Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

cell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 164 posts

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#41

Post by littlestymaar »

techdragon wrote: post #33
ilaksh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems possible but also more directly winter may be a bad time to start a pregnancy.

Avoiding the birth of a child right before winter would be advantageous for its survival… winter being (on average, not all regions/locales obviously) the hardest month to survive evolutionarily speaking this would be a beneficial trait and be likely to stick around. Ideally you want your early hominid babies at the end of winter through spring and summer so at worst they are though the first few fragile months that…

Except those “early hominid” lived in Africa, which isn't known to be the place with the harshest winter. And the fact that humans living in temperate climates and humans in tropical areas belong to a single species makes me believe that adaptation to winter wasn't that big of an evolutionary factor.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#42

Post by arbol »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #16
arbol wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a whole host of benefits associated with sun exposure that are reduced by wearing sunscreen. “Avoidance of sun exposure is a risk factor of a similar magnitude as smoking, in terms of life expectancy.” https://www.outsideonline.com/health/wellness/sunscreen-sun-...

I'm open to the argument that it's wrong/irrational, but I would wager that - at least in the USA - people wearing sunscreen are doing it to avoid skin cancer more than to avoid tanning.

"...skin cancer kills surprisingly few people: less than 3 per 100,000 in the U.S. each year. For every person who dies of skin cancer, more than 100 die from cardiovascular diseases."

Personally, I'm from the UK and don't worry about skin cancer. If I was in Australia or some climate I'm not adapted for then I'd be concerned.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#43

Post by yxhuvud »

littlestymaar wrote: post #41
techdragon wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Avoiding the birth of a child right before winter would be advantageous for its survival… winter being (on average, not all regions/locales obviously) the hardest month to survive evolutionarily speaking this would be a beneficial trait and be likely to stick around. Ideally you want your early hominid babies at the end of winter through spring and summer so at worst they are though the first few fragile months that…

Except those “early hominid” lived in Africa, which isn't known to be the place with the harshest winter. And the fact that humans living in temperate climates and humans in tropical areas belong to a single species makes me believe that adaptation to winter wasn't that big of an evolutionary factor.

Now you assume this wouldn't be something that is common for most mammals. In places where there is always sun there is no reason to evolve away people having more sex when there is sunny.

Meanwhile here in northern Europe we get markedly more children during March-April. Which of course could be a sociological thing, or depend on something else, but still.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#44

Post by davesque »

littlestymaar wrote: post #36
sitkack wrote: post #21

Could be a signaling behavior to encourage spring births. Does UVB peak in the middle of the summer? 9 months later is probably the best time to birth a child for that child's success.

As far as we know, humans are a tropical species, which means reasoning about summer and winter is likely to be more misleading than anything.

Doesn't it seem like a common misconception that evolution takes eons? Without being an expert, it seems plausible that we've adapted biologically since venturing out from the tropics.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#45

Post by thrown_22 »

freemint wrote: post #38
xyzzyz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it’s stupid. IRBs today are, on net, more of a detriment to science than a benefit. When they block a stupid voluntary questionnaire for being “unethical”, just imagine how much other useful science is not being done, because of concern lack of ethics of a similar grade.

IRBs look like a net detrement to most studies because they are a mechanism to prevent really bad/unethical experiments in the far tails of distribution. If those extreme studies were to happen at a non suppressed rate we would be asking for IRBs and talking how science can't regulate itself. So IRBs might be effective but they suffer from the prevention paradox.

IRBs are a net negative because really bad/unethical experiments are done with no oversight by private entities. Their only purpose is to keep ethicists employed.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#46

Post by thrown_22 »

taylorius wrote: post #2

Interesting. A possible mechanism for the legendary passion of people from "hot blooded" countries?

All that's racist is new and progressive again.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain the difference between colored people and people of color.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#48

Post by pas »

totony wrote: post #26

"The questionnaire we used measured romantic passion, rather than physiological/sexual passion, due to institutional review board (IRB) ethical concerns regarding sensitive sexually oriented questions." Curious about this. I understand ethical boards for psychological blind studies and such, but for questionaires?

https://www.cspicenter.com/p/its-time-to-review-the-institut...

classic feature creep + bureaucratization (so it's now done by a special class of IRB administrators, not really by peers, etc)

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#49

Post by lapsis_beeftech »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #8

One of the referenced papers [0] concerning addiction to UV light (in rodents) is fascinating as well..! “UV light is an established carcinogen, yet evidence suggests that UV-seeking behavior has addictive features” “Opioid blockade also elicits withdrawal signs after chronic UV exposure” [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24949966/

What might be going on here is that the UV induces radiation damage, which leads to endorphin release as part of the body's response to injury and pain. I have experienced this effect myself at times after getting a sunburn; the endorphins blocked the pain entirely and it was moderately euphoric. I know how dangerous sunburns are but if I was a rodent I would likely seek ways to repeat the experience.

Re: Skin exposure to UVB light induces a skin-brain-gonad axis and sexual behavior

#50

Post by numpad0 »

csdvrx wrote: post #20
numpad0 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get how reduced UV exposure is supposed to be more attributable to sunscreens than to office labors. Most industrial materials block roughly 100% of UV rays, except viewing windows which allows as much as 1%. Therefore, just staying in any modern building alone cuts down UV exposure by 99% at very least. There is absolutely no way some translucent face painting does that.

> There is absolutely no way some translucent face painting does that. Wow what a dismissive comment to chemistry and cosmetics. Just for fun, try take a pic of yourself with a UV camera (or just UV light with some phones), and you'll see it's translucent only to the visible spectrum: https://petapixel.com/2016/05/26/tiny-uv-camera-shows-youve-...

The Sun Protection Factor(SPF) is defined "a measure of the fraction of sunburn-producing UV rays that reach the skin" when applied as instructed and only over a defined period, usually 2hr[1]. That means there is twofold difference even between a pane of glass(1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunscreen#Sun_protection_facto...
Post reply on HN