Lions roar to proclaim their territory and to assert dominance. This vocalization is particularly important for male lions, who use it to signal their presence and deter rival males from encroaching on their domain. By doing so, they help maintain the pride’s territory and safety. Their distinctive

Llamas spit for a number of reasons. When a llama feels threatened, it might spit to protect itself or to maintain its position within the group. During mating season, males spit at each other when fighting over females, who might spit at a male to stop his advances. Sometimes llamas spit when they

Female mosquitoes drink blood to produce viable eggs. The proteins and iron in blood are essential for mosquito egg maturation, meaning that a blood meal is a crucial part of their reproductive cycle. Different species of mosquitoes show host preferences and, in many cases, have narrow restrictions

The savory smell. The crunchy bite. The salty kick. The buttery finish. Americans will recognize the smell and flavor of their favorite moviegoing snack anywhere. Why is it that we feast our taste buds on these crisp kernels while our eyes feast on the big screen? A few converging aspects made

Oarfish swim vertically to camouflage themselves in their deep-water habitat. This orientation hides their flattened bodies from predators above, and their reflective silver flesh blends into the color of the water around them in the low light of the depths. Swimming vertically also has other

You’re happily chopping onions for your dinner when BAM! Your eyes are stinging, and tears are running down your face. Maybe the burning gets so bad you have to step away! Why are onions such jerks sometimes? Well, it actually comes down to some pretty fascinating biochemistry. Before it found its

When it comes to eyes and ears, pairs make sense. Paired eyes give us stereo vision, which allows us to see objects in depth, and paired ears give us stereo hearing, which allows us to detect the direction a sound is coming from. The reason for paired nostrils, however, is a little less obvious.

The eerie hooting of an owl, sometimes linked to the supernatural by humans, serves a number of purposes in the nocturnal bird’s natural environment, including marking territory and attracting mates. Owl vocalizations can be quite diverse, with different pitches and rhythms that are unique to each

Parrots talk primarily because of their advanced vocal learning abilities, which allow them to mimic sounds, including human speech. Parrots possess an ability known as vocal learning, which enables them to imitate a wide range of sounds. This skill is not limited to parrots—it is also found in

People blush mainly in response to emotions such as embarrassment, shame, or confusion. When someone feels these emotions, the body reacts by sending more blood to the face, which causes the cheeks to turn red. This physiological response is induced by the body’s sympathetic nervous system, which

According to what seems to have become a somewhat standardized history, the collision of milk and cereal dates to about the 1860s (or perhaps the 1870s), when a breakfast cereal predecessor called granula came into being. Eating granula dry, as Mental Floss succinctly describes it, “was like trying

According to Merriam-Webster, the interjection amen is "used to express solemn ratification (as of an expression of faith) or hearty approval (as of an assertion)." It is often interchanged with phrases such as so be it. The original word in Hebrew bears relation to other words denoting security

Some people may throw salt over their shoulder in the belief that it wards off evil spirits or misfortune. This practice, commonly held to be a superstition, stems from the notion that spilling salt is unlucky and that the devil or other evil spirits reside on the left shoulder. Individuals who

You leave for work in the morning and your plant looks perfectly happy, but by the time you come home, it’s sad and droopy. So why do plants wilt? Usually because they are thirsty! Many nonwoody plants rely almost exclusively on water pressure, or turgor, within their cells to keep them erect.

Salmon are biologically programmed to die after spawning, a phenomenon known as semelparity. This is a reproductive strategy where an organism expends all its energy in a single, massive effort to reproduce. For Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus), this means they invest everything into their journey

Biology uses a convention known as binomial nomenclature to uniquely name the diverse organisms of our planet. The two parts of a scientific name are the genus, which is capitalized, and the species, which is not; both names are italicized. Let’s look at the scientific name for the common peach,

Despite misleading media reports suggesting that shark attacks are on the rise, such assaults on humans are exceedingly rare and even more rarely are fatal. While the number of recorded shark attacks has risen in recent years, the rate per capita has not. Our species is simply undergoing a massive

Skunks spray as a highly effective defense mechanism to deter predators and threats. They are equipped with two anal scent glands that are highly specialized and produce a potent, noxious liquid. Each scent gland has a nipple associated with it, which allows the skunk to aim the spray with

You open your lunch box to discover that the lovely apple you sliced this morning now appears unsightly and brown. Why does this happen? This unappetizing phenomenon is actually due to a chain of biochemical reactions known as “enzymatic browning.” When an apple is injured (or cut into pieces), the

