Ridiculous question from the internet: I throw my cigarette butts and empty packs out the car window for birds to make nests. Is there anything else I can do for the environment?

Source of said ridiculous question: Yahoo Answers

Science’s answer: How… how on Earth is that helping the environment???? It is absolutely, unequivocally doing the opposite. Cigarette butts are the number one source of litter in the United States. When they have a filter, they are not biodegradable at all – they contain plastic and pile up in the environment. Birds do not make nests out of them, and if they did, that would be a problem, because they are full of poisons! Besides nicotine (itself a dangerous pesticide), there is often benzene, cadmium, and formaldehyde. Trust us – these are bad for anything that comes in contact with your butts, including birds. On top of all of that, they are a fire hazard, particularly in the drier parts of the country. Please stop throwing your cigarette butts out the window!

Ridiculous question from the internet: Does coal float?

Source of said ridiculous question: Google autofill

Science’s answer: I’ll start by saying that watching Monty Python is not a good way to learn about science. Very small rocks do not float, and coal doesn’t float either. There is one type of rock that does float, and that is pumice. Pumice is a type of volcanic rock that contains many air bubbles within it. If there are enough air bubbles in the pumice, it will displace more water than it’s own weight, and would therefore float. This is called Archimede’s Principle, and it’s also why large ships made of heavy steel can float.

Here are the answers to the other autocorrect questions: No, no, no, no (discussed above), yes, no, yes, yes?, and no.

Ridiculous question from the internet: How do I argue that climate change is fake?

Source of said ridiculous question: Yahoo Answers

Science’s answer: Look, UYBFS does not endorse spreading viewpoints that are directly contradicted by scientific facts, and that is exactly what you would be doing if you were to argue that climate change is fake. If however, this is an academic exercise – say you’ve been asked to take the anti-science side in a climate change debate for your debate club – our advise is to avoid the facts (pretty much all of which support man-made climate change) and focus on conspiracy theories. Maybe say that the whole climate change thing was made up by China in an attempt to slow the US economy? Sure, no rational person will (or should) believe this, but it will work better than talking about the actual facts.

Ridiculous question from the internet: How much garbage should I flush down the toilet?

Source of said ridiculous question: Yahoo Answers

Science’s answer: Why, why, WHY would you think it’s ok to flush garbage down toilets? You shouldn’t do this – ever, and here’s why. When you flush a toilet (or send water down any drain in a house), it can go into three different types of drainage systems. The first and most simple is a straight drainage system into a local water supply. These are rare in most developed countries, but they do exist. It’s easy to guess why putting garbage into these systems is bad – the garbage would go right into the local river, stream, bay, or ocean. That is not where trash should go.

The second type of system is an in-ground, self-contained septic system. These are very common in parts of the country where homes are spread out and connecting them via an in-ground sewer system is not practical. If you flush trash into one of these, you will eventually destroy it, and fixing or rebuilding them can be very expensive – tens of thousands of dollars. If your house or building has it’s own septic system and you have been flushing trash into it for years, my advice is to move ASAP before the system fails and hope that the landlord or home inspector doesn’t find the issue when he tests the system.

The third type of system is the standard sewer system, which connects houses and buildings in a town or city and brings all of the waste from each to a central facility for treatment. These are present in all large cities in developed countries and many smaller cities and towns as well. These systems can handle more then the first two, including ground up biodegradable garbage from in-sink garbage disposals. However, sending non-biodegradable trash into these systems can cause problems – big problems. Most famously, the city of London has been dealing with something called “fatbergs” in it’s sewer system for years. These are congealed masses of cooking oils and fats (which shouldn’t go down garbage disposals because they don’t mix with water) and non-biodegradable trash items like diapers and wet wipes. How bad can these be? Earlier this year, London dealt with a fatberg that was the length of two football fields and weighed as much as 11 buses. It took over 3 weeks to clear it out of the sewer. Don’t flush trash down the toilet.

Ridiculous question from the internet: Do trees have feelings or feel pain?

Source of said ridiculous question: Google Autofill

Science’s answer: No. The ability to feel pain requires a nervous system to sense painful stimuli and ability to react to it. Plants do not have a central nervous system. What organisms can feel pain? There is no doubt that all vertebrates (animals with a backbone) feel pain. Among non-vertebrate animals, there is good evidence that crustaseans (crabs and lobsters) and cephalopods (squid and octapuses) can feel pain, while for the most part, it seems that insects do not.

Feelings are a bit more complex. It seems likely that all mammals are capable of having “feelings”, of some sort. After that, it’s not clear – maybe some birds (like magpies), and possibly a few other species could have feelings, depending on how you define these feelings. Plants do not have feelings – without a brain and a central nervous system, it’s not possible.

To answer the other autocorrect questions:

• Most trees (>90%) do not have genders, but some do, in particular Ash trees. There are also some trees (like ginkos and yews) that have distinct genders but can switch genders over time.
• Yes, trees have DNA, like all non-viral organisms.
• No, trees do not “sleep”.