Why are me and my brothers and sisters different, even though we have the same mummy and daddy

Genetics. You have to be pretty well-rested to get your head around it, and after last night's performance from my 18-month-old, well-rested I am not. I wonder if wakefulness is genetic? Here goes, anyway...

It is possible for two non-twin siblings to be identical, but very very unlikely. On average, we are 50% genetically similar to our siblings. Tell that to my two boys, who constantly get asked if they are twins!

Your commonplace human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes in nearly every cell of their body. One exception is in the man's sperm and in the woman's egg cells, where there are only half the number of chromosomes, one of each of the 23 pairs. To ensure that we don't end up all looking the same, when the pairs split in a sperm or egg cell, a process called recombination occurs, which is basically a scrambling of the DNA in each chromosome.

When a baby is made, the 23 chromosomes in the sperm and the 23 in the egg match up, making a unique human being, which has two copies of each of its unique genes.

So imagine the mother, with two copies of her own genes, meets with the father, who has two copies of his genes, then each trait they pass to their children is like the flip of a coin. Heads, you get stubbornness, tails you get double-jointedness, etc. It is very unlikely that you will get the exact same combination of heads and tails on 23 flips of the coin, two times over.

Make sense? Of course it doesn't, it's about the human body, a magical machine.

Mummy gave you this, daddy gave you that

If your child did ask this question, I guess the best way to explain it would be to say that you are half mummy and you are half daddy, but there are many different ways in which you can be like mummy and many different ways you can be like daddy. So each of your siblings is like mummy and like daddy in different ways.

Science fiends, please feel free to correct me in the comments!

Why do bees make honey?

The answer to this month's Why is actually pretty simple, however, I did find out a few other...buzzy...facts while researching it. Haaa. Sorry.

Bees make honey to fuel the hive over the winter time, when there is a shortage of nectar from flowers. So are we stealing their food? Well, it seems bees are so adept at making this store that each hive creates far more than they need, leaving plenty of the sweet stuff for us. However, I have read that a good beekeeper will leave enough of the bee's honey stores in the hive in case the bees should need it, or even store a little out of the hive in case they run out. 

How does the hive work?

The hive is made up of a Queen (you can call her Queen Bee), drones, and worker bees. 

The Queen is selected at 2 days old by the drones. She is there just for bee-making, and mates with the drones, who are also there just for this purpose. If the hive gets short on food, drones are often kicked out. 

The ones who mate with the Queen though, die immediately. I guess the other ones just hang around.

The worker bees are smaller and do all the work. Well, the other work. They collect nectar to make honey and feed the Queen and her babies, guard the hive from thieves, and keep the hive cool with the beat of their wings! They also produce the honeycomb the honey is kept in. 

The drones are male, by the way, and the workers are female. Just saying.

This article very clearly explains how the Queen is selected, in case you are interested.

Why honey?

Honey contains many nutrients and a high sugar content. so it's perfect energy food for active bees. The high sugar content and honeycomb storage means it keeps practically forever, as no fungi and the like can live in all that sugar. 

Next month

I have had a request for a genetics based question, which I have simplified to the following:

Why are me and my brothers and sisters different, even though we have the same mummy and daddy?

Wish me luck with that one!

Why do I have to wash my hands?

Welcome back, I hear you say. Where you been? Good question, but not as good as my first Why of 2014. 

I have a monster of a cold sore at the moment. Actually, it's more like several cold sores, and they're spilling down from the corner of my mouth like poorly applied lipstick, only not as attractive. I am hopeful (but feel it is unlikely) my boys don't catch the pesky virus that causes these unsightly menaces.  For this reason, I try to keep them away from any cups or cutlery I have used while sporting one. I also try not to kiss them, which is hard, and try to keep their hands away from my face, which is pretty much impossible.

So yesterday the baby was reaching for my homemade iceblock, despite the fact he had his own in the other hand (other people's treats look so much tastier than your own). "No," I said, "you don't want mummy's one. You might catch my cold sore."

"What you say mummy?" asked the nearly-three. "Is there sores on your iceblock?"

This wasn't exactly a Why, but it did lead to a lot of Whying, so I decided to find a better way to explain germs to kids. 

What are germs?

Well, in this context, germs are little illness causing pests that get into our bodies through our noses, mouths, eyes (or even bottoms!), usually through our hands touching a surface or another person that has that germ on them.

Germs are little organisms that come in 4 forms: Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi and Protozoa.

Bacteria can be good, but the ones we need to watch out for are the ones that like to find their way inside our bodies and cause infection. Bacterial infections can be sore throats, tooth cavities or ear infections.

Viruses need to find a home inside a living thing, or they cannot survive. If you have a virus inside your body, you are its host, even if you don't want to be! Most viruses are fought off by your body, but some, like the coldsore virus, stop reproducing and have a little sleep for a while inside our bodies, then come back out now and again. Grr.

Fungi, like mould and mushrooms, like to grow in dark, damp places. Fungal infections are not usually dangerous, but can be uncomfortable. Babies can get fungal rashes if their damp nappies are left on too long.

