Will we ever learn to speak dolphin? 15 quirky questions you have always want answered

A new book features a collection of quirky and intriguing questions thought up by readers of New Scientist

Stephen Frink Do you speak Dolphin?

What is earwax for? Why are there no three-legged animals? Why do we like shiny things? All these questions and more are answered in New Scientist’s Will We Ever Speak Dolphin?

The new book features a collection of quirky and intriguing questions thought up by readers of New Scientist and then answered in the magazine’s popular Last Word column.

1. Why no three-legged animals? Three legs is unlikely because it confers no advantage in movement over two or four. Walking with a crutch – ie three ‘legs’ – uses energy at a rate closer to running than walking, so it’s not an energy-efficient way of getting about.

2. Why do we like shiny things? For evolutionary reasons – the shiniest thing our primitive ancestors saw was probably sunlit water. Those attracted to it must surely have increased their survival chances.

3. How quickly does dropped food pick up germs on the floor? Individual microbes travel with whatever dirt is on the floor. When you drop food, two things are likely – traces of food stick to the floor, and traces of the floor, or what’s on it, stick to the food. Unless the floor is surgically clean, the food will acquire bugs however quickly you pick it up.

4. Why do women tend to wear make-up and men mainly don’t? Women’s make-up augments the features men instinctively find attractive, so promoting stronger interest and arousal.

5. What on earth is earwax for? Earwax acts as a cleaning agent for the ear with lubricating and antibacterial qualities. Also called Cerumen, it is 60% keratin and contains dead skin cells, fatty acids, alcohol and cholesterol.

6. If you want pork skin to be crackly when you roast it, recipes suggest rubbing salt into the skin. What does the salt do? The salt draws water out of skin cells, which reduces water content, so less water has to be driven off when cooking. The skin therefore cooks relatively quickly when compared to the muscle (the meat) and so it is crisp by the time the joint is cooked.

7. Will humans ever be able to speak or understand dolphin? Dolphins produce a variety of sounds and other ­behavioural cues that appear to be significant yet the communication units used by dolphins remain unknown. Once the units that comprise the dolphin’s communication system are ascertained, the daunting task of determining what they mean remains.

8. Is there really a difference in the taste of a shaken vodka martini, and a stirred one? Because a martini is supposed to be drunk within seconds of preparation, rather than minutes, there is a difference. The tiny bubbles caused by shaking mean a well-shaken martini is cloudy. Shaking will also have an effect on the drink’s texture – making it less oily than the stirred version – and hence on the taste.

9. Why do fingernails grow three times as quickly as toenails? Toenails are subject to less wear and do not need to grow as quickly. Hands can be used as spades, for example, and fingernails for prising things open.

PA Why do birds sing at dawn?

10. Why do birds sing at dawn? At that time air tends to be still, reducing competing noise.

11. Why do we normally perceive the sun as yellow in colour? Because the sky is blue. The sun’s light is white but when it hits the earth’s atmosphere, it is scattered by the atoms, molecules and dust in the air.

If this didn’t happen, the sky would be black, as it is in space. Shorter wavelengths, such as violet and blue, are scattered more than longer ones.

Because blue light is scattered across the sky – turning it blue – remaining direct light from the sun appears richer, in longer wavelengths of yellow and red.

PA Why do buses all come at once?

12. Is there any truth in the cliche that you wait ages for a bus then three come at once? The technical term for several buses arriving at once is “bunching” and the reason for it is quite simple. If for some reason a bus is delayed by a few minutes, there will probably be more people waiting for it than on average.

Any late running will therefore increase the time a bus has to pause to pick up passengers at a stop, especially if the bus driver has to sell or validate tickets.

Meanwhile the next bus on that route is getting a pretty quick run because many of the passengers it would have picked up are on the late-running bus in front.

Eventually it catches up with that bus and, if it doesn’t overtake, we are left with two buses trundling along together, with the next service behind catching up on both of them too.

13. Why does shouting make me hoarse? How do voices recover? Shouting injures vocal cords mechanically as it requires a large volume of air to pass at huge velocity through the windpipe. It causes swelling of the vocal cords’ mucous membrane. But a few days rest allows this to subside.

14. When our TV remote stops working, a jiggle of the batteries usually solves the problem, why? The contacts on the remote handset, which connect to the batteries, are usually made of brass.

This means they can oxidise, causing an interruption of the electrical circuit. During jiggling, the batteries will move around, scraping through the oxide layer. This re-establishes the connection and the remote control functions again.

15. How many A4 sheets of paper in the average paper-making tree? 20-metre pine tree with a trunk 20cm across would yield about 45,000 A4 sheets, about 90 reams.


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