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?

For a biology experiment i'm planning on finding out the affect of climate change on algae or marine plants. I'm unsure how heat will affect these two types of organisms.

I touched a young specimen of Padina gymnospora and its'wings' folded up, presumably to protect itself from predation.What is the mechanism behind this action?

 I saw a young specimen of Padina gymnospora fold its 'wings' when I touched it. Is this thigmonasty, as in plants?

Of all the CO2 taken in during a day, only some of it can be used with the remainder being exhaled.  Is there any way to characterize that amount as a very rough guide to understanding the consumption of CO2 by plants?+

I recently read that during a change in earth's climate 70 per cent of the creatures became extinct.  If we can predict this can we predict how many species were alive, for example do we know at what point the most species lived on the earth?

Surely it is not now.

People can be infected by bacteria, viruses, fungi and animal parasites, but are any human or animal diseases caused by plants?

Is it possible to suffer a moss infection, come down with a bad case of the ferns, or contract wisteria? If not, why have no plants taken advantage of us in this way?

Bevan Tattersfield, London, UK

My family has had this mundane debate for the past several years. My dad insists and is not open to the possibility that it can be a vegetable other than a potato. Is he correct?

Assuming that it is a fairly common vegetable to westerners and that all other factors are equal: time in oven, temperture of oven etc.

Basically: for the first 5 or so minutes upon being taken out of the oven, which vegetable would be the hottest?