Why is the Forbidden City forbidden? It isn’t today, but for most of its history, access was forbidden to most Chinese people. The Forbidden City is found pretty much at the heart of the city of Beijing. At least it was. These days, Beijing has sprawled so far that it is difficult to know where […]
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Why are many mushrooms dangerous? This is a little bit tricky because not all mushrooms are dangerous, but a lot of them contain toxins that can be harmful or fatal. A lot of plants are also toxic, but they can have edible parts. If you get lost in the wild, the general advice is to
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Why is a sandwich called a sandwich? It is named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, but he isn’t the person who invented it. There is no way to work out when sandwiches were invented because people presumably ate them once there was bread. A sandwich merely consists of a filling between two
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Why do some fish create their own light? Some fish create their own light to attract prey or, surprisingly, to hide from predators, and many other reasons as well. Being able to create light is called bioluminescence and it is not limited to just fish. The most common organism that creates light on land is
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What is leukemia? Leukemia is a type of cancer that begins in the bone marrow. It is a group of different cancers, rather than one type of cancer. “Leukemia” comes from the Greek words “leukos”, which means white, and “haima”, which means blood. It is named in Greek, but the Greek’s didn’t know what it
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Do larger animals have a faster metabolism? No, bigger animals don’t have a faster metabolism. It tends to be the exact opposite. Let’s look at what metabolism is. The metabolism of an organism refers to all of the chemical processes that go on within the cells to keep that organism alive. There are three main
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Do guilt and shame have a purpose? Shame and guilt serve to make people function more as a group and to follow the agreed social norms. Many of us spend a large portion of our lives weighed down with shame and guilt and we often wish that they were two emotions we didn’t need to
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What is a thorium reactor? A thorium reactor is a nuclear reactor that is powered with thorium and not uranium. Let’s look at how a current nuclear reactor works and then look at how a thorium reactor would work. Nuclear reactors work on the principle of nuclear fission. This is where an atom of a
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Why are the White Cliffs of Dover white? The White Cliffs of Dover are white because they are made of white chalk, which is a type of limestone. The White Cliffs of Dover are a very famous symbol of the UK. During the Second World War they were often sung about because when pilots crossed
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How do weight loss drugs work? There are different kinds of weight loss drugs, but the most common ones work by suppressing appetite and slowing down how fast the stomach is emptied. A large percentage of people in developed countries are becoming seriously obese. There are many reasons for this. The prevalence of ultra-processed food
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