How are seedless grapes grown?

How are seedless grapes grown?

The correct answer is that the plants that grow them are actually clones. So instead of growing them from seeds, they're grown from cuttings, so from existing plants. So obviously the first seedless grapes were a plant that arose through mutation, that means that they don't have seeds. And some growers must have noticed this. And you can basically take a little shoot or a stem off the plant, dip it in rooting powder, put it in the ground, and a new tree will grow. This is how a lot of plants are cultivated now, and also a lot of seedless varieties. It's causing problems now with bananas though. Because they're all clones, they're getting struck down by funguses and things. If a population is genetically identical, it can very easily be wiped out because it has the same resistance to different pathogens.

Why can you see the moon during the day?

Why can you see the moon during the day?

Why shouldn’t you be able to see the moon during the day? The moon is orbiting around the Earth. It takes the moon about 28 days to go right away around the Earth, come back to where it started. The Earth turns. Obviously, it does a complete evolution in one day, 24 hours, since so you would expect to see the moon go across the sky every day, pretty much. At some point so it might not be visible on some occasions so much but it should be there. So that’s not so unusual

Why does cutting hair make it stronger?

Why does cutting hair make it stronger?

Actually, this is a myth. There is no evidence that cutting hair, shaving, doing anything like that actually makes hair grow more or adjust its strength or its length. Hair goes through three phases and its lifetime. The hair follicle has an anagen phase, when actually grows and makes hair and depending upon what sort of hair, where on the body surface you’re looking, that phase last different lengths of time.

On the head, for example, it lasts for several years, whereas on the face, it might last for weeks and an eyelash, for example, only grows for about three weeks before it goes into the next phase which is called the catagen phase when the hair falls out. And that’s when the hair follicle stops for a while. Obviously, you can imagine if your eyelashes grew for three years that would be a bit disadvantageous because you’ll be looking out through under these curtains, won’t you? So, it’s good that doesn’t happen. Then the third phase is something called the telogen phase, when the follicle rests before it re-starts itself again.

People often say when a person dies, their hair carries on growing after they die. Or, when you cut the hair it comes back far bushier. Both of those things are down to, in the case of someone dying, the skin dries and shrinks a bit around the hair coming out through the skin surface and this makes the hair look artificially a lot longer; and, when you cut hair, instead of having this tapered thin end, it’s got a very abrupt, cut off, sharp end, so the hair looks thicker when it comes back.

So, it’s just sort of illusion; it’s not really any fatter.

Why is flu more prevalent in winter?

Why is flu more prevalent in winter?

we think flu spreads better in winter because of human behaviour because it does this reproducibly in every country in the world and in which it is winter time - it doesn’t mean it goes away completely in summer but it does come much more commonly in winter.

We think that’s because it spreads better in winter because of what humans do. We go indoors more in winter so there are more people together indoors with the windows closed. Also, unlike summer time, it’s less light and therefore there's less ultraviolet radiation to dry out the virus and kill it. So 'flu finds it easier to persist on surfaces spread by coughs and sneezes, and it hangs around for longer.

As a result you have a higher chance of passing it on so that’s what we think goes on. And then the big determinant, the disproportionate determinant, is the school year. The long summer school holiday powerfully knocks 'flu on the head because kids stop mixing and spreading the infection amongst themselves. What normally happens is that they become infected and then go home and give it to their parents and the parents then carry the infection to all of the other parts of the social and age strata, usually through their workplace.

How does 'flu actually infect our cells?

How does 'flu actually infect our cells?

The way flu gets hold of cells is down to proteins on the surface of the virus particle. Each virus particle is tiny, about 1/10,000th for the millimetre across. If you could zoom in on the surface, you’d see that it had these spikes on the surface. These spikes are a structure called haemagglutinin, which is a tiny protein resembling a molecular grappling hook. It’s viral Velcro. It gets hold of something called sialic acid, which is a chemical on the surface of the cells that line our nose and throat, and this enables the virus to grab hold of those cells and pull itself in very close.

Through this interaction the cell thinks the virus is something that it has to take inside the cell. So the cell then does something called receptor-mediated endocytosis, which basically means it pulls the virus inside the cell. Once inside the virus releases it’s genetic material and productively infects the cell.

It’s a bit like a Trojan horse actually because the Trojan horse was this juicy tidbit sitting outside the gate of Troy. The guys inside the city thought, “Wow! That looks fantastic. We’ll pull that inside because it looks good.” And it goes inside the city. And then of course, lurking inside are all these people who are then wreak havoc inside the city. And that’s basically what a flu virus does. It hijacks the cell, turns it into a virus factory and then it infects all of the cells around it and all the people around you!

Why do washing powders remove stains but not dyes?

