Question Of The Week - From The Naked Scientists

Beth wrote in to ask "My dog is always licking her fur but never gets a hairball. Why don't dogs get hairballs?" Sally Le Page spoke to three animal aficionados: Nick Sutton, Science Communications Advisor at The Kennel Club; Justine Shotton, Junior Vice President at the British Veterinary Association; and Ann Hohenhaus, Staff Doctor at NYC's Animal Medical Center for the answer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Wayne got in touch to ask: "We've always learned that heat rises but it's normally cooler in the mountains. Shouldn't their higher elevation make it warmer there?" Sally Le Page reached out to atmospheric physicist Simon Clark for the answer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Paul got in touch to ask "If one is recovering or has recovered from covid, would playing bagpipes help to expand the lungs and be beneficial or detrimental?". Adam Murphy reached out to John Dickinson from the University of Kent and Michael Steiner from the University of Leicester for the answer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Johan aged 5 got in touch to ask: "Why are crocodiles' skin so bumpy and not smooth?" Sally Le Page reached out to James Hennessy from Ireland's National Reptile Zoo for the answer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, Phil Sansom has been thinking deeply - or rather, sinking deeply - about this question from listener Richard. "Will a can of soda dropped in the ocean sink until it implodes, or float once it reaches equilibrium?" Here's the answer, with help from the Cambridge Science Centre's Mia Foulkes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, Charlotte Birkmanis is chilling out, as she answers Alan's cool question: "I have heard it said many times that no two snowflakes are the same. Given the billions and billions of them that have fallen to Earth, this really does seem unlikely. Since nobody has looked at them all, would you agree with me that the only thing to be said with any certainty, is that no researcher has ever found two the same?" Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, we're turning up the heat, as Adam Murphy's been looking into Kelvin's question: "We are told not to overcook our vegetables because this kills the nutrients. Now if that's the case, why don't we just overcook the food we enjoy and not run the risk of putting on weight?" Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, urine for a treat - Phil Sansom tackles this question from listener Trent. "Every time I walk my dog, it pees on the tyre of a particular trailer. It got me thinking: urine contains uric acid. Is that strong enough to eat through the rubber of the tyre? If so, how long would it take?" Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Jeffrey got in touch to ask: "We've had a cold and snowy winter, and I've had to shovel my driveway every few days. We had a fly in our house, and I was curious if it survived the cold somehow, or recently hatched?" Adam Murphy got in touch with Erica McAlister, fly specialist and Senior Curator from the Natural History Museum in London to fly in an answer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Listener Ellie wanted to know: "how do ZIP files work on my computer?" Phil Sansom unzipped the question - with an answer from research data scientist Peter Foster... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Quantum hats on for this week's 'exciting' question! Listener Mejnun says: "I have learned at school that when an electron excites it jumps to another orbital around the nucleus. If an electron jumps an orbital you would expect that at that moment it can be found between the two orbitals. My teacher told me that this is never the case. I can not wrap my head around it. Does the particle just disappear in one orbital and appear in the other? Is this instant, is the particle in the other orbital the same? Can you please help me to understand this?" Phil Sansom asked physicist Ankita Anirban to... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Nancy asked: "Why does chilli stay on your fingers for so long after cooking with them, even after you wash your hands multiple times it can still hurt if you touch your eyes?" So what's the answer to this burning question. Adam Murphy asked chemist Tim Woodman, from the University of Bath... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Listener Mattie asked "If humans have too many or too few chromosomes it can cause them to be infertile. So how did different creatures get different numbers of them? For example, humans have 46 chromosomes, but mice have 40." Eva Higginbotham asked genome evolution expert Hugues Roest Crollius... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Listener Douglas asked us: "do animals get bored eating the same thing all the time? Like sheep - do they get bored of one type of grass?" Katie Haylor bored deep into the question, with help from neuroscientist James Danckert... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Listener Michael got in touch to ask "Why can't batteries, such as AA or AAA size, be recharged? What's the difference between regular batteries and rechargeables, especially lithium ones? Is this a 'big battery' conspiracy to sell more batteries, or are there valid reasons?" Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Pavel got in touch to ask "Take sunglasses and remove one lens. Watch a normal television film with one eye darkened by a sunglass lens, and the other free. The film will appear in 3D. Can someone explain to me, how does this work?" After dusting off her sunglasses, Eva Higginbotham put the question to 3D vision expert Andrew Glennerster from the University of Reading... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

James got in touch to ask us: "What were the health impacts of the vastly different diets and lifestyles of aristocrats and peasants? Would wealthy Roman patricians be much smarter than plebeians based solely on improved nutrition?" Hungry for answers, Adam Murphy spoke to University of Cambridge archaeologist Sam Leggett, and the University of Bristol's Julie Dunne... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Listener David asked: "Would a foetus develop differently in zero gravity conditions?" Adam Murphy found an answer with the help of reproductive biologist Adam Watkins, from the University of Nottingham... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

"Assuming there are a finite number of musical notes - chords, notes, octaves - at what point, how many years, would we use all combinations of musical themes such that no more music could be created?" Creative computing expert Rebecca Fiebrink from UAL totted up the answer to listener David's musical musing for us... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Listener Eleanora asked: "I want to know why my dad shivers when he pees." Phil Sansom managed to find the answer to this 'Question of the Wee'.... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists