“Why do we pick our noses?”: A new book explains more than 135 scientific facts | Sciences

The holidays are coming again: the perfect time to treat yourself to the best you’ve ever known over Christmas dinner or New Year’s drinks. Kim Verhaeghe has written a book containing about 137 scientific facts that will impress children and adults around the Christmas table.

Biologists have been curious for some time about what would happen if you pushed a giraffe into a swimming pool. That’s why mathematicians Donald Henderson and Darren Naish decided to test this. They developed a digital version of a giraffe and then threw it into a digital aquarium. What happened? The animals are able to swim (although this would be a bit clumsy due to their long legs).

This is due to the foam head on the beer, as aerospace engineer Emily Dresser of Princeton University discovered. The foam “accumulates” on the wall of the glass, thus dampening “the rippling of the golden liquid underneath,” Verhaeghe says in the book.

“Everyone does it, even if we say we don’t”: rhinotillexe, or nose picking. Various studies show that personal hygiene is the main reason for doing so. Moreover, people used to do this to prevent itching and also to clean the nose. “One in ten does it just for fun,” writes the science journalist. For others, it’s a habit or tic. It may be “related to stress, anxiety or boredom.”

All mammals urinate for 21 seconds, regardless of bladder size. Scientist David Ho watched “dozens of videos of mammals urinating, and found that large and small animals, weighing more than three kilograms, take about 21 seconds” to urinate. the reason? Larger animals “although they have a larger bladder, they also have a larger ureter, allowing more fluid to flow through them per second.”

If you’re faced with a dilemma, there’s a greater chance you’ll make the best choice with a full bladder. Psychologist Miriam Tuck asked a group of volunteers to drink five glasses of water in a short time, while the other group sipped from their own cup. “After forty minutes – the time it takes to feel the need to leave – both groups were given a choice between an immediate reward or a much larger reward within a month. Volunteers whose bladders were full more often took the more logical choice of a delayed reward.”