temperature

The fundamental trick to perfectly control the car’s temperature is a (not) forgotten button on the dashboard

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Although with the fury of bringing screens to cars There are fewer and fewer buttons, we still find a lot of old-fashioned controls scattered around the steering wheel and the dashboard of the car. However, there is usually a small element (sometimes shaped like a circular knob, which may or may not protrude) that usually looks like a button that goes unnoticed due to its location: it is far enough away that it cannot be easily operated. Spoiler: if you touch it nothing happens. And nothing happens simply because it is a solar sensor or solar load sensor (if we get more technical, a phototransistor), a piece little known to the general public but of great importance as it is the element that the automatic air conditioning uses to regulate the temperature correctly. It is essential to control the temperature of the car More specifically, is located at the bottom of the dashboard and in the central area, attached to the front window. It usually has the speaker grille or the air outlet grille nearby to defog the window. Hence it neither looks good nor is it comfortable to touch. That position makes all the sense in the world: it is one of the best areas inside the cabin to capture sunlight from outside. Precisely the reason for the sensor, since the sunlight that enters a car can reach represent up to 60% heat load that the air conditioning system has to overcome in the search for comfort. A good everyday example: the temperature difference between parking in the same place on a summer day when the sun is shining overhead or doing so at night or when it is cloudy. This solar load sensor It is actually a photodiode which measures the intensity of solar radiation in order to be able adjust climate controlwhich includes the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. On that hot day in the example, the air conditioning will have to work as hard as possible to cool the cabin as soon as possible. But if it’s night or cloudy, you won’t need to blow as hard. At a technical level, its mechanism is simple: the photodiode moves in an operating range between 0 and 5 Volts, offering more resistance as the light intensity increases, so that the sensor signal decreases as the solar load increases. This signal is what then reaches the control, which gives orders to the system to adjust the speed and intensity. The solar load sensor is not the only one responsible of the operation of the air conditioning, since the vehicle integrates more sensors such as the sensor to measure the interior temperature. And they also have other sensors to turn the lights on or off or configure the mode of the screens and dashboard depending on the exterior lighting. By the way, in some cars there is not only one solar charge sensor, but there are two, one on each side of the dashboard and in that same area adjacent to the front window: they are models that have dual zone air conditioning. In Xataka | The triangles on the plane window are not for decoration: they are a quick way to check that the flight is going well In Xataka | Few people know what the red balls on high-tension cables are for: they are a simple way to save lives Images | Skoda, Opel and SEAT

We have been dreaming of a temperature drop for days this week. Aemet believes that we still have the worst

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The arrival of storms to the north third of the Peninsula has monopolized part of weather care During this week. However, for a good part of Spain, heat remains intense and in some areas this implies risks to the well -being of people who reside or work there. A red notice, by heat. The State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) has activated A red notice (Extreme risk) due to high temperatures in the east, south and west zone of Gran Canaria. It is one of the various notices that the agency will keep activated over the next few days as a result of high temperatures. According to the agency’s notices, the maximum is expected reach 40º In the Tirajana basin, a temperature that can be normal these days in some areas of the southern peninsular but has led experts to give the alarm. The notice also indicates the persistence of heat, with minimal temperatures above the 25º barrier, but which could reach 30º. That is, the “Equatorial nights”They will be the norm in this area. The eye put in the humidity. The good news is that the forecasts indicate a low relative humidity in the area. Wet heat It can increase The thermal sensation, but can also increase the risk derived from high temperatures by preventing our body from dissipating the heat it generates. The situation in the Canary Islands will also improve from tomorrow, although yellow warnings will still be activated due to high temperatures in the south of the island of Gran Canaria. Thermal relief, partly. The situation is partly extrapolated to the center and south of the Iberian Peninsula. Temperatures today They will be high in much of the country and Aemet has activated numerous notices by high high temperatures, among which the temperature notices of up to 42º in some areas of the interior of Andalusia. With the arrival of the trough, the storms will reach the peninsular but the thermal relief can be noticed in more extensive areas. It is expected that on Friday there are not only notices in the center and the west peninsular, and on Saturday the notices are expected to be limited to areas of the Mediterranean basin. Waiting. For now we do not know what will hold us next week. Medium -term forecasts They predict a second half of the month of July warmer and dry than normal in most of the territory, so a heat return would not be entirely strange. For now we will have to wait to approach the passage of the storms and at the end of this warm episode before knowing what will hold us the last weeks of the month. In Xataka | The hydrological bonanza could not be eternal: drought is a real threat after an extremely warm, and also dry June Image | ECMWF / Aemet

