Why do teeth have nerves? We have nerves in our teeth to provide us with feedback on what we are eating and how much pressure we are applying. Teeth appear to have nerves for three reasons. The first reason is because the inside of the tooth is living tissue with a blood supply and where […]
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How good is an elephant’s sense of smell? Elephant’s have a better sense of smell than any other animal on Earth. We know that our sense of smell is pretty basic when we compare it to a lot of other animals, but that makes sense because we have evolved for more of our brain to
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What is a syrinx? It is the organ that birds use to produce sounds and their birdsong. Birds make sound in a different way to us. We use our larynx and they use their syrinx. Both of these words have come from Greek and larynx means “upper windpipe” and syrinx means “pan pipe”. The larynx
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How can a salamander regenerate? They can repurpose skin cells to become any other kind of cell, similar to a stem cell. There are many different types of salamander, about 760, but they all share several common traits. They are all amphibians, which means they are comfortable both in and out of the water. They
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What is the fastest insect? The fastest flying insect is the dragonfly and the fastest running insect is the Australian tiger beetle. The Australian tiger beetle is the fastest insect on land. It can run at 2.5 m per second, which works out to 9 km/h. That doesn’t sound terribly fast and most of us
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How do snakes use their tongues? They flick them in and out to pick up chemicals off the ground and from the air. Snakes are not the only reptiles that use their tongues to detect things. Lizards have the same kind of tongue that they use to monitor the environment around them. A lot of
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Why don’t army ants make nests? Army ants can clear an area of insects and food in a few days, so they have to keep on the mood to find more food. Most species of ants build complex nests that have interlocking tunnels and chambers for different purposes. They have places to keep their larvae,
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Why don’t bats get sick? Because their immune response doesn’t cause much inflammation, because they have proteins that stop the viruses leaving their cells, and because the viruses have evolved to live with them. Bats do get sick and some viruses are lethal to them. They also carry a lot of viruses that can jump
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Why are coconut crabs so big? Coconut crabs are big because they need enough power to be able to crack coconuts. Coconut crabs live on islands in the Indian and Pacific Ocean. They are enormous. They weigh about 4 kg and they have a leg span that can be over 1 m. They are not
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Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It depends on how you think about it, but the egg came first evolutionarily. Chickens were domesticated about 10,000 years ago and eggs evolved about 350 million years ago. This is one of those questions where the point is not the answer, but the thought process along
#1051 Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Read More »
