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What is irrigation?
Irrigation is the act of artificially applying water to soil to
allow plant growth. This can also include applying water to a lawn
or garden. The term usually refers to providing large amounts
of
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Why is there salt used in ice cream making?
Salt is used in ice cream because of a special property it
possesses: It lowers the freezing temperature of water. Consider
making the most basic ice cream. You would mix together milk or
cream,
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What caused humans to become more advanced than chimps?
Genetic changes in areas that affect the appetite may be the
reason humans became more advanced than chimps. Primatologists
believe that almost 2 million years ago, human males began to share
more
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How does the last common ancestor relate to evolution?
In researching how life-forms evolve, scientists have identified
linear progressions in which a singular form developed into another
form or more. Even though some of the new life-forms either
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What causes genetic differences between humans and chimps?
Although gene sequences are similar in humans and chimps, there
can be a significant difference in copy number variations. The DNA
code can have deletions, repetitions and backward sequences.
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How are Fibonacci numbers expressed in humans?
Fibonacci was born Leonardo Pisano in 1175 in Pisa, better known
for its leaning tower. Little did the town's citizens know late in
the 12th century that one of their own would become famous for
a
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What causes St. Elmo's Fire?
St. Elmo's Fire is caused by a great imbalance in electrical
charge. During a thunderstorm, air becomes ionized, which means it
becomes a good conductor of electricity. When there is a
dramatic
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Where did Homo sapiens come from?
The prevailing theory among scientists is the "out of Africa
theory" or the replacement theory, which suggests that humans
evolved in Africa and migrated to other lands between 56,000 and
200,000
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Could fossil fuel be synthesized?
It has been theorized that it may be possible to synthesize
fossil fuels. To do so, we would first have to capture carbon
dioxide, which is already being done with post-combustion carbon
capture
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What is desertification?
Desertification refers to land degradation that occurs in arid
and semi-arid areas known as drylands. Land degrades in such areas
when land clearing, urbanization and unsustainable agricultural
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How is wind speed measured?
Wind speed was originally categorized according to the Beaufort
scale. Developed in 1806 by Adm. Sir Francis Beaufort, this system
ranges from zero to 12, with a higher number indicating greater
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What is the purpose of Norway's doomsday vault?
The Svalbard International Seed Vault in Norway -- a.k.a the
"doomsday vault" -- exists to protect agricultural biodiversity. In
the event that a catastrophe damaged or destroyed all plant
life,
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What is the Rankine temperature scale?
The Rankine scale came out of research in thermodynamics. It was
named for William J.M. Rankine, a Scottish physicist and engineer,
and is used mostly in American engineering. This scale has a
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What are the polar easterlies?
The polar easterlies are one of the five primary wind zones,
known as wind belts, that make up our atmosphere's circulatory
system. This particular belt of wind begins at approximately 60
degrees
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How do thermometers measure temperature?
Thermometers do not measure how hot or cold an object is. They
measure how temperature changes expand and contract the material
used in the mechanism or instrument. Expansion and contraction
are
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What is a thermograph?
A thermograph is a device that records temperatures over a fixed
period of time. It consists of a rotating drum or disk and a stylus
or pen. Often, a bimetal mechanism for measuring temperature
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How do resistance thermometers work?
Resistance thermometers measure changes in the electrical
resistance of metal materials or thermistors. A thermistor is a
type of resistor made of semiconducting material. The mechanism
consists
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What makes Norway an ideal location for the doomsday vault?
Norway has a cluster of islands in the Arctic Ocean that boast
perpetually frozen temperatures. Specifically, a mountain called
Spitsbergen has the coldest, most frigid temperatures. If the
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Are there animals on islands?
Yes, there is wildlife on islands. A continental island
typically has the same types of plants and animals as the
neighboring continent to which it was once connected. This is
because the wildlife
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How do people enter and exit an underwater habitat?
Interestingly, the entrance to many underwater habitats is on
the bottom, rather than a doorway on the sides or the top. Because
the pressure level is the same both inside and out of the
chamber,
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What is an underwater habitat?
Underwater habitats are special underwater chambers in which
divers can live for extended periods of time without necessarily
needing to come up for air. These chambers feature the same level
of
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Are there any examples of speciation going on now?
While its long-term effects have yet to surface, there is one
place scientists are keenly watching in an attempt to understand
speciation. In 1995, Hurricane Marilyn passed through the
Caribbean,
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What is the future of the theory of evolution?
The theory of evolution seeks to explain the origin of life on
Earth and the origin of different species. While most of the
scientific community has regarded evolution as fact for more than
a
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Why are siblings different from each other?
Siblings are different from each other because of how sexual
reproduction works. People's cells have chromosomes that contain
their DNA, and these chromosomes are organized into 23 pairs.
When
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What is the history of biomimicry?
Biomimicry -- applying nature's solutions to human problems --
can be traced back to early humans. They observed animals and
mimicked their hunting, shelter and survival behaviors. In the
15th
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