Although a larger size normally indicates greater longevity among most mammals, dogs tend to follow a different pattern. Small dogs usually live longer than their larger counterparts due to a combination of genetic, physiological, and evolutionary factors. Genetic makeup plays a significant role in

As snakes grow, their skin does not grow with them. Instead, they periodically shed their outer layer of skin to accommodate their increasing size. This process, known as molting, or ecdysis, involves the formation of a new layer of skin beneath the old one. Once the new skin is ready, the old skin

The odds of a baby seahorse surviving to maturity are lower than 1 in 200. One of the main reasons for this low survival rate is that seahorse parents leave their offspring to fend for themselves immediately after birth, similar to most fish species. This means that baby seahorses are vulnerable to

The practice of sexual cannibalism may sound like a horrific piece of fiction, but in fact this occurs in the behavioral repertoires of several animals. It refers to the eating of all or part of one’s mate during courtship or copulation. This behavior can seem like an evolutionary puzzle: Why would

Certain animals hibernate because food supplies become scarce during the winter months. By going into a long deep sleep, they bypass this period completely, waking up when food becomes more plentiful. Bears are most commonly associated with hibernation (although they are not considered true

You already know why cicadas are so unbelievably noisy. But why do some of them appear aboveground only every 17 years? The 17-year cicadas are species of periodical cicadas, a group of hemipterans with the longest known insect life cycle. The largest brood makes its appearance every 17 years, like

You grumble as you grudgingly wipe the splattered spaghetti sauce or baked potato shrapnel from the inside of your microwave. What is it about these wonders of modern engineering that makes some foods more prone to exploding than other forms of cooking? Microwave ovens use microwave radiation (a

One of the best-known differences between British and American English is the fact that the sport known as football in Great Britain is usually called soccer in the United States. Because the sport originated in England, it is often assumed that soccer is an Americanism. In fact, the word is

Sphynx cats appear hairless because of a genetic mutation that occurred naturally in shorthaired cats and was later reinforced by generations of selective breeding. This mutation affects the development of hair follicles, leading to the absence of a typical fur coat. Contrary to popular belief,

Light emitted from stars does not actually twinkle but only appears to twinkle when viewed from Earth. As starlight passes through the different layers of Earth’s atmosphere, turbulence causes the starlight to bend. This distortion of the starlight makes the star appear as if twinkling. Technically

Imagine that you’re the creator and show runner of the newest hit comedy show on television. Only it isn’t a hit yet, and your live studio audience isn’t giving you the hearty laughs the show deserves. Do you film the show all over again, hoping that this time the audience will laugh? Or is there

The Wimbledon Championships are the oldest and most prestigious of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments. (The other three are the Australian, French, and U.S. opens.) As such, Wimbledon is awash in long-lasting traditions and features, such as the habit of calling the men’s and women’s

The saying that cats have nine lives comes from a blend of cultural beliefs, historical anecdotes, and human observation of the remarkable physical abilities of cats themselves. In ancient Egypt, cats were revered as divine creatures and often associated with the goddess Bastet, who was believed to

Turtles are known for their long lifespans, with some species such as the Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) and the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina) living more than 30 years. Their ability to live so long comes from a mix of physical and biological traits. Turtles have evolved a

Vultures circle for various reasons, most related to locating food and conserving energy. They ride warm thermal updrafts, effortlessly gaining height without wasting energy. From these lofty vantage points, they survey the ground, sometimes gliding for several hours and covering vast stretches of

Aging is a complex process influenced by a combination of various factors, including genetics, our environment, and changes in our bodies over time. No single theory explains aging entirely, but some, such as the genetic theory and oxidative damage theories, offer detailed insights. The genetic

The jack-o’-lantern has a long history with Halloween, although our favorite demonic faces haven’t always been carved out of pumpkins. Their origin comes from an Irish myth about Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil for his own monetary gain. When Jack died, God didn’t allow him into heaven, and the

Annual celebrations and commemorations came about with the invention of the calendar. Not much is known about the first birthday celebrations in history, in part because they are very ancient. The earliest ones we know about were for nobles, in which the celebration played a performative social

Did you know that parts of Halloween may have been around for more than a thousand years? What began as serious religious observances has morphed over centuries, becoming increasingly secular as the religious trappings all but disappeared. Today Halloween is a holiday of spooky fun characterized by

Juneteenth (also known as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Jubilee Day) commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It marks the anniversary of June 19, 1865, the day when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed the enslaved population of their freedom—more than two

“The Times Building will be especially illuminated to-night in honor of the birth of 1908,” announced The New York Times on December 31, 1907. “The exact moment of the New Year’s arrival will be signalized by the dropping of an electrically illuminated ball above the tower. The ball will be five