Protozoa are organisms that like to live in water. When they get inside us, they can cause vomiting and diarrhea.

How are they spread?


Well, it's pretty obvious isn't it, but how do we get it through to our mucky little people who are too busy to wash their hands? When researching this question, I came across this excellent website which explains a fun way to show kids why they need to wash their hands, using glitter.

My boy is quite into looking at microscopes and magnifying glasses at present, so perhaps another way to show kids there is more out there than what they can see, would be to use a microscope or glass as an example.

See, the spider you killed has little hairs on his legs, but we couldn't see those before. Well, it's possible the sandpit has lots of little germs in it that could give you a cold or a sore tummy, so we should wash our hands before we eat lunch....

Worth a try.

Next month (yes, it's monthly now, I'm busy)

Why do bees make honey? Buzz, buzz, buzz, I wonder why he does!

Why the why phase?

So, it's happened. It's really happened. Our boy is now 2 years and 8 months old and he has entered The Why Phase, for real. Everything he sees, everything he does....

Okay, I have to interrupt myself to supply you with a live quote. He just walked in (I had thought I had a few minutes peace, but perhaps not): What you doing up here mum? doing some work. Why? Why you doing that mum? Why you up here? I'm just trying to do some writing. But, why?

Why, indeed. Trying, being the operative word.

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Okay, I'm back. The inquisitive one is sleeping, as is his grabby hands brother. Having Zephyr enter the Why Phase has at least provided me with endless questions for this blog, although many of them are not particularly interesting for the adult reader. (Eg: "Why is that dog there?" Urr....)

The Why I am interested in at the moment is this: Why do kids go through the Why Phase? I mean, obviously there is a lot they don't know, and asking questions is the best way to gain knowledge, but is there more to it?

By around two and a half, most kids have a pretty good grasp on language, (even if only their mothers can understand what they're saying), so perhaps they have simply found the word they were looking for all this time - something that helps them glean the information they need to figure this world out. Whhhhyyyy?

But it often seems to me Zephyr is also trying to communicate with me on a new level, and this is something a lot of mothers in online forums on the subject seem to agree with.

At around three years, the child wants to talk, constantly, and sometimes they can't find a subject to talk about, so they pick something at random and ask you a question about it. If you listen to yourself as a parent, you will notice you are almost constantly asking your child questions, even ones you don't particularly want their opinions on, like 'shall we go now?' (read: it's time to go.)

So, the child is imitating you, in a way, by using questions to get a conversation going. Perhaps children are particularly sensitive to awkward silences. Oh, silences, I remember you.

It could also be to do with imagination. Zephyr's imagination is amazing, if I do say so as his unbiased mother, and seemingly limitless. When in role play mode (which is often), he can morph from a train to a lion to a holepunch in moments, absolutely becoming these things. His surroundings become a train station, a chair a tunnel, his brother a mountain to steam over.

With an imagination like that, the possibilities are endless and it's probably hard for him to see the difference between what's real and what isn't. Thus, all the questions. He needs to know the facts to help him figure out the truth. And why wouldn't there be a logical reason for that dog being there? There seems to be a logical reason for all sorts of things.

I guess the moral of the post is never to dismiss a Why, even if it seems silly to us adults. And try to suppress your giggle when the question verges on the ridiculous.

But who am I to preach? We do our best, and personally I believe that by the end of the day I deserve some kind of golden statue with my name printed on it if I haven't at least once said 'I don't know, Zephyr, I just don't know."

Why do cats purr?

Last week our 9-month-old discovered Mitzi, his Nana and Grandpa's cat. Poor Mitzi. 

When we lived at their house, our big boy was 18 months old and spent a good part of each day holding onto the cat's tail and getting pulled around the kitchen floor, and another good part of the day crying over his scratches. I never understood why the cat didn't scarper when he saw those little hands reaching for his fluff. I guess curiosity got the better of both of them.

Consoling the cat after his baby encounter, I got thinking about purring. I had heard one of the reasons cats purr is to heal themselves, but like a lot of the Whys on this blog, I couldn't be sure.

Purr to cure

It turns out there are a few reasons why cats purr, and yes, healing does appear to be one of them. Research has shown that certain frequencies of sound can improve bone density and muscle strength - and a cat's purr falls within these frequencies. Since cats spend so much of their time sleeping and resting, it's possible that purring helps to prevent the kinds of osteopathic problems experienced by humans who are unable to move around freely. It could also be the reason why cats are so hardy - the fact behind the myth that cats have nine lives.

As well as using purring to express their contentment, cats also purr when they are under stress, like at the vets or when in labour. This might be a coping mechanism as well as a way to help with healing.

Ommmm

If you have ever practiced Yoga, you will have heard or even performed a few oms. Ommmmmm... There is something quite soothing about omming, no matter how silly you might feel when you're doing it. I have been known to use oms to soothe my babies to sleep. It works, especially when you've dealing with one of those over-tired screechy cries.

Perhaps purring works in a similar way. It turns out that the purr of a cat can also soothe and heal their human slaves - I mean masters. And cat owners are 40% less likely to have a heart attack than those without feline friends.

