No taste without saliva

A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, a definite taste sensation results.

Grass scent is their distress signal

The smell of freshly cut grass is actually the scent that plants release when in distress. It’s the smell of chemical defences and first aid. Grass is so essential in life that humans could have never survived without it. For instance, wheat, corn and rice are all part of the grass family. Grasses provide nearly all our cereal crops as well as grazing for cattle and sheep.

How frogs throw up

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach’s contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 17th, 2018