How do sharks sense electricity? With a special organ called the ampullae of Lorenzini. They are not the only sea life that are able to detect electricity. All living creatures give off an electric field. All organisms use energy for a whole range of functions, which means we need to be able to generate it. […]
#844 How do sharks sense electricity? Read More »
Is a killer whale a whale? Yes and no. Yes, because dolphins are technically whales. No, because a killer whale is a dolphin. They are called orcas, although they are more commonly known as killer whales. A killer whale is called a whale because of its size, but it is actually a dolphin. The orca
#842 Is a killer whale a whale? Read More »
Joseph Lister was born in Britian in 1827. He became a doctor in 1950 and a surgeon shortly after. During his career he revolutionized the way surgery was performed, saved countless lives, and made surgery safer for all of us today. He realized that germs were responsible for the majority of deaths after surgery and
#839 Joseph Lister – introduced antiseptics into surgery Read More »
How do some plants move? There are three ways that plants move. Plants can move to face the sun or to move into sunlight. Plants can move when touched or stimulated in some way. And plants can move to find a structure to wrap around. Each type of movement has a different mechanism. Let’s look
#836 How do some plants move? Read More »
What is peat? Peat is a layer of partly decomposed organic matter on the surface of a soil. It has a high water content and a low oxygen content. Accumulations of peat are called peatlands and they are found in 180 countries worldwide, in different quantities. The highest concentrations are in northern Europe, northern
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Why do we have ears on the sides of our head? Because of the position of our brains and our spines, because it puts the most possible distance between each ear, because we rely on sight more than sound, and because we are not prey animals and we don’t hunt by stealth. Our ears are
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Why can mantis shrimp see so many colors? It turns out that they can’t see more colors than we can. They just process the way they see colors differently. Manis shrimp have twelve to sixteen different types of photoreceptors in their eyes, which lead people to believe that they could see many colors, or shades
#821 Why can mantis shrimp see so many colors? Read More »
What is forensic facial reconstruction? It is the attempt to recreate the face of someone from just their skull. There are several reasons why it might be necessary to try to work out what a person might have looked like from just their skull. One obvious reason is in criminal cases. If an unknown skeleton
#818 What is forensic facial reconstruction? Read More »
Why do birds need to see ultraviolet light? It helps them with foraging, navigation, and signaling to each other. We can only see combinations of three colors: red, green, and blue. We have cones that detect these colors in our eyes. Most birds can also see ultraviolet light. They have four types of cones in
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Why did prehistoric insects grow so big? Because there was a lot more oxygen in the atmosphere and there were no birds. The largest insect in the world today is the Phryganistria chinensis, which is a stick insect. It is 64 cm long. The insect with the largest wingspan is the White witch moth, which
#811 Why did prehistoric insects grow so big? Read More »
