Why are hammerhead sharks shaped like that? The location of their eyes on the end of the hammer give them a greater ability to locate and catch stingrays. There are several different types of hammerhead shark, but they all have the same hammer-shaped head. This hammer shape is called a cephalofoil. The hammerhead shark with […]
#556 Why are hammerhead sharks shaped like that? Read More »
How is decaffeinated coffee made? There are several different methods, but they all involve washing the caffeine out of the coffee beans. Coffee grows on a bush, which is usually about 1.5 m high. The coffee bean is the seed of the bush and it grows inside a red cherry. The cherries are picked when
#555 How is decaffeinated coffee made? Read More »
What is a sponge? Sponges are animals that have a very porous skeleton and live in the sea. When we talk about sponges, we are talking about the organisms and not the sponges we use to wash. Although, the one is based on the other. There is a big trade in diving for and selling
#554 What is a sponge? Read More »
How would a cure for cancer work? It would teach the immune system to attack the cancer cells. All of the cells in our bodies reproduce to make more copies of themselves and they are all programmed to last for a certain length of time. Cells have a preprogrammed signal that causes them to die
#553 How would a cure for cancer work? Read More »
Why are organ transplants so difficult? Because the organs are usually harvested from people who have died, there is a very short time window to perform the transplant, and the immune system tries to destroy the new organ. There are very few organs that can be taken from a living donor. You can obviously take
#552 Why are organ transplants so difficult? Read More »
Why is there so much gold in Fort Knox? Because it is far enough away from any coast and is protected by the Appalachian Mountains. Fort Knox is famous worldwide for being the place where the United States keeps most of its gold. The building isn’t actually called Fort Knox. It is called the US
#551 Why is there so much gold in Fort Knox? Read More »
Why are flowers different colors? Because they have evolved to attract different types of animals and insects. Flowers need insects and animals for two reasons: to pollinate them and to spread their seeds. Most plants need to be pollinated so that they can reproduce. Plants have a male part, called the stamen, that produces pollen.
#550 Why are flowers different colors? Read More »
How much space junk is there? There are over 128 million pieces of space junk in orbit around Earth at the moment. There are 5,465 satellites orbiting in space at the moment. 84% of those are in a low Earth orbit. There is also the International Space Station circling the Earth. Over the last decade,
#549 How much space junk is there? Read More »
How do fireflies glow? They combine a chemical called luciferin, an enzyme called luciferases, oxygen, and fuel. Fireflies are not actually flies; they are beetles. They are also not one single type of beetle. They come from a family of beetle called Lampyridae, which contains about 2,000 different types of beetles and nearly all of
#548 How do fireflies glow? Read More »
How is the Internet connected between countries? Countries are connected by over 500 underwater communications cables. Many people (myself included), think that international Internet connections are made by satellite, but 95% of them go by undersea cable. Satellites are too expensive and too slow. It takes a long time to transmit a signal to a
#547 How is the Internet connected between countries? Read More »
