshops, but armed with the strong arm of the law and the will to do good I soon found that in most cases the merchants met me half way and rendered me great assistance. As a result the children were gradually thinned out, and the employers became accustomed to asking for affidavits required by law before work was given to children. Mothers had to depose as to the children’s ages, and with these papers the latter were enabled to get employment in the larger factories and stores.

Owens, like Baldwin and Wells after her, made a point of differentiating what she did from the work of male police officers. In almost every contemporary news article about her, her success in law enforcement was subsumed under her femininity, maternal instinct, charitable nature, and kind heart. A 1906 story in the Chicago Daily Tribune assured its readers that this lady police sergeant “has lost none of her womanly attributes and other detectives in the central office lift their hats when they chance to meet her.” If that wasn’t relief enough for anyone concerned about the dangers of masculinized womanhood, the words of Sergeant No. 97 herself were sure to soothe:

“I like to do police work,” said Mrs. Owens. “It gives me a chance to help women and children who need help. Of course I know little about the kind of work the men do. I never go out looking for robbers or highwaymen. That is left for the men. … My work is just a woman’s work. In my sixteen years of experience I have come across more suffering than ever is seen by any man detective. Why, it has kept me poor giving in little amounts to those in want. I have yet the time to come across a hungry family that they were not given food.”

Her superior officer, Captain O’Brien, gave her more credit than she gave herself in that article. “Give me men like she is a woman,” he said, “and we will have the model detective bureau of the whole world.”

Despite Owens’ effectiveness, a woman wearing a police sergeant’s star was supposed to remain a novelty. In 1895, Chicago adopted new civil service rules requiring all cops to pass the civil service exam (Owens scored a 99 percent) and allowing for appointment of women as regular factory, tenement, or child labor inspectors independent of the police force. Had those rules been in effect in 1891, Mrs. Owens would probably have been made a government inspector rather than a police detective. Because she was so great at her job and had an unblemished service record, she was kept on the police force after the new rules were in place instead of being transferred. In an article in the August 7, 1904, Chicago Daily Tribune, the new rules were assumed to have made women police officers obsolete. The civil service rules “will forever prevent the appointment of more feminine patrolmen. Mrs. Owens will undoubtedly remain as she has been for fifteen years, the only woman police officer in the world.”

Four years later, Lola Greene Baldwin put an end to that assumption with her April Fool’s Day appointment. Two years after that, Alice Stebbins Wells charged into the fray and soon became the national posterchild for female police officers. She went on lecture tours emphasizing the need for women on the force to deal appropriately with women and children. In one of those lectures, delivered at Brooklyn’s Civic Forum in 1914, Wells showed how foolish the poor Chicago Daily Tribune’s prognostications had been: “There are four policewomen in Los Angeles, five in Seattle, and 25 in Chicago,” she said, “and the time is coming when every city will have policewomen, both in plain clothes and in uniform.”

Wells’ tours made her so famous throughout the country that even though just a few years earlier Det. Sgt. Marie Owens had been the subject and author of numerous newspaper stories about her pioneering position in the Chicago Police Department, Wells became fixed in the cultural imagination as the first woman police officer in the nation. Owens was still on the job when this misconception took hold, keeping her shoulder to the wheel and never, so far as we know, seeking to correct the record publicly.

She retired in 1923 at the age of 70 and moved to New York to live with her daughter. When she died four years later, the notice made no mention of her 32 years on the police force. She faded even further from memory after a historian confused her with a Mary Owens, the widow of a policeman, in a 1925 book on female police officers.

The real Marie Owens and her many accomplishments were rediscovered by, appropriately, a retired DEA agent whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were Chicago cops. Rick Barrett was researching fallen police officers when he found a reference to Owens as the wife of a slain cop. Death records revealed that Mr. Owens had been a gas fitter, not a cop, and Barrett pulled on the thread until the whole rich tapestry unraveled. After nigh on a decade of research, Barrett is writing a book about Detective Sergeant Marie Owens that will restore her to her proper role in history.

by Jenny Morrill, Mental Floss UK

“From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,

Beautiful comical things”

– Ducks by Frank W. Harvey

From Jemima to Donald, ducks have permeated popular culture due to their friendly and entertaining nature. But far from just being waddling bundles of feathers, ducks are actually very complex creatures…

1. They follow the first animal they see

Image: Cute Overload

This is a phenomenon known as imprinting (nothing to do with the werewolf stuff in Twilight). The basic thought behind imprinting is as follows: a newly hatched duckling will adopt characteristics of the first animal they see. This is usually a mother duck, but could be anything from a dog to a human (which I assume is what happened to Donald Duck). There is even a known case of a group of ducklings imprinting on a cardboard box.

