Home
|
Fun Facts
|
Experiments
|
Meet the Microbes
|
Simple Science
|
Reviews
|
Careers
|
Science Shop
|
About
|
Email me
Welcome to ilovebacteria.com formally known as Ratlab.co.uk!

Most school teachers will tell you that tongue rolling is an autosomal dominant trait. They are lying (or are, at least, misinformed). In fact, nobody really knows whether this is true. Other traits previously thought to be inherited from your parents, such as hand clasping, earwax type (yup, there are scientists that really research this!), whether or not your earlobes are attached to your head, and handedness have been questioned at some point. Are they really inherited?

Some research from 1952 by a guy called Matlock suggested that tongue rolling is not inherited. He showed that twins don't always share the ability to roll their tongues, which is a little odd as identical twins have the same genes. If it was an inherited trait then identical twins should be identical in their ability to roll their tongues. In fact, Sturtevant, the scientist who originally said tongue rolling has a genetic basis later changed his mind and retracted the original paper. However, no one seems to have caught on to this yet and lots of school textbooks will still list tongue rolling as an inherited trait.

The problem is that genetics is a bit hard to always interpret correctly and you have to remember to take the environment into account. If you only looked at traits shared between related people, you could accidentally determine that a lot of characteristics are inherited when they're not. Obesity, for example, isn't hereditary, but overweight parents do tend to overfeed their children, making them overweight as well. In fact, only 10% of body weight is influenced by genes, everything else is environmental.

So there you have it, eye colour and a number of horrid diseases can be inherited but no one can be decide about tongue rolling. Sorry to have to break this to you. If you don't believe me you can have a look at some of the papers that disproved it:

N. G. Martin (J. of Heredity 66:179-180, 1975) and Matlock ("Identical twins discordant in tongue-rolling." J. Hered., 43:24. 1952)

Food and drink
Why does asparagus make wee smell?
Why do beans make you fart?
Why does corn come out like it went in?
How does jello work?
How do they get the fortune in the cookie?
What are the crystals in cold vodka?

Health and disease
Can getting cold give you a cold?
What causes a hangover?
Why does my eye twitch?
Why are allergies increasing?
Do we age in space?

Human nature
Why are horror films scary?
Do dogs find things funny?
Why does an itch, itch?
Why do men have nipples?
Why do papercuts hurt?
Why do we sneeze?
Will my eyes fly out if I sneeze?
What causes sneezing fits?
How does stomach acid work?
Why do we like to eat different things?
Is tongue rolling hereditary?
Why is yawning contagious?
Why does poo smell?

Animal kingdom
Do animals suffer from allergies?
Do badgers cough?
Can you whistle for a bat?
Why can bumblebees fly?
Why don't mice like cheese?
Why is chicken pox called chicken pox?
Can chocolate kill dogs?
Why does a bag of water repel flies?
Do hedgehogs like milk?
Why do you never see baby pigeons?
Why are there no tricoloured cats?
Why do some cats have extra toes?
How do fish end up in volcanic lakes?

The laws of physics
Why is the sky blue?
How come boiling water becomes ice on a cold day?
How does gravity work?
Why does boiling water make a noise?
Why does hot water freeze faster than cold?
What causes rainbows?
Why are clouds white?
Why does helium make your voice squeaky?
Why does the horizon moon look so big?

Bits and pieces
Why are there dimples in golf balls?
Why do Polo mints have holes?
Why does spaghetti break into three pieces?
Why are kitchen sponges so smelly?
How do they get the stripes in toothpaste?

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.