The Sunlight

Tasting the Bitter Sunlight

Have you ever had that gut reaction to your surroundings, some physical sensation that something isn’t quite right? Maybe a squirmy, uneasy feeling in your stomach or an acrid taste on your tongue that makes you want to leave the scene? When the nematode C. elegans encounters an offensive sensation—whether a pungent, potentially dangerous odor (such as those associated with fungal parasites), e...

Sunlight and Vitamin D

Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin that has been produced on this earth for more than 500 million years. During exposure to sunlight 7-dehydrocholesterol in the skin absorbs UV B radiation and is converted to previtamin D3 which in turn isomerizes into vitamin D3. Previtamin D3 and vitamin D3 also absorb UV B radiation and are converted into a variety of photoproducts some of which have unique b...

Sunlight and skin cancer

It is well known that chronic exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation present in sunlight is responsible for the induction of most nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) in humans. Wavelengths in the UV-B (290–320 nm) region of the solar spectrum are absorbed into the skin, producing erythema, burns,and eventually skin cancer.NMSC is themost common type of human cancer. Recent surveys indicate that arou...

Color Naming and Sunlight

Lindsey and Brown (2002) proposed an intriguing explanation for the existence and geographical distribution of languages that lack a distinct word for the color blue. Many such languages include blue in a color term that also encompasses green, yielding a green-or-blue (‘‘grue’’) term. Others include blue in a color term that also encompasses dark colors such as black, yielding a black-or-blue ...

THE HUmAN bEING ANd SUNLIGHT IN HISTORY