The material created in China that lowers the temperature of the buildings without consuming a single electricity watt

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A world where buildings are not only well isolated from abroad, but cool them as much as an air conditioning, without consuming a single electricity watt. That is what a team of Chinese and Australian scientists promises with their new bioplastic material. Short. Researchers at the University of Zhengzhou and the University of Australia del Sur presented a biodegradable film capable of cooling buildings without using electricity. According to a study published in Cell Reports Physical Sciencethis coating can reduce the temperature of a surface to 9.2 ° C in full sun. 9 degrees less. In the material field tests, carried out on a Zhengzhou roof, east of China, the results were overwhelming. In full sun, during noon, the material reached a cooling peak of 9.2 ° C below the ambient temperature. The average tests was -4.9 ° C during the day and -5.1 ° C during the night, which is equivalent to a cooling power of up to 136 watts per square meter. The film takes advantage of a known phenomenon, “passive radiative cooling” (PRC). In a nutshell, it is a lining designed to do two things: reflect sunlight so as not to heat up, and emit internal heat outwards. But it does it in an extremely efficient way. According to the simulations presented by the researchers, apply this film on the roofs of a city like Lhasa, in the Tibet, would reduce annual cooling consumption up to 20.3%. How it works. The “metaphilm” is made of polyactic acid, better known as Pla plastic; A material derived from plant sources such as corn or sugarcane, so it is biodegradable. The turn is how researchers managed to create a porous and continuous structure through a novel phase separation technique at low temperature. This microstructure has an ultrabaja thermal conductivity (of 0.049 w/m · k) and reflects almost all the solar radiation that affects it (98.7%), avoiding the initial heating and heat transfer to the interior. It also emits heat abroad thanks to its porosity. The manufacturing process is relatively simple: the PL is dissolved in chloroform, crystallizes at -20 ° C and then ethanol is used to induce phase separation before drying the film. This method is suitable for large -scale production, which paves the path for commercialization. More resistant than other attempts. One of the great challenges of previous radiative cooling materialsespecially biodegradables, it was their durability. But this new coating has demonstrated exceptional durability. The researchers submerged him in acid for 120 hours and then exposed him to ultraviolet radiation equivalent to eight months of weathering exposure. Surprisingly, the material not only survived, but maintained a cooling performance between 5 ° C and 6.5 ° C below the ambient temperature after the hard aging process. The team attributes it to its high crystallinity, which gives it a thermal and chemical stability much higher than that of its predecessors. The applications go far beyond the roofs of the buildings. Researchers already explore their use in transport, to cool vehicles, agriculture, to protect crops, electronics and even the biomedical field, to apply to dressings that regulate the temperature. Images | Yangzhe Hou et al. In Xataka | With the electric consumption triggered by the air conditioning, Singapore has had an idea: buildings that “sweat”

