jules-has-questions

[jules-has-questions]

Do black clothes offer better sun protection?

Is something I was thinking about, as I was waiting for my partner to open the car, while I was sweating my black shirt.

White reflects light and heat better, so it bounces out, but it also reflects your own body heat back at you, so you can end up cooking in your shirt (I don't quite understand how reflecting light is the same as reflecting heat, but i'm just going to go with it). A black shirt would supposedly reflect less. IF you wear flowy black clothes, that could help the heat dissipate through air current.

So maybe flowiness trumps color.

[jules-has-questions]

Wouldn't mosquito's be much more effective psycho killers if they didn't make that buzzing sound?

You'd think quiet mosquito's would out evolve the loud ones, and thus by process of survival of the fittest a ninja mosquito master race would evolve.

As it turns out, there are many reasons why this isn't happening.

It's pretty hard to fly without making sound! The sound comes from the wings flapping as astronomical speeds and that's going to produce some audio.

The buzzing is very important for mating. It's how male and female mosquitos find each other and make even more torture monsters

Most mosquito victims are four legged beasties that don't have hands they can use to swat mosquito's, so their buzzing isn't a big risk.

The few mosquito's that get swatted by angry women at 6 am in the morning is quite negligible to the survival of the species. The mosquito race is doing fine, really

Mosquito's did evolve to become noctural, which has many, many advantages for them, one of which is more placid hosts that are easier to feed off.

[jules-has-questions]

Why do I start dreaming before I'm even properly asleep?

Lately, I've been getting weird dreams while falling asleep. Like, I'll clearly still hear my bed partner snoring, and I have some degree of consciousness, but I'm also clearly seeing things in a dream-like fashion. It's quite pleasant - usually they are very pretty, painting-like visuals of nature, accompanied by a warm, good feeling.

Turns out those are Hypnagogic Hallucinations! Hypnagogia is the term for the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep (from sleep to waking is called Hypnopompia btw).

Famous hypnogogic experiences are seeing tetris blocks after playing a lot of this addictive game, or feeling the motion of the ocean after having been on a boat for some time.

Wikipedia says: "The hypnagogic state can provide insight into a problem, the best-known example being August Kekulé’s realization that the structure of benzene was a closed ring while half-asleep in front of a fire and seeing molecules forming into snakes, one of which formed an ourobouros."

Pretty cool!

What's the difference between a hypnagogic hallucination and a dream?

I mean, it takes at least 30 minutes to get into REM sleep, right? So how can you start hallucinating instantly? They're supposed to be very different states, and HH is thought to be caused by different parts of the brain powering down into sleep at different times. It's explained pretty well below in the SciShow - and they also tell you about Exploding Head Syndrome :D

Can hypnogogic states be influenced by meditation?

I meditate regularly, so I was wondering if there is a relationship between the two. There's speculation that if you get visuals during your meditation (like I often do), they could also hypnogogic hallucinations. Since meditation affects your brain waves, if you meditate while going to sleep, I guess it's not a leap that you could end up with more or less hypnogogic hallucinations.

So this is actually a scientific answer to visions, prophecies, premonitions and other kinds of supernatural experiences. Neat!

[jules-has-questions]

How do crows and pigeons feel about each other?

You often see crows and pigeons foraging together, especially when trying to con humans into giving them tasty carby snacks. But how do they relate to each other? Are they friends? Coworkers? Do they speak the same bird language? Should there be an animated show called "Crow and Pigeon?"

Would a crow and a pigeon who always hang out on the same square recognise each other and go "Oh, there's Mike. He's annoying. Hey Mike! You're annoying! Let's go score a waffle off of those weird tourists".

I could only find Quora answers, so pretty much the bottom of the reference barrel, but their bot (yeah I know, really scraping that barrel here), said:

"In terms of their perceptions of each other, research suggests that crows are generally quite wary of pigeons. Crows have been observed mobbing and harassing pigeons, likely due to the pigeons' smaller size and less aggressive nature. Pigeons, on the other hand, tend to avoid direct confrontation with crows when possible, likely perceiving them as threats.

However, there is also some evidence that pigeons and crows can coexist relatively peacefully in urban environments, where food sources are plentiful. In these cases, the two bird species may largely ignore each other or only engage in occasional skirmishes over resources. The specific relationship likely depends on the local context and the availability of food and nesting sites."

That doesn't really sound like the bird version of My Little Pony, does it? To counter, I did find a video of a crow feeding some pigeons.

You could say that crow doesn't know what it's doing, but that bird is smarter than me, probably understands N=NP perfectly, and he is clearly feeding his bro's, okay?

Also, also

Crows and pigeons can't fuck. You'd think they could, if it just comes down to rubbing holes together, does it matter what kind of bird the other one is, as long as it has a cloaca? But apparently, birds are so many different species that it's already a leap for one type of parrot to breed with another, let alone a crow and a pigeon.

Their love is forbidden

[jules-has-questions]

Why can't you eat those white berries you see everywhere?

We all know that they're not edible, but why? I wonder each time, because they look so plump and delicious.

Turns out, it's because they contain Saponins, a natural chemical that humans and a bunch of other animals can't digest. And apparently they also taste bitter - so false advertising there, delicious looking berries.

But, even more interesting, the chemical is known for having a foamy quality when agitated in water, and used to be a poor man's soap.

So obviously, my next mission is to make White Berry Soap Water, which I should definitely not ingest.

FOR SCIENCE