Why do washing powders remove stains but not dyes?

one of the main and important ingredients used is surfactants and the surfactant molecule is clever in the way that on one side it has a hydrophobic component, that’s a water-hating molecular chain. And on the other side, a hydrophilic water-loving component. The hydrophobic chain finds itself sticking to the stains on your clothes and the hydrophilic heads have a stronger attraction to water. They’re able to surround the dirts and roll it up into a small globular-type ball and the end result is that they’re able to lift the stain from your cloth, into the wash water.

Some of our detergents contain enzymes which are naturally derived molecules. Generally, we use different enzymes such proteases which break down proteins and amylase which breaks down starch and then finally, another major ingredient that we use, like most other detergent manufacturers is bleach. The bleach turns the stain into more soluble colourless particles that can be easily removed and carried away into the wash water. So, in actual fact, it can remove bleachable dye stains. So, to kind of answer the other part of the question, laundry detergents can remove certain dyes, as well as stains.

Most dyes are composed of molecules that these ingredients can’t target. Surfactants can't globuralize the dyes, nor can enzymes gobble them up, unless they're vegetable-based. But bleach can effect dyes and this is why, washing powders designed for colored clothes don’t contain any bleach.

Why is flu more prevalent in winter?

Why is flu more prevalent in winter?

we think flu spreads better in winter because of human behaviour because it does this reproducibly in every country in the world and in which it is winter time - it doesn’t mean it goes away completely in summer but it does come much more commonly in winter.

We think that’s because it spreads better in winter because of what humans do. We go indoors more in winter so there are more people together indoors with the windows closed. Also, unlike summer time, it’s less light and therefore there's less ultraviolet radiation to dry out the virus and kill it. So 'flu finds it easier to persist on surfaces spread by coughs and sneezes, and it hangs around for longer.

As a result you have a higher chance of passing it on so that’s what we think goes on. And then the big determinant, the disproportionate determinant, is the school year. The long summer school holiday powerfully knocks 'flu on the head because kids stop mixing and spreading the infection amongst themselves. What normally happens is that they become infected and then go home and give it to their parents and the parents then carry the infection to all of the other parts of the social and age strata, usually through their workplace.

why don't woodpeckers get brain damage when they hammer into a tree?

why don't woodpeckers get brain damage when they hammer into a tree?

In the late 1970s scientists tackled this by using a very fast camera capable of taking 2000 pictures every second. Analysis of these images showed that a woodpecker's head tolerates a force of about 12 thousand times the force of gravity whenever it hits something, which is a considerable force going through its head, so why shouldn't it get brain damage? Well there are various woodpecker adaptations which means they are able to cope with this trauma, and one of them is that their skull bones are quite spongy which mean they can absorb shocks very well. Another adaptation is that a woodpecker's brain is small and so has a very big surface area to weight ratio, and so the force is spread over a large area. The photography also revealed that woodpeckers line their heads up very straight with whatever they tap into, so there's no rotational injury which, at least in people involved in car accidents, is a major cause of brain injury as delicate nerve fibres are torn by the brain trying to twist on itself.

How do whales hunt and eat prey without swallowing gallons of water?

How do whales hunt and eat prey without swallowing gallons of water?

They filter the water. If you've ever seen a baleen whale, they have a big floppy sack under their jaw, called a baleen, which works like a giant tea strainer. The whale takes a mouthful of water and then squirts it out again through the baleen, trapping all the plankton they want to eat in there so they swallow just plankton and not mouthfuls of water.

Can lightning re-start your heart?

As lightning can strike in the same place twice if you get struck by lightning and it stops your heart and then you get struck by it again would it restart you heart?

Firstly the short answer is yes, it is possible that being struck twice by lightning would firstly stop your heart and then restart your heart. The answer is a bit more complicated than that though. The heart cells maintain a voltage drop across them which controls the inflow and outflow of ions. These ions allow the heart to beat. If the heart’s struck by lightning that voltage drop is immediate and the heart will contract. Unfortunately if the lightning strikes the heart at the wrong part of its relaxation the cells will not contract together, rather chaotically. The heart will enter a rhythm called fibrillation. This doesn’t allow it to pump. For that reason the pulse would stop and the heart would be said to be arrested.

If a second strike of lightning or an electric shock occurred at the same point when a heart was fibrillating it would be possible that the heart cells would all contract together in a more ordered fashion. However, there is a problem. The heart could also be struck by lightning and instead of going into this fibrillating chaotic rhythm it could go into no rhythm at all. It could quite simply not beat again. That’s called asystole. It doesn’t end there unfortunately, our poor unfortunate victim also suffers elsewhere. It’s likely that the chest would become relatively stiff and the chest muscles would go into spasm. These muscles take a lot longer to recover than heart muscles so it would be very unlikely that your victim would be able to breathe again. For that reason, although the heart may well restart the victim may well die.