7 tools to look at the temperature where you live

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Summer has already arrived, and we are about to release the heat waves. Therefore, we are going to tell you tools to look at the temperatures where you live To know what days are the worst. Because of climate change, these extreme heat events are increasingly frequent, and it is convenient to know when they arrive. We are going to tell these tools in list formatso that at a quick look you can look at the ones that interest you the most. With them you can monitor the heat wave in different ways, from with the winds to with other complete information. Tools to control heat wave Here is our tools list to control the heat wave. Are Web pages that many times have mobile appsso you can use them regardless of the device where you want to look at it. Aemet: The website of the State Spanish Meteorology Agency, and therefore is that page to resort when you are looking for the most reliable information on our country. It has time information and weather notices, where they will inform you about heat waves. Link: Aemet.es. Accuweather: One of the most important weather apps, so much that many mobile manufacturers applications use their data. It offers two -week forecasts, amounts of rain and even a radar. Will also inform you of temperatures .. Link: accuweather.com. The time: Another of the main pages that you will find when obtaining weather information in Spain, because it is also focused on this country. It is simpler than Aemet, more visual, but also with data centered. Link: Eltiempo.es. Ventusky: Ventusky It is a website that not only shows you meteorological information, but does it with an unmatched aesthetic, it is a visual wonder. You can consult temperature patterns, wind speed at different altitudes, cloud density or rainfall. Link: Ventusky.com. Weather Channel: Another of those apps whose data use many other manufacturers, such as Apple in their time app. It offers forecasts for 15 days, maximum and minimum temperatures, humidity, wind gusts, pressure, condensation and everything you need. Links: Weather.com. Windy: A page that shows a map with wind currents, and that color the areas so you can see the temperature in each of them. He also has a search engine to focus on more concrete areas. Link: Windy.com. WXCHARTS: A page that shows you the main weather data, many data and with many graphs. You can see the evolution of temperatures, rainfall or speed of time, as well as obtain forecasts. Link: Wxcharts.com. In Xataka Basics | Your computer in summer: how to protect your PC or portable in front of heat and not overheat

We are on our way to beat all temperature records in a month of June. The fault is of a “jam” in the atmosphere

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Heat is still installed in peninsular Spain. This week a Dana It seems aimed To give us a brief respite but experts anticipate that, as on previous occasions, this will be brief. An exceptional June. There is a week left for the month of June and experts anticipate the possibility of confirming as the hottest in the historical series. All that despite the appearance of tormentous episodes (some of enough intensity) interspersed between extreme heat days. For now the most warm June record The 2017 holds it. That year, the average temperature of the first month of the summer was 24.1 Celsius, three degrees above the average for the period 1981-2010 and 0.1º above the previous record, registered in 2003. That June 2017 was also slightly more humid than it is common for this month, with 3% more rainfall than the average of the period between 1981 and 2010. A stagnant circulation. According to Experts explain As the physicist, disseminator and researcher at Aemet JJ German, the situation could go worse after this week’s truce. An “stuck” atmospheric circulation would be, at least in part, responsible for this month of June anomalous and hot. The situation, if it changes, will be worse. According to German, during the next few days “Subtropical Anticyclonic Dorsal” capable of reaching in itself record levels on the Iberian Peninsula. Meanwhile, under the influence of a Dana. This seems to suggest that the thermal relief caused by the proximity of a Dana will be only temporary. Despite this, the presence of this depression in height implies that we must prepare again for the arrival of instability and rainfall. During the next few days, they will be in force various yellow warnings issued by the State Meteorology Agency (AEMET) to alert the risk derived from these storms. These notices will coexist with those emitted to warn of heat, will concentrate on the north, especially in the northwestern quadrant of the Peninsula. In Your forecastthe agency talks about storms and “locally strong” storms in the northern third, with hail and gusts “very strong”. The situation will affect particularly, says Aemet, north of the plateau, Cantabrian mountain range, Pyrenees and the north of the Iberian system. The risks of a warm summer. Last week, Aemet published its spring analysis and its forecasts for summer. In its presentation, the agency indicated that the first had stood out for high rainfall, while summer could stand out for warmer temperatures. The succession of a wet spring and a summer of heat implies certain health risks: the appearance of some insect pests have put the health authorities alert to the possibility of the appearance of potential vectors of diseases, such as the Tigre mosquito. The hot warm summers also tend to imply a greater risk of fire, although in this case, the rainfall of recent months could play in our favor. In Xataka | We do not know anything about El Niño at this point of the year. That is a meteorological mystery … and good news Image | ECMWF

