PHOTO: THINKSTOCK X4, NASA, PRESS ASSOCIATION, ALAMY
Our brain is divided into two
hemispheres with the left hemisphere
controlling the right side of the body and
the right hemisphere controlling the left.
But the left hemisphere is also specialised
for language. Language processing
involves fine motor control and the ability
to work with precisely timed sequences.
Both of these things are also useful for
manual dexterity. As we evolved
sophisticated language, the lefthemisphere seems to have got better at
co-ordinating the side of the body that it
controls and so we tend to favour that
side. The reason left-handedness hasn’t
been eliminated is that historically it gave
you an advantage in hand-to-hand
combat, against opponents expecting you
to swing with your right. Left-handedness
is only useful in this way when it is rare, so
natural selection has held it at around 10
per cent of the population. LVWhy are most people
right-handed?
In Numbers91 metres
(300ft) is the length of the longest aircraft.
The helium-filled hybrid Airlander is being
developed by a British company to deliver
cargo and passengers.One of the greatest
ever guitarists,
Jimi Hendrix was
left-handedNothing physical can exist with literally
zero thickness, as its atoms have a finite size.
But there are many examples of so-called
‘monolayers’ just one molecule – or a few
tens of billionths of a metre – in thickness.
The most familiar are monolayers of oil in
puddles, which are so thin they split light into
its constituent colours. RMIs anything actually
2D?
Why don’t we eat
turkey eggs?
Because they are uneconomic to
produce. Turkey eggs have a rich taste and
work well in most recipes that use chicken
eggs. They are much larger, with tougher
shells, larger yolks and a higher proportion
of yolk to white. Depending on the breed,
they weigh from 65g (the size of a large
chicken egg) to 110g. The problem is that
turkeys can take up to 32 weeks to start
laying and then lay only around 100 eggs a
year. Chickens typically start laying within 20
weeks and produce about 300 eggs a year.
This is because they’ve been bred to turn
food efficiently into eggs but turkeys have
been bred to produce meat. It would be quite
possible to breed turkeys for egg production,
but at the moment you are likely to be able to
buy them only from specialist producers and
bird rescue farms. SBWhat’s the difference
between steam and
mist?
Water can exist in three forms, or
‘phases’ : liquid (running water), solid (ice),
and gaseous – better known as steam. But
contrary to popular belief, steam is invisible,
as the water molecules in it are too hot to
stick together in visible quantities. When they
cool down they can stick together, forming
mist. RMA film of oil on water is able to split light into its coloursWater looks like it has misterious properties when
airborne&
Luckily for the turkey, its eggs are too expensive to
produce, but its luck runs out come Christmas