The air doesn’t like to be under pressure just like us. The wind is the result of the air trying to escape from high pressure.
Mami Kempe / The Conversation
Wind is just air moving from one place where there is high pressure to another place where there is low pressure.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
To stay up, the bird must overcome gravity with a force called ‘lift’.
Flies will often sleep on the underside of leaves, to escape from heat and predators.
Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
Flies need good grip because they often sleep upside down.
Spider silk is a bit like a cross between steel and rubber.
Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
Some spiders produce silk than can actually be stronger than steel and 50 times as light.
Hiccups might be a way to train breathing muscles and our hiccup reflex might actually come from our amphibian ancestors.
Mami Kempe / The Conversation
Hiccups serve no clear purpose. Tadpoles have a hiccup reflex which helps keep their lungs safe while they transition. So our hiccup reflex might be from our amphibian ancestors.
X-ray vision is not only possible, it already exists – but using computers, not eyes.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Human eyes don’t have x-ray vision. But we can use radiography machines to allow our eyes to see inside things the human eye cannot.
Seagulls travel together in groups, but prefer to be alone when they feel sick.
bertknot/flickr
Birds can usually sense when they are not feeling well and like many other creatures, seem to seek out-of-the-way places to be alone.
Generally once a fortnight, someone at home will place the recycling bin out for a truck to drive past and empty your bin.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Magnets, air blowers, centrifuges, crushers: your recyclables go through a lot before they get turned into something else.
When a pain signal gets to the brain, it lets your brain know there’s a big problem so we can respond.
AAP Image/DAN PELED
In short, pain medicine is able to block the processes that cause the feeling of pain. To understand why, you need to know a bit about how pain works.
Although it is very hot, when lava flows over the ground, it generally does not melt the soil or rock.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
The short answer is that while lava is hot, it’s not hot enough to melt the rocks that make up the side of the volcano.
Only clouds that are tall with big water drops can make rain, but they also stop most of the light, which makes them look grey.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
To answer this question from Fiona, age 6, we need to know some things about clouds and light.
We know that lots of animals, maybe all animals, sleep. Cats, dogs, even worms and jellyfish sleep. But we still don’t know exactly why they started sleeping.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Pond snails use things like rocks or the side of their aquarium as their bed, attaching themselves while they sleep. This might not seem very relaxing but their shells do hang away from their body.
The time of moonrise and moonset and the shape of the Moon change throughout the month.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
When and where you see the Moon in the daytime depends on what phase it is in.
Our bones grow and change over our whole life.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Bones protect our insides, help us to move and even help make our blood.
It turns out that the world is about 4,600,000,000 years old. That’s 4.6 billion years. That’s pretty old!
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
The world is made of tiny building blocks called ‘elements’. Scientists have worked out how fast some elements change into other elements. That gives us a very big clue about how old the Earth is.
Glasses help people to see by focusing light onto the retina.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Many people, from children to the elderly, wear glasses. Andy, age 5, wants to know how they work.
Cars are often warm and comfortable and we are usually feeling safe and relaxed.
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You might be trying to catch up on sleep. Sleep scientists say some children need only nine hours of sleep at night, while others need as much as 11 hours. It depends on the person.
The leaves of most plants are green because the leaves are full of green chemicals.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky! Why…
The short answer is that it depends on the material the cups and plates are made of, and even what shape they are.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Have you ever been told not to put metal in the microwave? Edie, age 8, wants to know why.
Why do humans have fur only on their heads?
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Scientists say humans are pretty similar to chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. So why don’t we have fur like they do?