We have a new clue about depression and we have found it in an unsuspected place: body temperature

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Depression is something that goes beyond our brains. Like many other diseases, this psychological ailment is manifested in other aspects of our physiognomy. For example, in our body temperature. Temperature and depression. A study has identified A relationship between body temperature and depression. The team responsible for the analysis observed a positive relationship between the variables, that is, that the appearance of depressive symptoms was linked to a higher body temperature among the participants. The relationship was proportional. The severity of the symptoms, the greater the body temperatures were also. They also observed an apparent relationship between the variability of temperatures and depressive symptoms, but this did not show being statistically significant, so conclusions cannot be extracted in that aspect. Beyond the statistical incidence is little What is known of this relationship. For example, the equipment indicated that it is still an enigma if this increase in body temperature could be due to a loss of control capacity, an increase in temperature generation through metabolic processes, or if it was a combination of factors. More than 20,000 participants. To carry out the study, the team compiled information from 20,880 participants from 106 countries. During the study, which lasted for seven months in 2020, the participants carried a thermometer device to measure their body temperature and daily reported temperature and symptoms of depression. “Let us know, this is the biggest study to examine the association between body temperature (measured both self -assess and through portable sensors) and depressive symptoms in a geographically wide sample,” explained in a press release Psychiatrist Ashley Mason, co -author of work. The study It was published in the magazine Scientific Reports. An old suspicion. Although it is probably the most massive, this is not the first analysis that indicates this relationship. A study published in 2003 He pointed to the existence of this relationship and its possible link with the 5-HTT protein, the “serotonin transporter”. Another important indication has to do with the drugs usually used in the treatment of depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI). In recent years, various studies have proven that these compounds reduce thermal tolerance of those who consume them. The main studies in this regard were analyzed In a literature review published in 2022. Correlation and cause. The present study finds a link between temperature and depression but does not indicate the possible form of the causal direction, if there were. It is impossible to determine, through known data if depression causes an increase in body temperature or if a high body temperature can increase our risk of appearing depression. Nor is it possible to rule out that there is an underlying cause of both that the analysis does not see: inflammatory stress or processes could independently cause both depressive symptomatology and an increase in body temperature. Cold or heat as therapy? Understanding what is happening can help us better understand depression and, therefore, bring us closer to the tools we are looking for to fight it. Until now the heat had been used to improve the patient status. These types of therapies could make sense through a “rebound effect”, helping the body to recover its capacity for thermal self -regulation, Add the equipment. In Xataka | The great mystery of our body temperature: it does not stop lowering globally and we still do not know why Image | Tankilevitch polyina *An earlier version of this article was published in June 2024

