FERNANDO SAPIÑA answers: In our everyday life, we have contact mainly with one type of alcohol: ethanol. It is the liquid we use as disinfectant for our wounds, due to its

CARLES MARTÍN CANTARINO answers: The answer may be simple, and pretty sure many people already know it: only female mosquitoes bite because they need blood, not for food, but to produce

Popular lore has transmitted the use of basil as a mosquito repellent to avoid their bite. Why this plant repel mosquitoes?

It is quite likely, to procure their own common offspring, that King Ferdinand the Catholic had invigorating potions while married to Germana de Foix.

VICENTE PALACIOS replies: One of the most striking wolf behaviours is howling. Through howling, wolves can reach and communicate from several miles of distance. Howls may contain information regarding the individual

Question sent by ELENA SOLBES. JORDI DE MANUEL answers: Milk is an extraordinary food. It contains almost all the necessary nutrients to live and grow, but after mammals wean, they lose the

Question submitted by FRANCESC AGUILAR I DOMENJÓ (Grau de Castelló). MANEL PERUCHO answers: The latest Background Microwave Radiation observations and type Ia cosmological supernovae indicate that the Universe has a flat

And Why Is the Mediterranean Higher during the Winter? Question asked by FRANCESC AGUILAR I DOMENJÓ (Grau de Castelló). JOSEP L. PELEGRÍ answers: Both of our reader’s questions deal with sea tides,

Question sent by ONOFRE GISBERT (Vistabella del Maestrat). PAU CARAZO answers: As we pointed out  in a recent question about why are men hairier than women, our ancestors underwent a process of

Question sent by JORGE GIL FERNÁNDEZ (València). FERNANDO SAPIÑA answers: We can find a lot of videos on YouTube showing different phenomena in slow-motion: a bullet going through a piece of fruit,

Question sent by LAURA RUBINAT (Tàrrega). ALBERT MASÓ answers: Well, to give an answer to that we first need to settle what we understand by «urinating». Obviously, if we limit it to

Question sent by ROBERTO SOLANO. ANA GARCÍA answers: Women's life expectancy in developed countries is, indeed, higher. This is due to a combination of biological factors and lifestyle. There is, for instance,

Question sent by TAMAR ARENAS (Belfast). PAU CARAZO answers: The quick and easy answer to this question is that men are actually not hairier than women. Two very different classes of hair

Question sent by TERESA OLIVER (Alcoi). EDUARD ESTIVILL and NURIA ROURE answer: Sleep and waking life are brain functions and are thus subject to changes of the nervous system. Sleep is neither

Question sent by VÍCTOR SOLVES (València). ENRIQUE FONT answers: Caudal autotomy is a defence mechanism against predators, and it is widespread among lizards and some snakes. Tail dropping is an effective anti-predatory

Question sent by JAIME LÁZARO (Manises). JUAN ANTONIO RAGA ESTEVE answers: Ambergris grows inside the intestine of sperm whales and thus it is part of its faeces. It is formed by the

The statement is false. Instead of answering the question, we are going to explain the falseness of the implicit premise in the question.

Question sent by NEREA MILÁN (València). JOAN MAYOL answers: In medicine, the pathological ingestion of soil or other inedible substances is called «pica», and it has been observed in many animal species,

Question sent by GUILLERMO GUEVARA PARDO (Bogota). FERNANDO BALLESTEROS answers: Although raindrops are usually represented in the shape of a teardrop, actually, they are almost circular. When a beam of light enters

Question sent by DÍDAC COROMINAS (Girona). FERNANDO SAPIÑA answers: Both olive oil and drinking water are basically constituted by a specific type of molecule—triacylglycerols (commonly known as triglycerides) in the former case

Question sent by MARTA ARENAS (Valencia). GUILLEM PÉREZ I DE LANUZA answers: Certainly, birds do show a wider colour diversity than mammals. What’s more, colours in birds are brighter and more complex

Question sent by RAFAEL MESA MANZANO (Manises). JULI PERETÓ answers: That plants on Earth are green is not sheer chance, but the result of a long evolutionary history determined by the atmosphere.

Question sent by IRENE MAYOR SÁNCHEZ (La Vila Joiosa). DANIEL CLIMENT and ESTEVE SOLER answer: Tannins, complex substances inside the group of polyphenols that coagulate certain proteins, are responsible for the

Question sent by JOSE GALÁN (Alacant). EDUARDO ROS answers: «Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel a