Spontanious Human Combustion
- Thread starter Xerxes
- Start date
Neildo,
If you hands blistered in relationship to you looking at them (e.g. they got worse) I would guess that there was preportionally a Hormonal reaction. Namely Anxiety/Fear could of triggered a particular chemical combination that increased the blistering, perhaps your electrolytes were excited which in turn allowed the capciacin to spread etc.
The mind is a powerful thing and suggestion can cause alsorts of physical anomolies that wouldn't have naturally occured if a person wasn't anxious.
"DON'T PANIC!" - Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
If you hands blistered in relationship to you looking at them (e.g. they got worse) I would guess that there was preportionally a Hormonal reaction. Namely Anxiety/Fear could of triggered a particular chemical combination that increased the blistering, perhaps your electrolytes were excited which in turn allowed the capciacin to spread etc.
The mind is a powerful thing and suggestion can cause alsorts of physical anomolies that wouldn't have naturally occured if a person wasn't anxious.
"DON'T PANIC!" - Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Once adenosine triphosphate is produced, its energy is released by the addition of water. It is an anaerobic source of energy. The body keeps about .1 mole of it on hand, which is about 50 grams. Its molecular weight is 507.184.
One mole would be 507 grams. This places it within a plausible range for the body to produce from glucose and whatever. ATP releases 7.3 kilocalories of energy per mole. That amount of heat raise 1000 grams of water 73 degrees C, which is definitely more than enough to kill someone. Then we are looking at other processes that will lead to actual combustion, like the spontaneous combustion of mouldering grass or leaves in piles.
Wikipedia article on ATP
Through various mechanisms, the body stores enough energy-producing materials plus oxygen to survive about five minutes without taking in more oxygen. An overproduction of AZT is plausible if a body is sedentary but for any reason the body primes itself for action without actually burning the fuel. Maybe the body even "learns" to keep more on hand to be ready for action. Add to that the strangeness of the chemistry of someone who eats god-knows what in combination with chemically treated foods like processed meats. We also have the body's own production of hydrogen peroxide, and who knows whether any chemical might disable the peroxomes, cell organelles that consume excess H2O2?
The process of conversion of food to energy is delicately balanced as it is. The cells literally have to walk through fire without burning. They have to carefully walk each packet of energy up and down a ladder without dropping it. They have to do this even when chilled, heated, or exposed to UV radiation. The surprise isn't when someone combusts. The surprise is that so many of us don't.
The trigger mechanism is there. The fuel and oxygen are there. If the mechanisms that control the rate of release of energy are compromised or overwhelmed, that's all she wrote. You have a fire just like any other fire, and it will burn until its fuel is exhausted if you can't cool it down or cut off its oxygen.
One mole would be 507 grams. This places it within a plausible range for the body to produce from glucose and whatever. ATP releases 7.3 kilocalories of energy per mole. That amount of heat raise 1000 grams of water 73 degrees C, which is definitely more than enough to kill someone. Then we are looking at other processes that will lead to actual combustion, like the spontaneous combustion of mouldering grass or leaves in piles.
Wikipedia article on ATP
Through various mechanisms, the body stores enough energy-producing materials plus oxygen to survive about five minutes without taking in more oxygen. An overproduction of AZT is plausible if a body is sedentary but for any reason the body primes itself for action without actually burning the fuel. Maybe the body even "learns" to keep more on hand to be ready for action. Add to that the strangeness of the chemistry of someone who eats god-knows what in combination with chemically treated foods like processed meats. We also have the body's own production of hydrogen peroxide, and who knows whether any chemical might disable the peroxomes, cell organelles that consume excess H2O2?
The process of conversion of food to energy is delicately balanced as it is. The cells literally have to walk through fire without burning. They have to carefully walk each packet of energy up and down a ladder without dropping it. They have to do this even when chilled, heated, or exposed to UV radiation. The surprise isn't when someone combusts. The surprise is that so many of us don't.
The trigger mechanism is there. The fuel and oxygen are there. If the mechanisms that control the rate of release of energy are compromised or overwhelmed, that's all she wrote. You have a fire just like any other fire, and it will burn until its fuel is exhausted if you can't cool it down or cut off its oxygen.