- Email: [email protected]
Balanced lifestyles
Last words past and present, plus questions, at www.last-word.com
THE LAST WORD Water world The Last Word has told us what percentage of the UK’s surface area is roads (24 January 2004), but having just returned from the Netherlands I would like to know what percentage of the surface area of that country is water.
■ Official statistics say that 19.3 per cent of the Netherlands’ surface area is water. But any area of water less than 6 metres across is counted as land. So the total area of water will be well over 20 per cent. K. A. H. W. Leenders Historical geographer The Hague, The Netherlands ■ Ah – the Netherlands. The land of dykes, canals and windmills – and 18.41 per cent water. The Netherlands is the world’s fourth most watery nation, behind the Bahamas (27.76 per cent), GuineaBissau (22.48 per cent) and Malawi (20.49 per cent). The total area of the Netherlands is 41,526 square kilometres, of which 33,883 square kilometres is land – 27 per cent of it below sea level – and 7643 square kilometres water. Despite the best efforts of nature, the amount of land is increasing, thanks to modern versions of the dykes and windmills for which the country is famous: since the 13th century, 10 per cent of the total land area of the country has been reclaimed from the sea as polders. These are beds of artificial lakes that are bounded
Questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Include a daytime telephone number and email address if you have one. Restrict questions to scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena. The writers of published answers will receive a cheque for £25 (or US$ equivalent). Reed Business Information Ltd reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material submitted by readers in any medium or format.
by dykes, pumped dry by in hot climates – blood in the windmills and drained by canals. legs will heat up quickly, so However, it’s not just the sea keeping one leg close to the that the besieged Dutch battle. body will reduce this effect The Netherlands lies at the mouth and help the birds to maintain of three major rivers: the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt. Apart “Keeping the raised leg at from the famous dykes protecting a level closer to the heart may reduce the work half the land from sleeping with needed to pump blood” the fishes, other dams and levees along these rivers protect against a stable body temperature. freshwater flooding. Another factor in long-legged James England birds is that it may require Woodville South, South Australia significant work to pump blood back up the leg through narrow Balanced lifestyles capillaries. Keeping the leg at Why do some birds stand on a level closer to the heart may one leg? reduce this workload. It is also worth remembering Thanks to all those who offered that birds’ legs are articulated the answer: “If they picked up the differently to ours – what looks other leg they’d fall over.” The old like the knee is in fact more like jokes are still the best – Ed our ankle. Many birds have a mechanism to “lock” the leg ■ It has been proposed that the straight, so for them it is much reason that flamingos stand on easier to stand for hours on end one leg is so ducks don’t swim into on just one leg – on numerous them as often! The most likely occasions I have seen birds take answer, though, has to do with off, and even land, on one leg. energy conservation. In cold Rob Robinson weather, birds can lose a lot of Senior population biologist heat through their legs because British Trust for Ornithology the blood vessels there are close to Thetford, Norfolk, UK the surface. To reduce this, many species have a counter-current THIS WEEK’S system of intertwined blood QUESTIONS vessels so that blood from the SALT ASSAULT body warms the cooler blood We heard that a bowl of Epsom returning from the feet. Keeping salts placed near a computer or one leg tucked inside their TV reduces microwave emissions, feathers and close to the warm and these cause the crystals to body is another strategy to turn to powder over time. This reduce heat loss. sounds like an urban myth, but I imagine the converse is true
New Scientist retains total editorial control over the content of The Last Word. Send questions and answers to The Last Word, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, UK, by email to [email protected] or visit www.last-word.com (please include a postal address in order to receive payment for answers). For a list of all unanswered questions send an SAE to LWQlist at the above address.
Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? A brand new collection ight serious enquiry, brilliant insight cted and the hilariously unexpected Available from booksellers m/ and at www.newscientist.com/ polarbears
we tried it. To our surprise, the salts turned to powder within a week or two. Why does this occur? Are microwaves really involved? Arlene Dowling Australia THE COLOUR OF ANEMONE
For a scuba diver, one of the best underwater sights is a rock face covered in brilliantly coloured jewel anemones (Corynactis viridis). They exist in many colours, and often vivid contrasting colours are found side by side. There are also subdued, semi-transparent variants. Most species of wild animals have evolved to just one or a narrow range of colours, while flowers can have range of vivid colours, presumably to attract a variety of insects. As far as I know, the anemones aren’t trying to attract their prey – it just arrives on the current. So why are they so vivid and so varied? George Gall Truro, Cornwall, UK CITRIC SURPRISE
Some friends and I were drinking from a jug of water that contained wedges of both lime and lemon. All the lemon wedges were floating, but all the lime wedges had sunk to the bottom of the jug. There were enough pieces of both for us to infer this was not just coincidence, and all of us were pretty certain that we’d seen lime slices floating before. Can anyone offer an explanation? Bladon Mooney Leicester, UK
THE LAST WORD Water world The Last Word has told us what percentage of the UK’s surface area is roads (24 January 2004), but having just returned from the Netherlands I would like to know what percentage of the surface area of that country is water.
