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Sea otters can break the shell on a shellfish by hitting it against a stone resting on their belly. This can look like clapping. Some even have a favourite stone they carry around in their armpits.
The itchiness from mosquito bites are from their spit that they leave behind in our skin.
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Those “itchy bites” are actually reactions to mozzie spit.
While some things glow all the time, glow-in-the-dark paint must be ‘told to glow’ - just like a phone needs to be charged or it won’t work.
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You can see glow-in-the dark paint, but if you touch it, it is just as cold as the bedroom wall. So the glowing of the paint is different to the glowing of a light bulb.
Host Brianna Peterson records Imagine This with little one Clara.
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Imagine This, a new podcast by ABC KIDS listen based on The Conversation’s Curious Kids articles, brings science to life for little ones, with brilliant sound effects and wonderful storytelling.
Dogs don’t follow the rules on larger animals living longer.
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Dogs don’t follow the rules on larger animals living longer. A 70kg Great Dane is lucky to reach seven years, but a 4kg Chihuahua can live for 10 years or more.
For the Earth, which is shaped like a ball, the force of gravity pulls you to the centre from every point on the ground.
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Instead of pulling us to the top or bottom, the force of gravity pulls us to the middle of the Earth.
Knismesis occurs from a light touch, like a feather touching you and can happen on the skin anywhere on the body.
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People have wondered for years and scientists still don’t know for sure.
Seahorse dads can give birth to more than 1000 baby seahorses at once.
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The seahorse dads carry the babies in a pouch.
Some people thought Charles Darwin was suggesting that, over a very long period of time, apes turned into people. He was not.
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The short answer is no. An individual of one species cannot, during its lifetime, turn into another species. But your question helps us think about life, evolution and what it means to be human.
When we get hot, sensors in the body tell the brain. The brain then tells the sweat glands to work, and we sweat.
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Sweat comes from special parts in our skin called glands. You might be able to see them if you have a very strong magnifying glass.
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.
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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.
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Flies need good grip because they often sleep upside down.
Spider silk is a bit like a cross between steel and rubber.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.