Seems like good enough reasons to own a cat. But is it cruel to bring a cat into a house with two small boys?

I'm thinking we'll wait until the little one is old enough to listen to reason. That will happen, right?

Here's a link to a video about Smokey, the cat with the loudest known purr in the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akcALE_R7-o

Why does snow fall in such cool shapes?

We went to the snow last week! It took some effort and planning, taking two little dudes on a plane to the other end of the country (for those of you reading this from overseas, this flight only took an hour and a half, so don't be too impressed) and then getting them up and down mountains each day, but it was worth it. 

The two-year-old is now obsessed with mountains and snowboarding and keeps saying he wants to go back to "Keenstown". The 8-month-old was impressed for the first half hour of each trip up the mountain, then his mood generally deteriorated. Fair enough when nobody will put you down to crawl on that slippery white stuff and you're wearing a stuffy ski suit that makes you look like Maggie Simpson. How degrading!

In the flurry of planning and packing and traveling and recovering, this blog has been neglected. But here I am again, in sunnyrainy Auckland, where the winter never really happens, but where our lives do.

I can't say I saw it snow while we were in Queenstown. In fact, the weather was pretty warm the whole time we were there and the snow conditions were definitely Spring-like, with a good deal of slush at the end of each day. Despite not seeing a single snowflake land, I did get thinking about snowflake related questions, like today's Why.

Why do snowflakes make such awesome shapes?

Obviously, like other forms of precipitation, snow comes from the clouds. There is a whole lot of vapour up there milling around and eventually it needs to come down. The temperature needs to be below freezing for the vapour to form ice crystals, which will make up our beloved snowflakes.

Crystallization is one of those amazing things that happen on Earth, which remain amazing despite being explained by science. Like other crystals, ice crystals need a starting point to grow from. Often, this happens when cold water vapour hits and clings onto a dust particle, which can even be a bit of space dust. I always knew there was something mystical about snow.

Once the nucleus of the crystal has formed, the water molecules arrange themselves into an hexagonal shape, as this is the natural pattern created when you bond hydrogen and oxygen to make water.

As it falls towards the Earth, the ice crystal meets up with more cold water vapour, which attaches itself to the six sides, making the six crystalline arms you usually associate with snowflakes. Sometimes, these crystals attach themselves to other ones that are falling through the air at the same time, making the big, fat fluffy flakes I so miss from North America.

It needs to be below zero all the way down to the ground for the crystals to fall as snow, otherwise they may turn into hail or even rain.

Why is each snowflake unique?

The ice crystals grow and change as they fall through the atmosphere depending on the temperature and levels of humidity they encounter. Slight changes in temperature and humidity will distinctively change the shape of the crystal, so for this reason, with all the shifting air in the wintery sky, each snowflake is likely to form slightly differently.

Fun fact: the largest recorded snowflake was 38cm and fell in Fort Keough, Montana, USA in 1887. However, this was apparently observed by a farmer who described the flakes as 'larger than milk pans'. Sounds a bit dubious to me.

Why do we use the terms West and East to describe parts of the world?

A simple answer to this question is to point to a map. There you have it: West is on the left, East is on the right. But this leads to another question: Why are most maps set out that way?

We humans a bit obsessed with trying to order the world. We give labels to everything in it, including the tiniest molecules, so of course it follows that we have divided the actual globe into segments. These can be called the Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern hemispheres. 

Most people are aware of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and since the Earth spins on its North-South axis, these don't change, so they are an easy concept to understand. 

A Pacific-centred map

However, what makes the Eastern and Western hemispheres more difficult is perspective. From New Zealand, Africa, Asia and Europe would be West, the Americas, East. 

To make things clear, people got together back in 1884 in the USA and had a conference. At this International Meridian Conference, they decided to agree that one spot on the globe would be referred to as the international zero longitude reference line, or the Prime Meridian. 

Probably because of where a lot of these people originated from, they decided on a place in the United Kingdom, called Greenwich.

A line running North-South through Greenwich thus divides the Earth into Eastern and Western hemispheres. Using this point as zero longitude and the Equator as the North-South divide, we can reference any point on the globe using numbers. Clever old humans. 

What about the Western/Eastern world in terms of politics?

Err, yeah. I'm not getting into that. But, in short, these terms are often used without reference to the lines on the map. When people talk about the Western world in terms of politics or wealth, they often mean the First World. So Australia and New Zealand are the 'West' in terms of way of life, despite being in the Eastern hemisphere.

My kid is lost

I don't blame it. You will need to explain latitude and longitude. An easy way to do this is to look at a map, or even better, a globe, and point out the lines that run through it. Everything is new to kids, so to tell them that people all agree that this one line is where we divide the world into West and East should be pretty simple. 

You could get out the compass and have a bit of an orienteering session on the lawn to get directions sorted. This concept is probably a 4 years+ Why, or maybe older? Those of you with 4-year-olds will be able to tell me this...I'm still dealing with the terrific twos. Good luck!

Next time

I don't have another Why just yet, so I'm going to call for questions again. Comment below if you have one. You have two weeks to think about it. Get whying.