Before we can answer this question, we must look at exactly what a comet is. As you probably know, a comet looks rather like a star with a long, milky ‘tail’ stretching across the sky. In fact these ‘tails’ are not tails at all because they always point away from the sun and do not trail behind. A comet seems …

It is not the size of brain that makes one person brilliant and another dullard, for most adults have brains of the same size and weight-about 11/2 kilograms. Rather, it is the way the brain develops. Your brain stores information from your past experiences, helping you to remember, learn, and think. But people differ in how much they remember, how …

You have no doubt seen films or photographs of whales sending up impressive plumes of what looks very much like water. The usual cry of whalers is ‘Thar she blows!’ for this was and occasionally still is the way the whales are spotted. However, the spout is not so much water as steam. After a dive lasting perhaps up to …

Dolphins and whales live in the deep blue sea, but strangely these animals are not able to see the colour blue! Leo Peichl of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and his colleagues discovered during routine tests that seals do not respond to the blue colour. Intrigued, they carried out similar tests on few other species, such …

A science study suggests that the nerves in the stomach act as a circadian clock, limiting food intake to specific times of the day, and acting as a type of ‘stomach clock’. For the study, a research team examined how the nerves in the stomach respond to stretch, which occurs as a consequence of food intake, at three-hourly intervals across …

King snakes are particularly fond of eating other snakes althogh they do not out of their way to track them down. A chance encounter with another species usually results in the king snake overcoming the other by constriction. King snakes are immune to the venom of poisonous snakes and so even such deadly species as rattlesnakes and copperheads are not …

The part of your ear that is important for hearing is inside your ear, where you can’t see it. The size of the outside part of your ear makes no difference in how well you hear.

If you had seen nothing but cartoons strips, you might think so. But in reality, mice like all rodents, prefer vegetables and grain to cheese, and will only eat it when they are very hungry.

A magnet works on the principal of electromagnetism. Magnetic force is independent of the Earth’s gravitational force. Therefore, a magnet will work in space. As the Earth is also a big magnet with two poles (south and north), it too exerts a force on other astronomical bodies.

Yes, much as adults do, says a West German study at Heidelberg University. Only they cannot assess pain and communicate it. So far, the medical profession had maintained that infants do not have a fully developed nervous system and are therefore unable to sense much pain. Not surprisingly, a 1998 study conducted in the United States showed that only 6.7% …