No cold comfort this

What makes us feel cold is, of course, the absence of energy, or heat, which is essentially the vibration of molecules, writes Prakash Chandra.

If the chill is getting to you, don’t blame the weather — blame biochemistry. Research published in the Journal of Neuroscience explains how ‘cold fibres’ that connect neurons near the spinal cord to nerve endings in the skin help us sense the cold. A protein called TRPM8 alerts these fibres when to relay cold signals up the spine to the brain.

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What makes us feel cold is, of course, the absence of energy, or heat, which is essentially the vibration of molecules. As molecules lose energy, they vibrate less — and their temperature drops. Remember, the sun doesn’t shine much in northern latitudes at this time of the year. The air there radiates heat into space, and becomes very cold. Shifting winds bring this cold air to lower latitudes like Delhi. When this cold air drains heat from our skin molecules, we go ‘brrr’. The faster energy is drained away, the colder it gets. This is called the wind chill factor — a term coined by US scientist Paul Siple in 1941. Wind increases heat loss, making it seem colder than what the thermometer shows. If the temperature is, say, +1, a howling wind makes you feel as if it were –15, although water still doesn’t freeze!