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When Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer, he called "zero degrees" the lowest temperature he was able to attain with a mixture of ice and salt. For the upper point of his scale, he used 96°, which he measured as normal human body temperature (we know it to be 98.6° today because of more accurate thermometers).
When blood is deoxygenated and flowing back to the heart through the veins, it is dark reddish-blue in color. Blood in the arteries that is oxygenated and flowing out to the body is bright red. Whereas arterial blood comes out in spurts, venous blood flows.
Cancer has been around as long as humankind, but only in the second half of the twentieth century did the number of cancer cases explode.
About 100 new prescription or over-the-counter drugs come into the U.S. market every year.
The heart is located in the center of the chest, with part of it tipped slightly so that it taps against the left side of the chest.