I have heard of animal that eat plants, and I have heard of animals that eat animals, and I have heard of plants the eat animals, but are there any plants that eat other plants?

Gurvinder Bhandal,

15,  Daventry, UK

It was about 300 mm long. One shot shows it cut open. If it is a plant, it was not obvious which was the attached end.

Being the heaviest organism on the planet (ignoring anything that photosynthesises or any ridiculously big fungi), baring in mind it lives in water, a blue whale is a huge lump of a mammal and probably has the capacity to reach some speed if given a chance and could probably cause great distress to krill populations if it where to waste more energy painting on go faster stripes. What's the fastest a blue whale has ever been recorded? It has probably never felt the need to outrun a predator or to leap on unsuspecting krill, and isn't really built for speed and has never seen the point in chasing after...anything at all...except krill...and maybe to out compete males if it itself is a male. Theoretically how fast could a blue whale swim if it let it's metaphorical hair down?

Being the heaviest living organism on the planet (that doesn't photosynthesise or isn't a ridiculously big fungi) , baring in mind that it lives in water, what's the fastest a Blue whale has been recorded swimming? being a huge lump of a mammal, it has probably never felt the need to out run anything or take on random spurts of speed to leap on krill, nor is it built to race...much at all...except krill..and maybe other blue whales for a mate. but theoretically how fast could a Blue Whale be if it let it's metaphorical hair down? Thomas Frost, Suffolk, UK

For women who have dogs or mice in their homes, they have found that some of their dirty underwear have holes in the crotch where a dog or mouse has chewed it up. What is in the vaginal discharge that attracts these animals?

This might sound like a silly question, but this happened to me and I looked online and found that it was not abnormal, and now I really want to know.

I know this is very subjective but I think you can generally say that most humans prefer the smell of most plants and their raw products to the smell of most animals and their raw products (I am not talking about fried meat), including other humans and even themselves.

At least, there hardly is a stink coming from a plant that compares with human or dogs' excrements, and I also can't think of a smell coming from animals that would be as pleasant as lilac, mint, whole uncut apples, trees "waking up" in early spring...

Even if there are, they are not so common.

Why is this? Do we instinctively like plants more because they give us the oxygen we need and don't compete with us about it?

Everyone has died so far, but people wonder if things are speeded up unnecessarily. Some claim that isolated Eskimos a century ago had "perfect" hearing at age sixty, but the introduction of snowmobiles and rifles led to most being deaf by the same age a generation or two later.

How does exposure to sunlight (with and without sunglasses) affect vision? How do other animals fare?

Some engines can operate at higher temperatures/pressures than the human body. On the other hand, vehicles have extra weight, possibly have different drag characteristics, etc. For "normal" speeds and loads, what would be the properties of a vehicle at a crossover point equal to the efficiency of an average human?