Biology
Exploring "Why" questions about Biology
483 articles
why water completely damages a cell phone when submerged.
Electronic circuits are designed to only allow electricity to pass through certain parts at certain times. That's how your phone works. It's a set of boolean functions (1 or 0/true or false).
Why do animals instinctively know how to swim whereas humans generally just drown without the proper training?
They don't. River otters need to learn to swim from their parents. Here's a [cute video](_URL_0_) about it.
Why is there a United Nations General Assembly? Why not just have a body comprised of councils (defense, economic, secretariat, etc)?
The General Assembly exists to give a forum to unimportant nations so they don't feel so unimportant. When you're discussing international trade, no one really cares what Upper Volta has to say on the
Why are females smaller than males in most animal species?
The gender that has multiple mates tends to be the bigger one. In cases where the females breed with multiple males, the female is often larger (or perhaps more heavily adorned). "Sexual dimorphism" a
Why is arachnophobia so prevalent although only about 5% of spiders species are lethal to humans?
Your freeze flight or fight instinct doesn't distinguish the thing you're seeing consciously. Spiders are a combination of fear triggers: long and angular legs, dark colours, darting and erratic movem
Why does using cellular data have such a big hit on battery life?
To get more data the radio needs to work harder, which takes more power. The radio is the second largest power consumer in your phone behind the screen, so if you're say streaming netflix you're killi
Why are carbon and oxygen so ubiquitous in living organisms
To be useful for life atoms need two somewhat opposite characteristics; they need to be reactive enough to be readily changed when needed, but not so reactive they degrade by themselves e.g with moist
Why are sons usually taller than their fathers? Is this meaning that generations are progressively getting taller and taller?
Nutrition is not always the case, although it does appear that generations are progressively getting taller it's also because the older you get the shorter you get. So when you see a young man with hi
Why does bleach massacre bacteria, but bacteria haven’t adapted in billions of years to defend against it?
Bleach destroys protein, the fundamental building block of all life. Bacteria can't get along without being made of protein -- it's what they are. They could evolve a protective coating, but bleach oc
Why are members of the same family more prone to producing offspring with biological issues?
There are 2 basic concepts when dealing with genes - they can be dominant, which means they are usually shown, or recessive, which is the opposite. Dominant genes can be shown even if you only get the