Why is it difficult to drown an ant? The reason is water doesn't penetrate their tiny breathing tubes. Water has a lot of surface tension and merely surrounds the ants. If our own breathing tubes were blocked, we'd die from the lack of oxygen. Ants just suffer from excess carbon dioxide, which knocks them out, maybe for a couple of hours. If they don't make it to dry land, they will eventually die, but it's amazing how long they can last. During heavy rainstorms, ants go deep underground and then dig their way out when the rain stops. Carnivorous animals don't eat a balanced diet but they seem to be healthy. Why? Predators stay healthy because they eat an entire animal, rather than just bits. For example, an owl wolfs down a whole rat. This is a great way to get all your nutrients in one meal. Why were astronauts on the moon missions quarantined when they returned to earth? The astronauts were wearing protective suits when they were plucked out of the ocean on their return to earth. Together with the moon rocks they brought back, they were flown to NASA quarantine laboratory in Houston. These precautions ensured the astronauts did not bring back a killer bacterium or virus from the moon which could endanger life on earth. Smokers are more likely to get lung cancer. Why? People who smoke have a 17 times higher risk of getting the disease than non-smokers. This ratio is too big to be explained away. Tobacco smoke has been shown to cause lung cancer in laboratory animals. Tobacco contains more than 40 known carcinogens, substances which can cause cancer. Somehow, these cause cells to divide uncontrollably and form lumps where they don't belong. A cell normally has a built-in mechanism to tell it when to stop dividing and when to die. If that mechanism is damaged, for example by carcinogens in tobacco, you can get cancer.
