Mark Lipton wrote:
> 1. Yes, oxygen does have a higher solubility in cold water than in room
> temp water; that's why coffee should be made from cold water brought to
> near-boiling (it has the highest amount of dissolved oxygen).

That semi-colon reminds me of the famous 'step 2: a miracle occurs'
cartoon . Why is coffee better when made with high dissolved-O2?

> 2. The rate of oxidation of any substance in solution will depend on
> tepmerature, its concentration and the concentration of oxygen in
> solution, hence the relevance of solubility data. For the science wonks
> in the audience, the functional form is:
>
> rate = k[organic][O2]
>
> where k is a so-called rate constant specific to the reaction in
> question, and the brackets indicate concentration
>
> 3. rate also depends on the inverse of temperature, the functional form
> being:
>
> rate = Ae^(-ˆ†G€¡/kT)
>
> where A is a constant, ˆ†G€¡ is the energy barrier (reaction-specific), k
> is Boltzmann's constant and T is of course temperature

If every equation halves your audience, we're in trouble by now!

Note that theoretically*, your tastebuds are more sensitive at lower
temperature, as their resting membrane potential is closer to zero (from
the Nernst equation:

R T Extra_Con_i
E = ----- ln( ------------- )
i z F Intra_Con_i

where T is the only variable of RT/zF). However, this is way more than
cancelled out by (i) alterations in membrane fluidity, which are
especially important in the nasal epithelium, and will reduce ability to
respond to stimuli, and (ii) reduced volatility of the compounds which
would otherwise bind at that epithelium.

*i.e. marginally at best!

OK, this was gratuitous. However, just back from the Neurosci meeting and
having just taught sensory neuro, it was - warning, pun impending - on the
tip of my tongue..