As celebrated in the United States, the holiday of Thanksgiving usually revolves around a bountiful meal. Typical dishes include bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and, above all, turkey. How did turkey become the centerpiece of this feast? It is often assumed that today’s

Of the many Valentine’s Day traditions, one of the most enduring is the classroom card exchange. Each year, typically, elementary school children choose a box of valentines featuring their latest favorite superhero, princess, snack, or Internet meme, fill out a card for each of their classmates,

Sticky, gooey, oftentimes orange, and homemade within the ears—earwax is considered a gross nuisance that people tend to frequently remove and clean from the body. Whether it’s by cotton swab, an ill-advised and dangerous method, or by an otolaryngologist, people go to great lengths for

Seasons occur due to the tilt of Earth’s axis, which is approximately 23.5°. Because of this tilt, each hemisphere receives different amounts of sunlight through the year. The Earth’s distance from the Sun, even though it changes slightly over a year, is not a factor in the change of seasons. When

We need to sleep, because it plays an important role in maintaining our overall health and well-being. Sleep gives the body time to heal and supports healthy growth. During sleep, hormone levels change and muscles relax, allowing tissues to heal and the body to build muscle and synthesize proteins

Ask anyone who is learning English as a second language what they think the most-maddening oddity of the language is and you are bound to get several different answers (there are, after all, dozens of exceptions to the “rules” of English). But here’s one that repeatedly comes up, even among native

According to some very attentive researchers, human beings tend to yawn about eight times per day. That number is probably larger if the day is spent with other people who yawn, or if it’s spent, say, reading an article about yawning. (Are you yawning yet?) The visual of someone yawning, or even

According to the American Kennel Club, “wet dog smell” is not due to the dog itself but to the yeast and bacteria that live in dog fur. These innocuous microorganisms regularly release volatile compounds as they live out their lives on our canine pets, but we don’t usually smell those compounds

Whale songs serve as a means of communication among individuals and groups. These vocalizations help whales share information about their location, identity, and even emotional states. For instance, baleen whales, such as humpbacks, produce songs that are not only beautiful but also serve to

There’s nothing quite so interesting as the social interactions in the wolf pack. Wolves live in packs of about 6 to 10 members. Pack formation is possible because wolves are highly social creatures that develop strong bonds with one another. One of the ways in which wolves interact is through

Yaks have long hair because it is essential for survival: it provides superior insulation against the extreme cold of their native high-altitude environments, originally stretching from the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau in the south to Lake Baikal in the north. The dense, double-layered coat,

Mobile telephones, tablets, portable video game units, and other electronic devices are ubiquitous 21st-century time killers. We can play games on them, communicate with family and friends on them, and browse the Internet on them. One would think that they would come in very handy to pass the time

Salt is added to pasta water primarily to season the pasta directly as it cooks. Aside from flavor considerations, though, adding salt to pasta water also slightly raises its boiling point in a process known as boiling point elevation. Although this change is minimal, it can help pasta cook more

There are several theories about why zebras have stripes. Scientists believe that one of the main reasons is camouflage coloration, creating disruptive patterns to confuse predators. When zebras stand together in a group, their stripes create a visual illusion that makes it difficult for predators

The box score of a baseball game is filled with all kinds of shorthand, which is necessitated by the desire for a concise encapsulation of the contest and by the constraints of print space, since box scores were found only in newspapers for the first century of their existence. As a result,

The suffix -saurus, which appears at the end of the scientific names of various dinosaurs (and in shortened form at the end of the word dinosaur itself) is a Latinized form of the Greek word sauros. Saurus, which literally means “lizard,” appears as a suffix in the names of many dinosaurs because

A mushroom cloud is the iconic and terrifying result of a thermonuclear explosion, but actually a mushroom cloud can be created by any massive release of heat, such as from a volcano or from something like the 2020 Beirut explosion. Heat rises, and the incredible blast of heat and energy from an

It’s breathtaking. It’s a digital masterpiece. Why do its hands look like that? In July 2022 OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, introduced DALL-E 2, one of the first AI image generators widely available to the public. Users could type in a prompt—anything from “Beyoncé eating pizza”

Cilantro (aka the leaves of the coriander plant) is a tasty herb to most people. A pleasing combination of flavors reminiscent of parsley and citrus, the herb is a common ingredient in many cuisines around the world. However, some people find cilantro revolting, including, famously, the chef Julia

This article was originally published on July 2, 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when much was unknown or partially known about the disease and its impact. As the COVID-19 pandemic has unfolded in the United States and health experts have collected increasing amounts of