The extreme temperature in which the laws of physics we know stop operating

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The absolute zero marks the minimum temperature at which something can be found and corresponds to -273.15º Celsius, or 0 Kelvin. Since heat is nothing other than movement, this temperature marks the total stillness, but what happens at the opposite end? Planck temperature. Although we are less familiar with the other extreme, Planck’s temperature, or the “absolute heat”, Another concept managed by contemporary physics. Here we might make emphasis on” contemporary physics “since, at this temperature, what we know of physics stops operating, which leaves us in an unknown terrain. How much heat are we talking about? Well around 142 quintillones Kelvin (K). Or what is the same, 1.42 · 10^32 degrees Celsius: the 273 degrees of difference between both scales are inconsequential on this scale. As a comparison, we can point out that the estimated temperature of the core of our sun is about 15 million Kelvinalthough the remnant nuclei of some supernovas can reach the billion degrees. Here on Earth, science has achieved even higher temperatures: More than 5 billion Kelvin in an experiment conducted in 2012 in the Great Hadron Colliding (LHC) of CERN. Defining the maximum. We indicated before the absolute zero in temperature was marked by the lack of movement, the absence of thermal energy. The temperature is an energy transfer measure, if something has no energy, It cannot transmit it. However, to find absolute heat we must go beyond thermodynamics and incorporate another area, that of quantum physics. To understand this limit, we must know that heat is associated with emissions in the electromagnetic spectrum. At more heat, more energy, shorter will be the frequency in this spectrum. Well, this spectrum is not infinite since the known universe has its own minimum distance, Planck’s distance. This minimum length Mark too The shortest wavelength and the maximum energy that we can introduce into a photon. It is therefore impossible to transfer more thermal energy. A rather theoretical idea. Planck’s temperature remains, as we pointed out before, far from both what we can see in the universe and what we are able to recreate in a laboratory. There was a time when it may not be so, since in the first moments after the Big BangThe universe would have reached this type of temperatures. But precisely the Big Bang It is one of those contexts in which the laws of physics as we understand them are not applicable. Beyond contemporary physics. The Big Bang is a clear example that there is physics that still escapes us, as are black holes. In both cases these are contexts so extreme that the description of what happens in them through the laws of physics we handle makes it impossible. However, we continue in the search for knowledge about these extremes and the laws that could operate on them. Probably, the long -awaited “theory” of all that unifies what we know about relativistic gravity with quantum physics can give us important clues about this border of heat and, above all, what may be beyond this. In Xataka | What if the constants of the universe are not so constant? We have taken an important step to know. The key is on the nuclear clock Image | NASA’S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER/CI LAB

What to do with all that meal at room temperature

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The day After the blackoutendless doubts, anguish and uncertainties They gather in the Spanish population. But there is one that nobody can ignore: what do I do with what is inside the refrigerator? That is to say, After more than 12 hours without lightCan we safely consume what we have stored? How can we know? This is what experts say What to do during a blackout? Although this group of recommendations goes something late, it is good to review it to analyze what we have done during this blackout and what risks we have exposed. And the general answer is: nothing. What experts recommend is Do not open refrigerators and freezers; or do it as deeply. To start, because, In general terms And if we do not open the doors, the refrigerators can keep an adequate temperature for food up to four hours. The freezers, up to 48 hours if they are full (24 hours if it is at half capacity). And every time we open the doors, “we lose time” useful. As Gemma del Caño explainedperhaps the only exception is to open them only to group food because they are better preserved. And then? If the temperature has exceeded 15 degrees, it is a bad sign. If they have not reached it, it is best to go food for food. The general recommendation is to discard: Fresh or raw meat and fish of any kind. Salads of any kind. Leftovers of pasta and rice. Preparations with raw or little cooked eggs. Sauces, broths and fillings. FIAMBRES AND OPEN CHARCER. Guisos, soups, stews and potajes. Fish, seafood or meat cans and open semi -conservations. Raw eggs. Already cut fruits and vegetables. Pre -cut and/or prelavated green leaves. Cheeses and other open fresh dairy products. Lácteos desserts and sweets or with cream or egg fillings On the other hand, foods that endure better: Whole fruits and vegetables. Yogurts and other free fermented dairy products. Hard cheeses. Foods without expiration or preferred consumption date. Completely cooked eggs (better discard if they have been exposed to more than 5ºC for more than 4 hours). Acid sauces, with vinegar, salty or sweet (vinaigrettes, soy sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, mustard …). Pickles and pickles. Jams and jellies. Sauscids and guys unopened (sausage, fuel, sausage, serrano ham void, cecina …). Not only have to look at the smell (which can deceive us), but the general state. In addition, we can take into account the expiration date (or preferred consumption) when making the decision. How to know if food is right or is wrong? As a general rule, experts agree that it is better to prevent cure. Faced with the doubt, The recommendation is simple: Throw it. And it makes sense: an poisoning can be very dangerous and no one can generate advice that is applicable in a general way. For example, A key aspect It is the power to which we had the device working: if it was at a lower temperature (about 2-4ºC) it will remain cold longer than if it was at a higher one (at 5-6ºC). At the moment of truth, the final assessment can only be made. Cook (and clean) well. That is the last part of the matter: everything that stays in the fridge should be cooked very well to minimize risks. In the same way, if there is food in poor condition, it is not enough to throw it. It is recommended Clean the refrigerator; Remove the drawers, scrub them and disinfect them. Image | NRD In Xataka | How to know if the food of the fridge and freezer has broken down into a blackout: what to do after 10 hours without light