■ Official statistics say that 19.3 per cent of the Netherlands’ surface area is water. But any area of water less than 6 metres across is counted as land. So the total area of water will be well over 20 per cent. K. A. H. W. Leenders Historical geographer The Hague, The Netherlands ■ Ah – the Netherlands. The land of dykes, canals and windmills – and 18.41 per cent water. The Netherlands is the world’s fourth most watery nation, behind the Bahamas (27.76 per cent), GuineaBissau (22.48 per cent) and Malawi (20.49 per cent). The total area of the Netherlands is 41,526 square kilometres, of which 33,883 square kilometres is land – 27 per cent of it below sea level – and 7643 square kilometres water. Despite the best efforts of nature, the amount of land is increasing, thanks to modern versions of the dykes and windmills for which the country is famous: since the 13th century, 10 per cent of the total land area of the country has been reclaimed from the sea as polders. These are beds of artificial lakes that are bounded
Questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Include a daytime telephone number and email address if you have one. Restrict questions to scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena. The writers of published answers will receive a cheque for £25 (or US$ equivalent). Reed Business Information Ltd reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material submitted by readers in any medium or format.
by dykes, pumped dry by in hot climates – blood in the windmills and drained by canals. legs will heat up quickly, so However, it’s not just the sea keeping one leg close to the that the besieged Dutch battle. body will reduce this effect The Netherlands lies at the mouth and help the birds to maintain of three major rivers: the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt. Apart “Keeping the raised leg at from the famous dykes protecting a level closer to the heart may reduce the work half the land from sleeping with needed to pump blood” the fishes, other dams and levees along these rivers protect against a stable body temperature. freshwater flooding. Another factor in long-legged James England birds is that it may require Woodville South, South Australia significant work to pump blood back up the leg through narrow Balanced lifestyles capillaries. Keeping the leg at Why do some birds stand on a level closer to the heart may one leg? reduce this workload. It is also worth remembering Thanks to all those who offered that birds’ legs are articulated the answer: “If they picked up the differently to ours – what looks other leg they’d fall over.” The old like the knee is in fact more like jokes are still the best – Ed our ankle. Many birds have a mechanism to “lock” the leg ■ It has been proposed that the straight, so for them it is much reason that flamingos stand on easier to stand for hours on end one leg is so ducks don’t swim into on just one leg – on numerous them as often! The most likely occasions I have seen birds take answer, though, has to do with off, and even land, on one leg. energy conservation. In cold Rob Robinson weather, birds can lose a lot of Senior population biologist heat through their legs because British Trust for Ornithology the blood vessels there are close to Thetford, Norfolk, UK the surface. To reduce this, many species have a counter-current THIS WEEK’S system of intertwined blood QUESTIONS vessels so that blood from the SALT ASSAULT body warms the cooler blood We heard that a bowl of Epsom returning from the feet. Keeping salts placed near a computer or one leg tucked inside their TV reduces microwave emissions, feathers and close to the warm and these cause the crystals to body is another strategy to turn to powder over time. This reduce heat loss. sounds like an urban myth, but I imagine the converse is true
New Scientist retains total editorial control over the content of The Last Word. Send questions and answers to The Last Word, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, UK, by email to [email protected] or visit www.last-word.com (please include a postal address in order to receive payment for answers). For a list of all unanswered questions send an SAE to LWQlist at the above address.
Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? A brand new collection ight serious enquiry, brilliant insight cted and the hilariously unexpected Available from booksellers m/ and at www.newscientist.com/ polarbears
we tried it. To our surprise, the salts turned to powder within a week or two. Why does this occur? Are microwaves really involved? Arlene Dowling Australia THE COLOUR OF ANEMONE
For a scuba diver, one of the best underwater sights is a rock face covered in brilliantly coloured jewel anemones (Corynactis viridis). They exist in many colours, and often vivid contrasting colours are found side by side. There are also subdued, semi-transparent variants. Most species of wild animals have evolved to just one or a narrow range of colours, while flowers can have range of vivid colours, presumably to attract a variety of insects. As far as I know, the anemones aren’t trying to attract their prey – it just arrives on the current. So why are they so vivid and so varied? George Gall Truro, Cornwall, UK CITRIC SURPRISE
Some friends and I were drinking from a jug of water that contained wedges of both lime and lemon. All the lemon wedges were floating, but all the lime wedges had sunk to the bottom of the jug. There were enough pieces of both for us to infer this was not just coincidence, and all of us were pretty certain that we’d seen lime slices floating before. Can anyone offer an explanation? Bladon Mooney Leicester, UK