While we seem to know a lot about alcoholic beverages and their consumption, scientific research on hangovers is surprisingly limited. The current working theories offer only partial explanations or have been contradicted by research. So we don’t really know what causes hangovers, but we have some

Hair turns gray as melanocytes—the cells that generate melanin, which gives hair (and skin) its coloration—deteriorate because of age, environment, or disease. Hair doesn’t gray uniformly: it may gray on some parts of the body earlier than on other parts. The age one goes gray is determined in part

Exercise is painful. As the cliché goes, “No pain, no gain.” When the body exerts itself, pumping action out of muscles to tear them down and build their mass, it’s left with a soreness. Doctors, coaches, and mothers all recommend heat for tense sore muscles—warm baths, moist towels, hot-water

Ice floats on water because it is less dense than its liquid form. In the liquid state, most water molecules are associated in a polymeric structure—that is, chains of molecules linked by weak hydrogen bonds. As water freezes, these molecules become more rigidly organized, forming an open,

More than 20 million tons of salt are used every year to melt snow and ice in cold northern regions. But how does salt do it? First, it’s important to understand a bit about H2O in the winter. Thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) is its freezing point—that is, when water reaches 32 °F,

The Earth rotates because of the conservation of angular momentum acquired from the rotation of the solar nebula, a gaseous cloud that is believed to have formed the solar system. Angular momentum is the measure of a rotating object’s tendency to continue spinning. It stays constant until external

In many countries the New Year begins on January 1. However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, for centuries, other dates marked the start of the calendar, including March 25 and December 25. So how did January 1 become New Year’s Day? We can partly thank the Roman king Numa Pompilius.

The Tropic of Cancer is a line of latitude approximately 23°27′ north of Earth’s Equator. This latitude corresponds to the northernmost declination of the Sun’s ecliptic to the celestial equator. At the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, about June 21, the direct (that is, 90°) rays of the

The United States experiences the most tornadoes of any country in the world: more than 1,000 per year have been reported every year since 1990 in the U.S. This high count of twisters results primarily from the country’s topography, which features a large central core with relatively flat terrain.

Caffeine is one of the most popular stimulants in the world and is most commonly consumed in coffee. People turn to caffeine to wake up in the morning and to stay energized throughout the day, but there’s a downside: Too much caffeine can keep you awake even when you’re ready to sleep. The key to

We drink water, we swim in it, we wash with it, and we cool things down with it. Because water is so common, many of us fail to notice just how strange it is compared to other substances. When we plop an ice cube or two into our drink during the warmer months, we watch it float above the liquid in

Your voice changes as you become an adult and may change even further as you age. The pitch of a person’s voice depends largely on how tightly the vocal cord muscles contract as the air from the lungs hits them. A child’s voice is high because the larynx (voice box) is small and the vocal cords are

Daylight Saving Time (DST) was introduced in countries around the world during the 20th century with the intention of lowering energy consumption and aligning sunlight hours to be more amenable to active work hours in the summertime. When DST was imposed in the United States through the passage of

U.S. Pres. Donald Trump has signed an executive order rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War. The president can’t unilaterally make this decision, but it wouldn’t be the first time that the country had a Department of War. On August 7, 1789, Pres. George Washington signed

The United States Constitution states, in Section 8 of Article I, that Congress shall have the power to “fix the standard of weights and measures.” Deciding on a system to regulate how the U.S. measured objects, compared lengths, and weighed itself was without a doubt a high priority for the

According to most paleontologists, birds branched off of one of the main dinosaur lineages more than 100 million years ago. Numerous dinosaur fossils show that dinosaurs did indeed have teeth, but why are modern birds toothless? What happened to birds between then and now to make them this way?

Emerging market (EM) shares could give your portfolio a long-term tailwind, providing exposure to companies in fast-growing countries with developing economies. But for every emerging market success story like South Korea, there’s a Venezuela or a Russia that struggles to move forward. Like

John F. Kennedy: Early life: …thesis into a best-selling book, Why England Slept (1940).