Imprinting takes place due to the duckling’s instinct to follow the first thing that passes by, because more often than not this is their mother. To prevent this it is common practice, when hand rearing ducklings, to feed them using a hand puppet of a duck, so that later on the duckling can integrate with its own species.

2. Puzzling parts

Image: Neatorama

Duck romance isn’t exactly moonlight and roses. While ducks pair off every mating season, this doesn’t stop rival males from forcing themselves on the female. The males of many duck breeds have developed spiky, corkscrew shaped penises, which give them an advantage over rivals when it comes to depositing sperm. This video, charmingly titled Explosive eversion of a duck penis, shows the extent of the weirdness.

However, female ducks do not take this lying down. Over time they have developed vaginas comparable to Hampton Court Maze, with dead ends, and parts that spiral in the opposite direction to the male’s penis.

It doesn’t end there. Some breeds of duck have penises so long they are able to use them as lassos (see picture above). Researches at the University of Alaska theorise that the Argentinian lake duck will sometimes lasso escaping females in order to mate with them.

Ducks have also been known to have sex with dead ducks. I think it’s fair to say that ducks are sex mad.

3. Not all ducks can fly 

Image: Karen Barclay

There is a breed of duck that has more in common with a penguin than with its anatine cousins. The Indian Runner is becoming increasingly popular with UK duck owners, thanks to its inability to fly and comical appearance; the most frequently used description among Indian Runner owners is “a wine bottle on legs”.

Even though the Indian Runner can’t fly, it can outrun many predators, and also its owner. Because of this, Indian Runners are occasionally used to train sheepdogs.

4. They’re not supposed to eat bread

Image: Down To Earth Mother

At some point in our lives, we’ve all been to the park to feed the ducks, usually clutching half a bag of stale Warburtons. However, feeding bread to a duck actually does the duck more harm than good.

While ducks are largely omnivorous, and have even been known to eat sand and grit for its mineral content, bread is actually one of the worst things they can eat. Apart from having no nutritional value, regularly eating bread can cause obesity, malnutrition, and a condition known as angel wing, which impedes the duck’s ability to fly. On top of this, rotting, uneaten bread will attract pests and predators to the duck’s environment.

Corn, oats and chopped vegetables are all good alternatives to try when feeding the ducks.

5. They have have 3 eyelids

Image: Flickr

This is the case with most birds. As well as the standard top and bottom eyelids, ducks also have a third, sideways lid, known as a nictitating membrane. The membrane acts like goggles do on humans, so the ducks can see while their heads are underwater. The membrane also removes things like grit and dust from the eyes.

6. You can tell a male from a female by the tail

Image: Flickr

While many breeds of duck are distinguishable by their colouring (for example, with the mallard), some have identical colouring regardless of sex. With these breeds, the most common way to tell the male from the female is to look at the tail feathers. In many breeds, the male will have curly tail feathers, in contrast to the female’s straight, stubby feathers.

7. Not all ducks quack

Image: Notes From The Wild Side

In fact, hardly any ducks produce the characteristic ‘quacking’ sound we’ve come to associate with them. The most common UK duck, the mallard, does quack, but other breeds croak, squeak, whistle, or remain mute. You can listen to a few different duck calls here.

And while we’re on the subject, duck quacks do echo.

8. Egg laying is affected by daylight

Image: Bebe Styles

Both ducks and chickens slow down their egg production when there is a shortage of daylight, due to the light levels affecting their hormones. This is why most breeds of duck and chicken don’t lay many, if any eggs during the winter months.

Ducks aren’t as affected by the dark as chickens however, and some breeds do lay all year round (the current record holder producing 364 eggs in one year).

Because of this, farmers and duck keepers are advised to introduce artificial light into the duck house in order to boost egg production.

9. Females are louder than males

Image: Pichost

Sorry ladies, our duck counterparts are giving us a bad name. With most breeds of duck, the female is considerably louder and more talkative than the male. In fact, some male breeds are virtually silent (desperately tries not do do a joke about being hen-pecked). People wanting to keep domestic ducks are often advised to keep only males if they have neighbours, as this will reduce the risk of annoying them with the noise.

