December 2021

When a ball-point pen is manufactured, an extremely hard ball of tool steel is inserted on the top. This is done to prevent its ink from flowing out easily while the pen is not being used. The ball, usually made of brass, is seated in a soft metal shank at the tip. This protects and […]

Dry hair reflects back some of the light to our eyes and some of the light is absorbed by the pigment in the hair. Water affects the way light gets bounced off our hair to our eyes. When our hair is wet, it not only sticks or joins the individual hair together but also forms

The red flappy bit on the chicken’s head is called a ‘comb’. It helps the chicken to stay cool. Since the chicken cannot sweat, its blood goes into the comb and cools down there. Because the comb sticks up over the head, it is cooler than the rest of the body. The comb-vibrancy in colour

Spiders create webs for several purposes but the most important is to entangle insects in webs for food. They also use webs to go from one place to another (just like spider-man!). Webs act as protectors of spiders’ dwellings and they encase egg sacs. A very interesting thing in the web is that if one

Bigger animals generally live longer, with a few exceptions. The tiny animals are more likely going to fall prey to big predators. They tend to have babies early and age quickly. Big animals, on the other hand, have a long growth cycle and reproduction cycle because they do not have the fear of being eaten

Rust is essentially oxidation. It is a chemical interaction involving oxygen. When oxidation occurs, a thin film is formed as a result—such as the green layer that copper acquires or as iron— which shows rust as evidence of oxidation. If iron is exposed to an environment both oxygen–rich and friendly towards the catalyst, the oxidation

Snoring occurs due to partially closed or blocked upper airways in the throat and nose. All muscles relax when we go to sleep, including the neck muscles. Some people’s neck muscles relax so much that they block the upper airway or make it too narrow for the air to travel to the lungs. This results

Benadryl medicine has a chemical named, diphenhydramine. It is an antihistamine that counter-affects histamine, a nitrogenous compound that is crucial for maintaining our body’s local immune system. The brain cells responsible for our wakefulness state, release histamine. Benadryl has antihistamines to reverse the effect of histamines. They encourage drowsiness and relieve allergy symptoms.

Each hair on our body has three growth stages. The growth stage usually lasts two or three years. This is followed by a two to three week period during which the hair stops growing and is cut off from its blood supply and from the cells that make new hair. The last stage is the

Boys and girls are actually about the same height on average until they reach the age of 12 or 13. After that, the girl’s growth level starts to level off. Boys continue to grow till the age of 17 or 18. They grow on average the same till they reach puberty. Afterwards, boys grow a

Since dolphins along with whales are considered really social animals, it is precisely this reason that these animals have larger, more complex brains. They have the most powerful and complex brain in animals, next to humans. Their behaviour, however, demonstrates their higher intelligence. Animals with large brains have some things in common like long life.

Both the terms—dog person and cat person— refer to a person’s animal preference. It is a sign of certain personality traits in the said person. Some people base their identity around their affinity for either cats or dogs, describing themselves as ‘cat persons’ or ‘dog persons’. The two terms refer to people’s self-identification, regardless of

The rat’s vibration means that the rat is feeling something too intensely for it to express. It can be a sign of nervousness and can also be a sign of intense excitement or apprehension. Given the intensity of the emotion, the rat is not sure how to react and that is why it will literally

Evaluating the cognitive abilities of human beings is a fairly simple yet complex process. People are willing to answer questions, and/ or perform tasks that will allow the tester to compartmentalize them into ‘normal’ or ‘mentally challenged’. However, with animals it is difficult to understand whether the animal is naturally shy or just dumb while

Most sharks do not like human meat. They have strong preferences for food and will mostly go after seals or fish. Bigger sharks like white sharks enjoy prey with high fat-bone ratio like that of seals. Only the tiger shark is considered dangerous for humans because they do not have meal preferences and will eat