Most likely you are drinking your coffee with bad milk. And the fault of everything has a factor: the temperature

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There is a scene that you have surely lived if you have asked for a coffee in a restaurant or a cafeteria: you ask for a coffee with milk or a capuchino and, after assembling value, you ask that the milk is not very hot. That is when such a coffee serve you darkness And you hear the crackling of a milk that ceased to be a edible product to become a lava. And there is something important to take into account in all this: although the coffee they use is good -Not Torrefacto-, such hot milk is ruining the drink. Specialty coffee shops against lava. Prepare a coffee It is a very meticulous process. The problem is that the coffee culture of many sites is quite improvable, which has led us to think that the way of drinking any preparation that is not a single with ice must be an experience in which we have to spend ten minutes waiting for coffee to cool. The difference between a specialty cafeteria and any bar is not alone in coffee, but also in how they treat milk. And that is where the temperature comes into play. In specialty coffee shops, any coffee that carries milk will be rather temperate. You can even start taking it as soon as they serve you. This is not for Eviction the table as soon as possible and that the following client passes, but for something deeper and that has a scientific basis. 65 ° C.. That is the maximum temperature that the milk of a coffee with milk should have. Anyone between 55 and 65 degrees Celsius, happens to be more accurate, and maintaining it is crucial to protect something fundamental in milk: its proteins. When we heat the milk with the foamer, if we stay in that temperature range, their proteins experience something called ‘denaturation’. This means that milk proteins lose their structure and form spheres around the air bubbles that are produced when milk subjected to the sparkling. That process, together with the interaction between the casein and the fat of the milk, serves to stabilize the foam, making it more creamy. The sweetness of the liquid is also enhanced without falling into the burned of it because the natural sugars of milk break down just as not to pass. And? If we pass temperature, the balance between fats and proteins is broken, so the foam will be more airy and lose that softness and creaminess, making the drink less dense. But apart from the aesthetic function (because the art is worse with milk that exceeds 65 degrees) and the alteration of the texture of the drink, there is another issue that we must take into account. When we exceed the temperature, the proteins are excessively denatured, which leads to the excess of air bubbles that we have already commented, but also to the presence of a flavor that can be unpleasant because the sugars are passed and the fats are oxidized. In addition, the texture will not be so velvety and we will not only have a much flatter drink in flavor, also in terms of density. Template, better. And it happened to me. Going to a specialty cafeteria for the first time and finding a tempered capuchino was a surprise, but beyond the initial by temperature, the next was that there were fruity notes of the coffee I could appreciate. Preparing the same type of coffee in my house, with a foamer who later saw that it exceeds that temperature, all those notes, simply vanished. My mistake during all that time? Do not pay attention to temperature. And that temperature is one of the many reasons why drinking coffee with milk in many countries, and out of specialty coffee shops, is a battle. Preparing good coffee is very complicated, so much that there are those who study What are the best reactions and temperatures To, among many other issues, heat the right the milk to change the texture of the drink without affecting its flavor too much. Ojito with reuse. On the other hand, and I recognize that it has also happened to me, we cannot reuse the milk that we have already subjected to this process in the foamer. The scene may sound to you: it is one of the first times you make coffee with your new coffee maker and you throw more milk in the jar. That goes up as it is foam, so we have half left and we decided to take a glass jar, let it temper and store it in the refrigerator to use it in another coffee. We spread it again and … there is the error. It’s something James Hoffman –Barista and coffee disseminator- already explained A few years ago: when we heated milk for the second time, we are exaggerating the denaturation of proteins and promoting oxidation of fats, which generates a more stale flavor and an unpleasant texture. Therefore, if you want to prepare a better Latte At home, it is best to have a steel jar that allows us to feel the ideal temperature and, until we have trained the sense of touch to identify what that temperature is, something like a cheap kitchen thermometer will serve as a guide. Everything is to stop drinking milk in poor condition with each homemade cap … Image | Chris Reyem In Xataka | The first step to improve coffee you drink is to grind it yourself. Science has the explanation

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no “normal” body temperature.

