Comment on Can someone fact check this

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ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

PLEASE DON’T starve the owl! There is another way: metabolism rate is proportional to the number of O₂ + hydrocarbons → CO₂ + H₂O reactions in the body, which can be measured as the amount of CO₂ created during respiration. For humans, the CO₂ concentration in exhaled air is close to constant, so by inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth into a bag (and not consciously hyper- or hypoventilating), one can get a very good measurement of one’s metabolism rate in different scenarios (and the lag is seconds, not hours for nutrition!). This is obviously way more difficult to do with a flying owl (even in a wind tunnel) but perhaps a surgically inserted airflow meter could work.

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