I learned this today. Fish that live in saltwater have evolved to draw in large amounts of water through osmosis to replace the water that they lose because of the salt. We cannot do this. Salt draws water out of cells by the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the process by which a liquid moves […]
#201 Why can fish drink saltwater but we can’t? Read More »
I learned this today. Plants are green because they absorb light in the wavelengths that are red and blue, while reflecting light in the wavelength that is green. Plants create energy through the process of photosynthesis. They convert light energy into chemical energy. Living organisms that convert light into energy are called autotrophs (photoautotrophs to
#200 Why are plants green? Read More »
I learned this today. A pearl forms in the shell of a mollusk when an irritant becomes trapped there and the mollusk covers it with a fluid that hardens. There are three different types of pearl. There are natural pearls, cultured pearls, and imitation pearls. I am not going to look at imitation pearls. Natural
#192 How does a pearl form? Read More »
I learned this today. Our voices change when we inhale helium because sound travels through it faster than it does through air. There are two things we need to look at: Why sound travels at different speeds through different mediums and how our voices work. Sound is a wave of vibrations that travel through a
#189 Why does our voice change when we inhale helium? Read More »
I learned this today. Vellum is a material for writing on that is made from prepared animal skin. The document on the front of this article is the Magna Carta. It is the document that tried to control King John of England and is one of the most famous documents in the UK. It was
#186 What is vellum? Read More »
I learned this today. Pineapples grow from a small shrub and not on a tree. The majority of fruits grow on trees. Some that don’t grow on trees grown on a hanging vine, like grapes. Some grow directly on the ground. Watermelon and other melons grow on the ground, but they are technically berries, and
#182 How do pineapples grow? Read More »
I learned this today. There is a carefully choreographed sequence of steps that enable us to vomit. Vomiting is a form of protection. It is the body’s way of getting rid of threats or things it feels might be dangerous. This could be a poison, it could be a chemical, it could be a virus
#179 How do we vomit? Read More »
I learned this today. Depending on who you ask and what fossils you look at and what you define as “human”, there have been between eight and twenty-one different species of human on this planet. All but one of them are now extinct. If you are like me, you probably think of ancient homo sapiens
#178 How many species of human have their been? Read More »
I learned this today. Octopuses have blue blood because they have adapted to live in cold, deep water. Octopuses live in every ocean on Earth, and they live in a range of different conditions. A lot of them live at great depths and this is the main reason why they have evolved to have blue
#171 Why do octopuses have blue blood? Read More »
I learned this today. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Our brains are protected by cerebrospinal fluid. Cerebrospinal fluid is a colorless fluid that is derived from blood plasma, but it has no protein. It surrounds the brain and acts as a buffer between the brain and the
#170 What is a concussion? Read More »
