Why don’t cats knock things over? It turns out that cats have whiskers on their legs as well as their faces. When I’m making a line of dominos with my daughter, it is inevitable that either she or I will knock them all over. We both seem to have no sensory perception. And yet, my […]
#411 Why don’t cats knock things over? Read More »
Do ants need to sleep? Ants do actually sleep, but not all at once. There are very few living organisms that don’t need to sleep. However, they all do it in different ways and there are many different definitions of what sleep is. Bacteria don’t sleep. Although they are tied to a circadian rhythm and
#405 Do ants need to sleep? Read More »
Why do we get a headache when we are dehydrated? You get a headache when you are dehydrated because your brain shrinks and pulls away from the sides of your skull. The human body is about 60% to 70% water. Some parts of the body contain more water than other parts. The blood and the
#400 Why do we get a headache when we are dehydrated? Read More »
Can you cure male-pattern baldness? In male-pattern baldness, the hair follicles are still present on the scalp, they are simply dormant. What is male-pattern baldness? It is hair loss that most commonly happens to males and usually follows a specific pattern. It begins at the temples and at the top of the head. The hair
#398 Can you cure male-pattern baldness? Read More »
How does caffeine stop you from feeling sleepy? Caffeine stops you from feeling sleepy by blocking the action of adenosine on its receptors. So, why do we get sleepy? A lot of research has been done into why we need to sleep, but nobody has come up with an answer. We obviously do because if
#396 How does caffeine stop you from feeling sleepy? Read More »
Why are rabbit ears so long? A rabbit has big ears to cool itself down, not just to hear predators. Rabbits are herbivores and are obviously preyed upon by various other animals. Their large ears can swivel independently and can pick up sounds from up to 3km away. They can turn each ear 270 degrees,
#395 Why are rabbit ears so long? Read More »
Why does drinking milk help after eating spicy food? Milk helps after eating spicy food such as chili because it contains something called casein. When you eat spicy food, the oily capsaicin molecules attach themselves to nerve receptors in your mouth. These receptors then release a protein called TRPV1, which alerts your brain to heat.
#394 Why does drinking milk help after eating spicy food? Read More »
Why do we get jet lag? We get jet lag because rapid travel puts our circadian rhythm out of sync with the local time. Jet lag is a fairly recent problem. In fact, the expression “jet lag” was only coined in 1966. The reason for this is that you have to be able to jump
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Why do mustard and wasabi make your nose hurt? Mustard and wasabi hurt your nose instead of your tongue and throat because the oil in them turns into a gas. Spices such as mustard and wasabi affect us in a very different way to chili. When you eat a spicy chili, the capsaicin in the
#390 Why do mustard and wasabi make your nose hurt? Read More »
Why do mosquito bites itch? Mosquito and insect bites itch because the immune response is triggered after the mosquito finishes biting. There are over 110 trillion mosquitoes from 3,000 different species around the world. I have no idea how they managed to calculate the number of actual mosquitoes. The word “mosquito” comes from Spanish where
#385 Why do mosquito bites itch? Read More »