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If you ask us what the “normal” temperature of our body is, the instinctive answer will be 37º Celsius. When the thermometer exceeds that mark, we usually talk about fevermild or high depending on how far we move away from the figure. However, over time health experts have realized that the reality is a little more complex. The body temperature issue It is not a mere curiosity. Fever is an important response of our body to many diseases or disorders, generally to infections. The fever It is a double-edged sword: our body raises its temperature to try to kill viruses and bacteria that may be damaging it, while activating our body’s immune response; However, in the process, fever can also put the proper functioning of our organs at risk and cause other problems such as dehydration. Since fever is a common response to various illnesses, it can also cause us serve as a diagnostic toolto narrow the circle on the possible conditions that affect us. Answering the question of what is the “normal” temperature of our body is difficult. And the reasons behind this are several. Firstly, because, over the last century and a half, the estimated average temperature of the human body has been reducing. The notion that our body temperature It is at 37º and dates back to the mid-19th century. In 1868, the German doctor Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich conducted a study using 25,000 patients and more than a million temperature measurements. From these data, he calculated that the average temperature was 37ºbut also observed certain deviations. However, more recent studies have observed lower average temperatures. A recent example of this we found it in a studio Made in the United States and published in 2020 in the magazine eLife. The analysis indicated that Americans’ body temperatures had been dropping at a rate of about 0.03º Celsius every decade. A previous study conducted in the United Kingdom and published in 2017 in the magazine B.M.J.estimated an average temperature of 36.6º in its sample of more than 35,000 participants and 250,000 measurements. We don’t really know why body temperature has been reducing over time. A possible explanation It lies in the improvements in hygiene and immunity, which would imply a lower incidence of infections in the population and therefore lower average temperatures. But this is just one of the various hypotheses that seek to explain the phenomenon. Wunderlich himself observed in his study that men and older people tended to have lower body temperatures, while women and younger people had higher temperatures on average. Which brings us to the second reason why establishing a “normal” reading is especially difficult. And it depends. Sex and age are two of the factors that can make what is “normal” for one person not “normal” for another. But other factors can also alter this figure. a study published in 2023 in the magazine JAMA Internal Medicine measured the degree to which these factors affected body temperature, but also added new variables such as height, body mass, and the time of day at which the measurement was taken. Among the sample of 618,306 observations, the average temperature was at 36.64º Celsius. Among the participants, the average readings for each individual ranged between 36.24º and 36.89º. It is also worth remembering that there are different ways to measure body temperature (tympanic, oral, axillary…) and that each one It presents some slight associated deviations. So at what temperature fever comes? As is evident after what we have read, the answer is that it depends on each person and situation, although fortunately, with the variations being less than one degree, the interpretation of the results of a thermometer may not be as different from the conventional one as to affect decisions such as whether or not to stay home during a cold. However, for health experts, having better knowledge about these variables can be of great help. That is why new studies have also investigated this question. One published in November of last year in the magazine Scientific Reports by South Korean researchers, analyzed the body temperature of 9,195 hospital patients through tympanic temperature measurements (the tympanic temperature It is usually half a degree above the oral measurement and about one degree above the axillary measurement). The team estimated an average temperature of 36.91º Celsius, and a limit of 37.81º for fever. In Xataka | What to do when we have the flu: what measures to take and in which case we should ask for help Image | Polina Tankilevitch

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