Is palm oil bad? It depends. It is bad in terms of health and environmental costs, but it is good because it has more oil than other crops and provides an income for people who would otherwise be living in poverty. What is palm oil? It is made from the fruit of the African oil […]
#860 Is palm oil bad? Read More »
What is survivorship bias? It is when researchers focus on the individuals that have passed a selection process, while forgetting those that have not. It is an error in logic. Survivorship bias doesn’t have to be about people who have survived, it can reference people or things that have survived a selection process. There are
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How do deep sea creatures see? They don’t see color, they have very large eyes, they use other senses, or they produce their own light. Light doesn’t penetrate very far into the ocean. It starts to get absorbed about 200 meters down and by about 1,000 m it has pretty much all gone. Because of
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What is asthma? It is a lung disease where the airflow through the throat becomes restricted. It can be fatal if left untreated. To look at this question we need to look at how the lungs work and we need to look at how our body’s immune systems deal with attacks. We have two lungs
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What is VO2 max? The V stands for volume, the O2 for oxygen, and the max for maximum. So, it is the maximum volume of oxygen your body is able to use during exercise. We need oxygen all the time, obviously. If our oxygen supply is cut off, we will develop brain damage after a
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Why are there ten pins in bowling? Because nine pin bowling was outlawed. Bowling is a very old game because it is a very simple concept. As long as people have a ball and something to throw it at, they can bowl. Balls and pins have been found in a children’s tomb from 5,200 years
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Henry Dunant was born in Geneva on 8 May 1828. Have you heard of the Red Cross? I expect most people have. But you may never have heard of Henry Dunant, who was the force behind the founding of the Red Cross in 1863, the Geneva Conventions, and won the first ever Nobel Peace Prize
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What is St. Elmo’s fire? It is a glowing region that appears around tall structures, the masts of old ships, or the wings of aircraft. It is a plasma made by a corona discharge from the structure. St. Elmo’s fire looks like a blue or violet fire that has engulfed the tip of whatever structure
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Depending on the size of the tree and on the type and size of the paper, it is often somewhere in the rough range of 10,000 to 20,000 sheets. Paper is a thin sheet made from cellulose fibers, most commonly taken from wood. All plants contain cellulose. It is what gives plant cell walls much
#852 How many pieces of paper can you make from a tree? Read More »
What is the Fields Medal? It is a four-yearly prize given to mathematicians under the age of 40. It is the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It is named after a Canadian mathematician called John Charles Fields. The prize is a medal, similar-looking to the Nobel Prize medal, and 15,000 Canadian dollars, which, as
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