Potatoes are tubers produced by the stems of the plant called Solanum tuberosum, which is part of the same family as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines. The plant produces tubers to…
Plants respond to gravity and to light, with roots growing downwards and away from the light, and shoots growing upwards and towards the light. The response to gravity is called…
A seed is a minute dormant plant that is waiting for the right conditions to grow (germinate). Seeds range from orchid seeds weighing a millionth of a gram to seeds…
Plants need water. Water in the cells helps plants to grow and make food, makes leaves and stems firm (a plant that needs watering wilts), and carries minerals from the…
Eggshells are fragile. Everyone knows that. Drop an egg on the floor, or knock it against a sharp edge (like a frying pan) and that is it – eggshell, white…
Do plants breathe? Yes and no… Breathing and respiring are two different things. Mammals, including humans, breathe by using muscles to pull air into the lungs and push it out,…
When an acid is mixed with a carbonate, a type of alkaline chemical, the two chemicals react and form the gas carbon dioxide. This can be quite dramatic! Making Gas…
The body’s sense of touch is a combination of pressure, pain and temperature. Different parts of the body have different numbers of nerve endings, because it’s more important to be…
New pennies and two pence pieces are bright copper, but after a while, they turn dull. This is because the copper reacts with oxygen in the air to form copper…
