Why do clocks go clockwise?

Some of the earliest timepieces were

sundials. In the northern hemisphere,
the shadow of the dial traces
clockwise as the sun moves through
the sky, so when
clocks were
being
developed in
medieval
times, their
hands were
made
to turn in
the same
direction.
GM

Mengapa Gerakan Jarum Jam Dibuat Seperti Itu?
Jam matahari

Why do we toss and turn in our sleep?
While we dream, the nerves that control muscles, especially those of the back, neck, arms and legs, are
completed
disabled. This process is called atonia and has evolved specifically to prevent us from acting out
our dreams. The mechanism isnt completely reliable and sometimes dreams will begin or end outside of the
duration of
atonia, leaving you thrashing about beneath the sheets. Also, when you arent dreaming, you
retain muscle tone so you can move to a more comfortable position or steal the bed covers. LV

How did some birds
lose their ability to fly?
Gradually. Building wings and flying demands
lots of energy and food, so natural selection
weeds it out when it isnt neccessary. This
largely happened when birds arrived on
islands that had no land predators.
In these conditions, birds that spent fewer
resources building wings and flying had an
advantage and so passed on their smaller
wings and flight muscles to their offspring,
gradually producing a flightless species.
There are about 40 species of flightless
birds including the emu, rhea and penguin.
The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible
Island rail, which is 12.5cm (5in) long, weighing
just 35g (1.2oz). In contrast, the largest is the
ostrich at 2.7m (8.9ft) and 156kg (344lbs).
It was long thought that many flightless bird
species shared a common flying ancestor, but
recent genetic evidence suggests that most
lost their ability to fly independently. SB

Why are most humans
right-handed?
Nobody knows for sure. One theory for why over 90
per cent of us are right-handed is that since we alone
have language, which requires fine motor skills, it
makes sense for the same half of the brain to control
speech and motor function. Perhaps whole societies
benefit if everyone uses the same hand, but then a
few rebels might gain an advantage. This may be why
left-handers excel at tennis, fencing and boxing, their
moves unfamiliar to the majority right-handers.
Left-handers have been historically
reviled, but perhaps they won
enough fights to keep lefthandedness
in the human
population. SB

Born-again jellyfish
The key to staying young has
been found by a gelatinous
creature in the Mediterranean.
The so-called immortal
jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) is
the only animal that, in an
emergency, can avert death.
The jelly may seem little
more than a brainless blob the
size of a blueberry, but it has
the greatest power of all.
When the medusa the
domed, roaming adult form
to which the name jellyfish
normally refers is injured or
senses a life-threatening
situation, such as starvation, it
can revert to the earliest stage
of its life-cycle like a granny
morphing back into a baby.
Its an ugly process. Once
the invertebrate decides to
reboot, it turns inside-out,
everting its umbrella-shaped
bell and exposing its body
cavity. Its insides disintegrate
into a cellular slush and it
absorbs its tentacles. Unable to
swim, it sinks to the seabed, a
featureless blot of recycled cells.
The blob eventually sprouts a
polyp, the anemone-like
equivalent of a larva, and voila
the jellyfish is reborn.
The species thus turns back
time and gets a fresh start and
not just superficially. Dormant
genes switch on while others
turn off, orchestrating an
organism-wide transformation of
cells and tissues. Muscles morph
into, say, nerves and skin
cells, and the jelly is renewed
inside and out. Furthermore,
all medusae can perform this
otherworldly about-turn. It is a
lifelong talent and the ultimate
survival skill. DBB

What makes sliced apple
turn brown?
Its the plant trying to seal and
disinfect the wound. The colour
comes from melanins the same
compounds that darkens our skin.
When a plant cell ruptures, phenolic
compounds encounter an enzyme
called polyphenol oxidase and
oxidise. This causes quinones, which
combine to make antimicrobial
melanin barriers. YW

Why do we blink when we hear a loud noise?
This reaction is called the acoustic startle-reflex eye blink and
is part of the protective mechanism we show in response to
potential danger. Loud noises can mean danger and our eyes
need protecting more than most parts of our bodies. It
happens faster when people are frightened for
example, when told they are about to get an
electric shock, even if they dont get one.
Feeling relaxed decreases the response,
while trauma increases it. For example,
exaggerated startle reflexes have
been measured in people suffering
from post-traumatic stress,
including veterans of the Vietnam
and Gulf wars. Alcohol decreases
the effect, while amphetamines
increase it. SB