If a mosquito is hit by a drop of water, will it die? Are ducks faithful to a partner all their lives? Which animals are biggest, are the champions, are fastest? And how many acorns does a squirrel actually have time to peel in one day? The duty biol ...
If a mosquito is hit by a drop of water, will it die? Are ducks faithful to a partner all their lives? Which animals are biggest, are the champions, are fastest? And how many acorns does a squirrel actually have time to peel in one day? The duty biologist is at your service and answers every possible – or impossible – question about animals!
What do we humans wonder about nature? Lars-Åke Janzon, is the duty biologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. For the last ten years, he has answered our commonest, craziest and most difficult questions about animals and nature. People contact him because they are curious, amazed, frightened or simply because they must have the answer to a question.
This book is based on questions that the general public have asked the duty biologist. The questions make you want to learn more. An astounding event or observation is often the starting point, then the subject is developed with exciting facts and arguments. It might be about the magnetic sense of the robin redbreast, how cats purr or why insects can’t get fat. Whether fish can swim backwards, and that as many as 78,000 hairs have been counted on one foot of a spider.
Lars-Åke Janzon, PhD., is the ‘duty biologist’ and first curator of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. He has contributed to a large number of academic and popular scientific publications, and is often consulted by the media when they need an expert opinion.