1/19/2005: South Korean ice water divers

[floki]

Originally Posted by Syrinx

Catching a cold probably has more to do with <a href="http://www.hhmi.org/cgi-bin/askascientist/highlight.pl?kw=&file=answers%2Fimmunology%2Fans_023.html">other things like proximity to people</a> than it does to the temperature.

My roommate has recently read a book about some tests they did on people. Chilling didn't show to be responsible for catching a cold, not even for catching it more easily when being in direct contact with the viruses (they dripped viruses directly on the proband's nasal mucosa).

According to the book the current standard of knowledge is the following: in winter people don't ventilate the rooms as often as in summer. That's, besides the cause of increased levels of dust, one possible reason because the air is full of infectious particles. The other explanation that was given links to the decreased level of sunlight. In summer lots of bacteria and viruses are killed by the UV light of the sun. In winter they have a better chance to survive outside a body.