How much weight could a human lift? This is a difficult question to answer because there are too many variables, but possibly three or four tons. There are many ways of lifting weight and there are different records for each method. The heaviest weight ever lifted by a human is purported to be 2,844 kg, […]
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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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Do Brazil nuts come from Brazil? They do, but there are several other countries that produce them as well. Depending on the year, Bolivia is often a larger producer of Brazil nuts than Brazil is. Before we talk about why Brazil nuts are called Brazil nuts, we need to acknowledge the fact that they are
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Why are the majority of people right handed? No one knows for definite, but it could be because we process language with the left side of our brain. It is generally thought that 85 to 90% of people are right-handed. The majority of the rest are left-handed, with a very few individuals being ambidextrous. A
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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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Are big leaves better than small leaves? It depends on where the plant is, the temperature, the amount of water, the altitude, the amount of UV light, and several other factors. Not all plant leaves are green, but all plants have leaves. Those leaves can be big, small, long, short, fat, thin, and many other
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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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Why does the corpse plant smell so bad? They produce the scent of rotting meat to attract insects that feed and lay their eggs on decaying animals as pollinators. “Corpse plant” is just a nickname. The flower’s real name is Amorphophallus titanium, which is made up of the three Greek words “amorphos” (misshapen), “phallos” (phallic),
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Why doesn’t honey spoil? Honey doesn’t spoil because it has almost no water in it, because it is a little acidic, and because it has antimicrobial compounds in it. When food spoils, it is usually because microbes like bacteria or fungi start to feed on it. The only goal bacteria have is to reproduce themselves
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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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