When plant die, the remains usually rot and break down into water, carbon dioxide and simple salts. But is swamps and bogs, layers of rotting plants are often buried and the decay is halted. Slowly, these plant remains are pressed into a compact substance called peat. When peat is dug up, 90 percent of its weight is often water. However, …

One of the three types of locust that forms swarms in Africa is the Desert Locust. This locust usually lives like a grasshopper in what is called a solitary phase. Sometimes, however, all the solitary locusts from a wide a area are driven together, perhaps by the weather, and they may find the conditions just right for feeding and mating. …

Insects don’t have lungs like you or me. Instead they have a tube system, which runs all over their body, and which carries air to all parts of the body. These tubes are called trachea. The air is carried to the body when the movement of the insect’s muscles pumps it there through openings in the insect’s skin.

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June: O my Luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in love am I: And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry: Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, And …

Most plants have developed some way of avoiding being eaten. You only have to think of stinging nettles, roses or brambles to be painfully reminded that any creatures interfering with them can be stung or scratched quite severely. Many species of plants produce natural insecticides which keep unwanted insects at bay, but some tropical palms and acacias have enlisted the …

Humans have invented new and advanced ways of communicating with each other. Television, radio, telephones and of course email. You will be surprised to know that animals who seem to have very simple methods of communication – using their bodies and voices – are also capable of long distance communication. Foot stomping and low frequency rumbling created by elephants can …

While no one’s sure of the origin of ‘ok’, there are a handful of popular explanations. One view is that it derives from the Scot expression ‘och aye’, the Greek ‘ola kala’ (it is good), Choctaw Indian ‘oke’ or ‘okeh’ (it is so), French ‘aux Cayes’ (from Cayes, a port in Haiti with a reputation for good rum) or ‘au …

The earliest print appearance of the modern signs seem to come from a book on Mercantile Arithmetic by Johannes Widmann in 1489, used to indicate surpluses and deficits. The + is a simplification of the Latin “et” (comparable to the ampersand – &). Widmann referred to the symbols – and + as minus and mer. According to the ‘Earliest Uses …

The first explorer to venture deep into the barren heart of Australia was an Englishman, Charles Sturt. He was an army captain when, in 1826, he was sent to new South Wales with a shipload of convicts. He became military secretary to the governor, but his real interest lay in leading expeditions into the interior, during which he discovered and …

Zoologists believe that the polar bear evolved from a species of brown bears in Siberia, making polar bears the eighth species of bears. With the shifting of polar ice caps and glaciers, the brown bear species native to that area was forced to adapt to the new environment, undergoing physical body changes to keep warm in the brutally cold weather. …