41
votes
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Why is it advised that infants are fed mother's milk?
The phrase "Breast is best" is a hotly debated one (source: The Guardian and personal communications with many folks). The reason why we don't want to feed infants cow's milk is, however, anything but ...
- 51.8k
24
votes
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Is monogamy a human innate behaviour?
Humans are believed to be mostly serial monogamists with a noticeable components of secret cheating. Serial monogamy means most will have a single partner at a time but will likely have several ...
- 13.8k
20
votes
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Why do humans suffer anxiety when they view "Trypophobia trigger images"?
Trypophobia is not a recognised specific anxiety disorder (Washington Post). It is worth mentioning that anyone can have a phobia to anything, this is merely a question of whether many people ...
- 11.3k
20
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Why does black and yellow indicate danger?
First of all, great question! What you describe here is known as aposematism. Aposematism is the adapation of warning signals against the predator. This word is used for any sound, coloring, and odor ...
- 3,079
17
votes
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Why I have to pee more often in low temperature?
This phenomenon has been demonstrated in studies [1][2] which show a significant increase in urine output in the cold. The latter study shows the biggest increase is when a person is initially exposed ...
- 5,498
12
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Why do humans suffer anxiety when they view "Trypophobia trigger images"?
As someone who is very disgusted by this kind of image, I think it is a caused by an association with maladies like burns, infections, and especially parasites. It is difficult for me to even describe ...
- 129
12
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Is monogamy a human innate behaviour?
The easy answer is simply, no.
The longer answer is that it depends on whatever cultural norms that are practiced in a given area at a certain time.
Often powerful men in history had multiple ...
- 677
9
votes
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Do birds grieve and feel emotion?
Your "grieving bird" is a video of a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and its (nearly?) dead chick on a hot summer day in Phoenix, Arizona (USA) in 2016.
Photo credit: Arizona Game And ...
- 28.5k
8
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Why is it advised that infants are fed mother's milk?
The contents of milk differ between species. For your example, cow's milk:
Infants fed WCM [Whole Cow's Milk] have low intakes of iron, linoleic acid, and vitamin E, and excessive intakes of sodium,...
- 2,228
7
votes
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What is the motivation behind fluorinated pharmaceuticals?
Fluorine has a combination of unique chemical properties, which makes it very useful in drug design :
It is small, such that replacing a C-H with a C-F is often possible, from a sterical point of ...
- 1,135
6
votes
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Why do we urinate more when we are nervous?
It's all about chemical reactions in your body triggered by your brain.
Lot's of researches and documents confirmed this is what happens when you face a stressful situation.
Stress -> hypothalamus ->...
- 447
6
votes
Why do we urinate more when we are nervous?
I found an interesting article that dealt with anxiety and micturition. There are no proven or accepted view on this. There are a few theories as to how this happens.
I am quoting it:
There are ...
- 3,030
6
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Why I have to pee more often in low temperature?
Cold-induced diuresis, where kidneys relieve blood pressure by increasing urine production.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold-induced_diuresis
The blood pressure is thought to be increased by ...
6
votes
Accepted
Why do wild animals not eat in captivity?
Many wild animals will not eat in captivity because they are under stress, few mammals react well to captivity. weird smells and sounds, restricted movement, inability to hide, there are dozens of ...
- 13.8k
5
votes
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Do other young mammals turn their backs to their parent when upset?
Other Primates
Sulking is the behavior you are refering to and it is seen in orangutan, Chimp and Bonobo. Likely in other primates but I am not aware of any published works. I have heard about it in ...
- 13.8k
5
votes
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Why do bad smells make us vomit?
It is not really making you vomit not directly, it is making you nauseous if you become too nauseous you vomit.(nausea has multiple triggers but for this I will stick to smell) Nausea exist to keep ...
- 13.8k
5
votes
Animal models to study depression
TL:DR: A simple question doesn't usually have a simple answer in science.
To a great extent, the answer to your question depends on what, exactly, you mean by non-invasive. Please know that it is ...
- 24.5k
4
votes
Is the golden ratio of anatomic measurements universally beneficial for sexual reproduction?
I have some insight into this from an engineering perspective. Years ago, I worked on some computational and search algorithms which used a growth factor to determine how far to widen a search space, ...
- 933
4
votes
Is every decision we make already "pre-programmed" because of DNA?
"Do we have free will?" It's a big question.
DNA (among other epigenetic factors) code for proteins, so ultimately it determine our cells, which in turn are responsible for our neurology, ...
- 11.3k
4
votes
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Which of the response is faster? voice or hand action?
Assuming that we are talking about a situation at the physical limit of the brain:
Speaking a word will always be slower than pushing a button.
A whole word requires a contraction of the diaphragm to ...
- 240
4
votes
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Why do I feel my schoolbag to be heavier after meals?
Could certainly be physiological. After eating more blood is diverted towards the smooth muscles around organs for digestion. This will mean your skeletel muscles have decreased blood flow so less ...
- 76
4
votes
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Why do living things go belly up as they die?
limbs are light weight compared to bodies, if you knock an animal around (and it has no active correction AKA is not alive) it will tend to end up on its back just due to where its center of gravity ...
- 13.8k
4
votes
Does the brain consume more energy when a person is stressed or anxious
The tiredness associated with depression/stress is not due to the 'brain power' increasing but due to a change in what parts of the brain are active and/or disrupted sleep. Anxiety can cause issues to ...
- 360
3
votes
Do men have more extreme variations than women?
So far as we can tell any difference in variability (standard deviation) in humans is cultural not genetic and thus not consistent across the species.
You are talking about something called the ...
- 13.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Why are animals afraid of the vet?
Most animals are not afraid of the vet. When I was in practice, many dogs and cats waltzed in perfectly happily.
Of those that were afraid, I presume that many picked up expectations from their ...
- 14.1k
3
votes
Is every decision we make already "pre-programmed" because of DNA?
Is every decision we make already pre-programmed because of DNA?
No! An obvious way to realize this is to compare identical twins. While two randomly chosen twins ressemble each other (in terms of ...
- 67.8k
3
votes
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How do we share pain?
There has been a study by Jackson, Meltzoff & Decety (2005) who investigated the neurocorrelates involved in the perception of pain.
In order to assess this, they carried out an fMRI study in ...
- 2,603
3
votes
Predictive Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) for Bipolar Disorder
Yes, there have been a variety of studies that do association analysis of variants with bipolar disorder. Here is a recent one that validated 11-30 variants depending on how you count.
However, in ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Why do scary situations make our skin crawl? Why do we have goosebumps in such situations?
Goose bumps are based on a pilomotor reflex where tiny muscles at the base of hair follicles contract, which leads to the "bumps" and also raises the hair in the follicle.
It's often explained as a ...
- 228
3
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Is monogamy a human innate behaviour?
I just read a book on the Evolution of Sex and one of the questions was why primates have lost the estrous cycle. The thought was that the sexual desire of the female anytime rather then periodically ...
- 27
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