Can Rain Start a Forest Fire?
At Smithsonian, Sarah Zielinski notes the proverbial wisdom among some gardeners that watering plants on scorching hot days can start fires because droplets of water can focus light like a magnifying glass. Scientists decided to test this idea:
They started by placing small glass spheres on maple leaves and exposing them to sunlight. The leaves were [...]
Why Roosters Have Wattles
A wattle is the bit of flesh below a rooster’s beak. What purpose does it serve? Carolynn Smith at Macquarie University in Australia conducted a study that suggests that it’s pure chicken bling. Sarah Zielinski writes in Scientific American about the results:
Cutting off the wattles of roosters and seeing how the behavior of hens changed [...]
Jupiter’s Temporary Moons
Sarah Zielinski writes in The Smithsonian that Jupiter, as the largest planet in our solar system, occasionally pulls comets into its orbit. Sometimes, as with comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994 (pictured), Jupiter’s gravity will even pull a comet into a direct impact. Zielinsky writes:
Astronomers from Japan and Northern Ireland, presenting their findings today at the [...]