The election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church surprised many Vatican watchers, who had wondered if a U.S. passport would forever be disqualifying for the papacy. The answer as to why there hadn’t been an American pontiff

A crown. A ring. Your cousin. What else do you need for a royal wedding? At this point, the fact that so many royals through history wed relatives in what are now termed consanguineous marriages is something of a history joke. But why did they do it in the first place? Before we begin, an

The Colossus of Rhodes graced the main harbour of the ancient city of Rhodes, both as a monument to the sun god Helios, the patron of the island of Rhodes, and as a testament to the city’s independence after the long siege of Demetrius I Poliorcetes. But the mighty statue, standing 105 feet (32

Ramy Youssef: Early life and career: …brief appearance in the comedy Why Him? (2016), which starred Bryan Cranston and James Franco. Other small roles followed, including in three 2017 episodes of the series Mr. Robot (2015–19), starring Rami Malek, and opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Gus Van Sant’s biographical comedy-drama Don’t

Why I Live at the P.O., short story by Eudora Welty, first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1941 and collected in A Curtain of Green (1941). This comic monologue by Sister, a young woman in a small Mississippi town who has set up housekeeping in the post office to escape from her eccentric

The belief that the number 13 brings bad luck can be traced back to various historical and cultural beliefs. In Norse mythology, the story of Loki crashing a banquet in Valhalla is a significant contributor. Loki, the god of mischief, was the 13th guest at a dinner party, and his presence led to

Request a dozen eggs from a farmer, a dozen steaks from a butcher, or a dozen pencils from a traveling office supplies salesman, and you will almost certainly receive 12 of your chosen item (counting errors do happen). But a baker’s dozen is commonly understood to mean 13. Are bakers just bad at

The deviled egg gets its name from the culinary use of the term deviled in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe dishes that were heavily seasoned with hot spices and condiments, perhaps as an allusion to the Devil and the blistering heat of hell. The preparation of deviled eggs, which generally

The word buck as a term for the U.S. dollar dates back to the 1700s, when deer hides, or buckskins, were often used in trade on the American frontier. Settlers and traders in sparsely populated regions relied on bartering, and buckskins were durable, valuable, and widely accepted. Some of the

It’s one of the first things you learn in chemistry: Atoms and molecules are so small that even a few grams of a substance contains so many atoms or molecules that counting them by the billions or trillions is just as pointless as counting them one by one. Chemists therefore use a unit called the

The marathon’s origin traces back to ancient Greece, where a legendary Greek soldier ran from Marathon to Athens, covering about 25 miles (40 km), to announce a military victory. This heroic run inspired the marathon race, which was first introduced in the modern Olympic Games in 1896. Initially,

If you get a bottle of vodka from your local liquor store, you’ll probably see two different numbers telling you how much alcohol it contains. The first is an alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage, which is relatively intuitive to understand: it’s the percentage of alcohol in the overall liquid and is

Antarctica can be classified as a desert because it receives very little precipitation. The average amount—which falls almost exclusively as snow—is only about 2 inches (50 mm) per year (liquid water equivalent) over the inland polar plateau, though the coastal belt receives considerably more,

Benjamin Franklin appears on the $100 bill not because he was a president—he wasn’t—but because of the role he played in shaping America’s identity, economy, and institutions. His presence on one of the most widely recognized denominations of U.S. currency is a tribute to his many contributions as

Actually, bird poop, per se, is not white. Birds, unlike mammals, do not have separate exits for urine and feces. Both waste products are eliminated simultaneously through the cloaca. While mammals excrete nitrogenous wastes mostly in the form of urea, birds convert it to uric acid or guanine,

“February is Black History Month.” Since the 1970s that familiar declaration has introduced countless celebrations of African American history and achievement, from Black History Minutes on local television stations to the pronouncements of U.S. presidents. But why is February designated as the

Stilton. Roquefort. Gorgonzola. These are just some of the varieties of blue cheese known for their sharp, piquant flavor—a flavor that is produced by mold that has grown in the cheese. But isn’t mold dangerous? If so, why is blue cheese safe to eat? Some molds are indeed toxic and dangerous to

Bread is bad for ducks because it offers little nutrition. Bread fills ducks up without supplying the nutrients—crucial proteins, vitamins, and minerals—that they’d get from their natural diet of aquatic plants, insects, and small fish. This can lead to malnutrition because after feeding on bread

California is called the “Golden State” primarily because of its historical association with the California Gold Rush. The transformative event began in January 1848 when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, along the American River in Coloma, California, approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of

Cashmere is derived from the soft undercoat of the Kashmir goat, a breed that produces a limited amount of this precious fiber. Each goat yields only a few grams to about half a kilogram (1.1 pound) of cashmere annually, making it a scarce resource. To create a single sweater, the fleece of 4 to 6

In St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, an innocuous marble floor tile hides more than the building’s foundation. Four oddly matched royals are buried beneath: King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, King Charles I, and an infant child of Queen Anne. Originally, the vault was intended as only a temporary

Charlotte, North Carolina, is called the Queen City because it was named for Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III of Great Britain. The city’s name was the residents’ second attempt to find favor with the king by honoring Charlotte with a place-name. George became king in 1760, and in 1761