10. They can be very indecisive

As this hilarious and adorable video shows –

Main image: Backyard Duck

The Cubs are headed back to the World Series for the first time since 1945. They may not have won a World Series title in a very long time (as announcer Jack Brickhouse once said, “Any team can have a bad century”), but during that dry spell they have been enriching the language of baseball. Here are nine phrases that trace back to the Cubs.

1. WRECKING CREW

The phrase “wrecking crew” has a life outside of baseball in salvage, music, and football, but in baseball, according to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, it was first applied as a term for a group of heavy hitters in reference to the 1912 Chicago Cubs.

2. TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE 

In 1910, New York Evening Mail columnist Franklin P. Adams wrote a poem called “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” about the double-play damage the Cubs trio of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance had inflicted on the Giants:

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double—
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

The phrase “Tinker to Evers to Chance” became a popular way to remark on any well-executed, coordinated achievement. For example, according to a 2010 Chicago Tribune article, “a 2003 motion picture ad for Golden Globe-winner The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, proclaims that ‘Kidman to Meryl to Moore’ is ‘the acting version of baseball’s fabled ‘Tinker to Evers to Chance.’” 

3. LET’S PLAY TWO

The beloved “Mr. Cub” Ernie Banks, known for his cheerful disposition, used to express his love of the game by saying “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame. Let’s play two.” As Scott Simon said after Banks died at the beginning of this year, “It was a phrase he used to remind himself and other players that whatever their complaints, they got to play a game for a living, and hear the cheers of strangers. It was a reminder to all of us to cherish life and the chance to have work that gives enjoyment to others.” 

4. BLEACHER BUM

The Dickson Baseball Dictionary defines a bleacher bum as “One of a horde of boisterous, often shirtless fans who inhabit the bleachers.” In 1966, a group of 10 devoted fans at Wrigley Field proudly declared themselves “bleacher bums,” and their wild, inebriated antics became part of the attraction of a day at the ballpark.

5. HOLY COW!

Long time Cubs announcer Harry Caray was not the first to exclaim “Holy cow!” but all the same, he made it his own trademark cry. It’s the title of his autobiography, where he explains that he trained himself to say “holy cow” early in his career because “it was the only exclamation I could come up with that didn’t involve profanity.” 

6. IT MIGHT BE, IT COULD BE, IT IS

Another Harry Carayism, the rising excitement of “It might be … it could be … IT IS!” is the perfect send off for a home run ball or any other triumph at the end of a tension-filled moment.

7. WOO!

The single word “woo” does not come from Cubs baseball, but what we linguists might call “the extended ‘woo’ list construction,” perfected by superfan Ronnie “Woo Woo” Wickers, has undeniable Cubs pedigree. A typical example of the construction: “Cubs, woo! Love, woo! Cubs, woo! We’re number one, woo! Baseball, woo! Cubs, woo!”

8. THE FRIENDLY CONFINES

This nickname had been applied to other ballparks in the old days, but it only stuck to cozy, neighborhood Wrigley Field.

9. I DON’T CARE WHO WINS, AS LONG AS IT’S THE CUBS

In the 1940s and ’50s, Cubs announcer Bert Wilson would often wax rhapsodic about the beautiful weather or the wonderful atmosphere at the game and conclude with “I don’t care who wins, as long as it’s the Cubs.” Fans of other teams or pursuits have since used the phrase, substituting their own choices for the ending, but none has felt the emotion behind it as deeply or sincerely as a Cubs fan.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires most permanent signs in buildings to have tactile (raised) letters, along with Braille printing. I have run across these signs in lots of hotels and convention centers, and often wondered: How would a blind person find the signs in order to read them?

Tommy Edison, “The Blind Film Critic,” made a video illustrating how this works. As a sighted person, I found this fascinating—and my favorite bit is when Edison comes across a typo in the Braille. Oops. I was also surprised at how the signage works around elevators and floor numbers; in retrospect, I had seen those signs but never realized what they were for.

Take a moment to learn how blind folks find and use these signs:

If you liked that, you’ll love Edison’s YouTube channel. You might also be interested in these placement guidelines for ADA-compliant signs around doors!