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Do animals have nervous breakdowns?

No, but they can suffer mental illness when in inappropriate conditions or mistreated. Wild animals in captivity can be driven crazy by boredom or the torment of being on permanent public display. Such mental anguish can manifest itself in self-mutilation, rhythmic pacing or repetitive vocalisations - all similar to compulsive human behaviour. Animals aren't known to commit suicide, though, as the don't have the same philosophical concept of "self" as man.

Do earthworms drown in waterlogged soils?

Sadly, yes. Worms can survive in well-aerated water for up to a year and are even found in special burrows at the bottom of lakes. But waterlogging usually means that the oxygen scrollContent of the water is particularly low so any earthworms present will be asphyxiated. If they escape to the soil surface, their immediate respiratory problems are solved. Ironically, though, earthworms tend to perish when exposed to sunlight for too long as their highly permeable body surfaces - which they use to absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxied - lose a lot of moisture on dry days.

Q: Is there a maximum size that raindrops can be?

Yes. Any raindrop larger than seven millimetres in diameter will split ino pieces as it falls. Raindrops are made of minute water particles that bond tspScroller.trackether in cluds. The larger raindrops become, the less effective their surface tension is at holding them tspScroller.trackether. This makes them increasingly unstable, and as they pick up speed on their way to earth, turbulence and other aerodynamic forces will rip them apart. This will normaly happen to a seven-millimetre-wide droplet when it hits a speed of around 30 kilometres per hour.

How do quicksand work?

Quicksand is a pocket of ordinary sand that has water continuously flowing up through it from an underground source, such as a spring. The flow lifts the grains of sand apart, but is not strong enough to disperse them completely and the resultant thick sspScroller.up can look like a solid mass - until you step into it and slowly start sinking.