What do sea animals drink?

All living things need water – it is needed for lots of important things that help to keep plants, animals, fungi and bacteria alive. Where my family lives, we are lucky to have clean water to drink from the taps in our house and at the places we go to school and work. But some people and animals have to travel long distances to find water that is safe to drink.

My children were drinking water with their lunch: “What do sea creatures drink?” asked my 5-year-old. “Whales eat krill but they spit all the water out. So what do they drink?”

My 9-year-old suggested that perhaps sea creatures don’t need to drink because their food is already wet. “Maybe the krill is moist enough?” she wondered.

It got us thinking about why water is so important for life and how living creatures get the water they need.

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Why does the salt have a lid?

Salt and pepper are seasonings that I sometimes use when I am cooking to make some types of foods taste better. I keep them in special plastic pots with twisty tops that grind the salt or pepper into a fine powder that can be used easily to flavour our food. But my daughters want to know why the salt pot has a lid, when the pepper pot does not?

Why do my fingers go wrinkly in the pool?

Have you ever noticed, when you get out of the bath or the swimming pool that the skin on your fingers and toes has gone all wrinkly? My friend’s nephew has and he wants to know why!

How does a toilet flush?

Some people feel embarrassed to talk about going to the toilet but all animals, including humans, wee and poo – it’s a very normal and natural part of being a living creature. Our cat, FishFingers, buries his poos and wees in the garden, whilst the humans in our family do their ‘business’ in the toilet and flush it away.

But have you ever wondered how a toilet works? Where does the water come from to flush the wee and poo away? And where does it all go?

Why do clothes get creased?

My 7-year-old said she’d like some unicorn bunting to decorate her bedroom. We found some instructions online, bought some fabric and got out the sewing machine. But the cotton fabric we had bought was creased and folded. We had to make it all flat and smooth before we could draw on triangle shapes for the flags and cut them out.

So, why does fabric get creased? And why does pressing it with a hot iron make the creases go away? The answer is all to do with chemistry, so let’s find out more…

Will it snow?

My daughter was hoping for a white Christmas but, given that we live in the warm, south-western corner of England, the chances of snow each winter are small and the likelihood of snow on Christmas Day is even lower. And even though we’ve had days when it’s been cold enough for ice to form on the car windscreen, I don’t think we’ve seen any snowfall for a year or two. So, what has to happen for it to snow?

Why is there so much water in the sea?

My parents live near the sea and my daughters love going to visit Granny and Grandad, especially when they get to spend an afternoon on the beach hunting for crabs and fish in the rockpools.

The sea is a fascinating natural beauty but how was it formed? Where did all the water come from? How heavy is it? And how can you hear the sea in a shell?

What’s a tsunami?

My eldest nephew is fascinated by natural disasters, in particular tsunami.

What do clouds taste like?

Clouds float about in the sky. They look fluffy and white, or sometimes grey and gloomy. They get blown along by the wind. In my 5-year-old’s imagination, they are made of candy floss or cotton wool. What would they taste like, she wondered?

The key to answering this question, is to work out what clouds are actually made of…

How do you make water?

This was a great question that really got me thinking about how to explain molecular chemistry to a 5-year-old.

The chemical formula for water is familiar to many of us. It’s something we learn early on in science at school. But what is water and how is it made?