Watch on YouTube Why do stick insects look like plants? They have evolved to resemble the plants they live and feed on, in order not to be eaten by birds and other animals. Stick insects are a wonderful example of natural selection at work. There are over 6,000 species of stick insect in the world, […]
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Watch on YouTube How quickly do bones biodegrade? It depends on what kind of soil they are buried in, but from 6 years to thousands of years. The bones we have of dinosaurs are not actually bones but fossils. If a dinosaur dies in the right conditions, minerals can replace the calcium in the bones,
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Watch on YouTube Why is carbon-based life common? Because carbon can bond with many different elements to allow chemical reactions to happen. On our planet all living things contain carbon. There may be lifeforms on other planets that are made of different elements but on Earth, everything uses carbon in one way or another. Plants,
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Watch this on YouTube How do spiders make webs? By producing silk from their bodies and weaving it into a strong web. There are two parts to this question: how do spiders produce silk and how do they make their webs. Let’s look at how they make silk first. Spiders are able to produce silk
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How does cacao become chocolate? Through fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding, and adding milk and sugar. Cacao beans grow on a cacao tree, which is native to the Amazon basin in South America. The tree is called “Theobroma cacao.” “Theobroma” means “food of the gods” in Greek and “cacao” is the Spanish form of “kakaw” and
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Why do some trees make rubber? It protects the trees against pests and helps them heal when they are injured. Rubber is not what comes out of the tree or plant. The liquid that is tapped out of the tree is called latex and it has to be refined before it can be used as
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What is botulism? Botulism is an illness caused by a toxin that the Clostridium botulinum bacteria produces. Clostridium botulinum is a very strong bacteria. They are usually found in the soil in spore form, but they grow very rapidly on the surface of fruit, vegetables, seafood, meat, and any kind of food. They like a
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What is the immortal hydra? It is a tiny, freshwater creature that doesn’t appear to age. Hydra are very small invertebrates that live in freshwater ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers. They are about 10 mm long and have a tubular body. At one end of their body they have a mouth surrounded by twelve thin
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How can giraffes have such long necks? Giraffes have jointed vertebrae in their neck, a large amount of ligament, and an enormous heart to get the blood to their head. Interestingly, giraffes used to be called camelopards, because they were kind of shaped like a camel and spotted like a leopard. That word came from
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What causes Parkinson’s disease? It is caused by a loss of nerve cells in the basal ganglia part of the brain. Parkinson’s disease is a disease that gets progressively worse with time. It is more common in men than women and it generally starts when people are over 60, although 10% of cases start when
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